I’m seriously getting tired of having to download software for just about everything these days, and I need to rant.
Do you remember the days when you didn’t have a separate app for every single thing on your computer? Because I do. And while I see the merit, the prevalence of “there’s an app for that” in both PCs and mobile devices is starting to get tiring.
Some of it, I get
Lest I sound completely unreasonable, let me start by saying that I get why some things come with apps — and many of those things are an improvement over previous iterations.
Take the Nvidia app, for example. I find it to be an upgrade over the previous mix of the Nvidia Control Panel (which is still a thing, but at least it’s accessible through the Nvidia App) and the GeForce Experience. It lets you download drivers, tweak your graphics settings on a per-game basis as well as for your whole PC, and keep track of things like your GPU clock and temperature. Couldn’t have asked for much more, really, apart from maybe a full merge of the Control Panel, which is increasingly unintuitive given today’s standards for user experience (UX) and user interface (UI) in apps. In the future, Nvidia keeps planning to add more Nvidia Control Panel functionalities to the Nvidia App, so who knows — we might get rid of it entirely at some point, and if you ask me, that’ll be a happy time.
In any case, apps such as the Nvidia app definitely have their merits. I remember a decade or so ago when downloading graphics drivers was often a pain, especially for those less tech-y users who wanted an experience where you just click “download” and your PC determines what it is that your GPU needs. The Nvidia app gets you that, which is sweet.
If I had to complain (and of course I do), I’d say that it’d be nice to have a reliable, unified experience for all drivers. Third-party driver downloaders exist, but they often get things wrong, so a lot of them are hard to trust. Windows Update is responsible for a lot of driver updates, but some drivers still need to be fetched manually, which results in many people simply having outdated drivers for the longest time. But, this is a whole separate rant that I’m about to get into here, so I’ll stop myself.
Long story short, I get why we need software like the Nvidia app. What I don’t get is why does just about everything else need to have its own mandatory app too?
It’s getting excessive
Desktop apps are everywhere these days, and peripherals are some of the most common culprits that come with mandatory (or highly encouraged) software.
Between my mouse, my keyboard, my headset, and my monitors, I have a total of five programs that I had to install. I hardly ever use any of them.
My SteelSeries headset means that I had to install SteelSeries GG. My Razer mouse comes with Razer Chroma and Razer Synapse. I now have a Razer keyboard, too, so at least both of those use the same software, but when I had a Logitech model, I needed proprietary software for that, too. Then, my LG monitors are responsible for the installation of LG OnScreen Control.
The one time I really needed software was when I was setting up my Razer Naga V2 Pro mouse, a process that took me a very long time and was quite meticulous; I also calibrated my monitors. Outside of that, it’s all just there. Even Photoshop is no longer a standalone program and now comes with the Adobe Creative Cloud software.
I remember when you’d buy a keyboard or a mouse, plug it in, and have it just work. Peripherals these days are a lot more advanced, and they come with a lot more RGB bling, which explains the need for a standalone app, but it does feel like there’s just too much of it now.
And don’t even get me started on game clients. I know that competing apps and game studios will never want a unified, one-size-fits-all app, but it’s tiring. Steam, Epic Games, Battle.net, EA, and Xbox are all required to launch games that I have paid for and should, in theory, be able to just launch and play. Each of these platforms has its own login and password, and despite begging them to please remember my login credentials as I tick the “remember me” box for the 30th time, it just never happens. (You probably know which app I’m talking about here.)
At the risk of sounding old, mobile apps are perhaps even more guilty of being excessive. These days, almost every single retailer comes with its own app. Instead of offering a seamless, more unified experience, you now have dozens of the same type of app because every brand needs to launch its own.
Hey, I did say I was going to rant.
Will we ever have to deal with fewer apps?
If you’re as weighed down by the excess software as I am, you might be wondering: Is this just the way it’s going to be from now on?
Well, probably. Realistically, I can’t see different brands suddenly deciding to team up and offer a truly seamless, unified experience. After all, the idea is to offer personalized settings for every separate component or peripheral, and that’s definitely going to stick.
Microsoft has plans to, at least, make Windows Update responsible for updating all third-party apps on your PC, as reported by The Verge. This would make it easier to keep this massive number of apps up-to-date, but wouldn’t really reduce the annoying bit — which is needing to have it in the first place.
If I were to guess, I’d say that apps are here to stay. I remember the 2009 iPhone commercial: “There’s an app for that.” There’s an app for just about anything these days, and if anything, there’ll be more of them rather than fewer going forward.
With WWDC 2025 right around the corner, we’ll soon see new versions of Apple’s various operating systems: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS. There’ll be even more apps to check out on our phones and our computers, and some of them might be amazing.
And yet, a part of me still wants to say: “No, thanks, I don’t need an app for that,” but I doubt that anyone truly cares to listen.
