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Comment by seibelj | Hacker News Reader

Do users actually hate "app clutter"? I have plenty of apps I only use rarely, but when I need them, I need them. Space isn't a concern unless it's a huge game or downloads tons of media. 100MB or less is nothing.

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I do get sick of the updates. Every day, "14 apps updated" or even worse, "3 apps need your approval to update".

Whenever there's an update pending, I ask myself, "have I opened this app since the last update?" If no, then I delete it.

Auto update option... no approval needed.

And then suddenly one day you notice that Facebook now has access to your phone logs, microphone, and camera without your knowledge.

This is not an issue on iOS. Does Android actually automatically increase permissions without opt-in from the user?

No, that's why they need your permission to update.

This is one thing iOS does much better than Android. Apps don't request permissions until the moment they need them, instead of the entire laundry list at the installation time. This allows auto-updating of all apps, while still preventing permissions creep.

Android Marshmallow changes the permission system to work like that.

Good to hear. I left Android a few years ago for iOS because Apple's system was much, much nicer. These days I may be making the move back. iOS continues to suck more with each new release, and Android is (from what I hear) moving in the other direction.

No.

I can't speak for everyone but I hate having apps I don't use. They just take up space and annoy me with notifications either within the app or through updates. Google Photos has helped greatly with the space issue on my phone though as before my photos and videos used up nearly all my disk space.

Plus if I'm looking for something, having another app there is just another app I have to look through before I get to whatever I'm looking for. Either that or it's not on my home screen in which case I get convinced I'm never going to use it so I just remove it.

This is not helped by the fact I find the Android home and apps screen to be horrendous.

Completely anecdotally: if I haven't used an app in a week then I delete it. I can't really justify it, I have 64gb of space on my phone - it's more of an OCD thing than anything else.

I'm guessing you're using an iPhone. On iOS all the apps are displayed somewhere on your homescreens. When I tried iOS that bothered me, because coming from Android I was used to being able to choose which app icons are displayed on the homescreens.

I'm similar, but instead of a week of not using it, I wait until it upsets me some way. Completely irrational, but that's what I do.

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