Anyone else think some apps get worse with every update?

[TommyB_20]

Thought this was worth its own thread.

Even short answers are useful, especially if you have tried it yourself.

Background: I have been going back and forth on this for a while and wanted a reality check from people who know.

Real world experience is always more useful than the theoretical answer.

Curious what the consensus is

[Q]

Makes sense to me. Been following this thread and that seems right.

Good stuff

[Matticus]

I would push back on that hard. The table does not lie over a full season, whatever people say about individual games.

Still think I am right on this

[KnotKnull]

Makes sense to me. Been following this thread and that seems right. Good stuff.

Worth checking the small print before committing. Most people just accept the standard rate and wonder why they are not getting ahead.

Worth a look if you have not already.

[DotEXE]

I wonder if that is the whole story or just the most obvious part of it. I tend to notice the things that seem almost accidental but probably are not.

Happy to keep discussing this

[Jan79]

That is the sensible approach. I will keep an eye on it

[Zach91]

For some reason that framing works well. It is the kind of thing that rewards sitting with it rather than reacting immediately.

There is a lot more to say about this

[MrRicardo]

That matches what the more reliable sources are saying. Worth keeping an eye on

[error.404]

That is exactly the lesson I learned. Worth doing it properly rather than rushing it

[Warden]

Ended up in the same place, yeah. I ended up learning the hard way that the simple route is often better.

Post a photo when it is done

[NightOwl]

That was not my experience at all. For me it came down to whether I kept going back to it after the first week.

Can't really go wrong with it.

[CMPunk_Fan]

That is one way of looking at it. Classic.

Nice one

[QuantumDay]

There is definitely a point where updates stop being about improvement and start being about control.

Once you're locked into an ecosystem, they can afford to make things slightly worse as long as you don't leave

[Hannah56]

I don't mind updates in theory, but I hate when they remove simple features for no reason.

Like, why take away a perfectly good option just because "usage was low"? Maybe it was low because it was quietly useful and nobody complained

[EventHorizon25]

The worst is when they change the UI but don't update the help section.

So you're stuck guessing where everything went, while the official guide still shows screenshots from a version that hasn't existed since 2019

[QuantumLeap53]

I think a lot of this comes down to companies chasing growth forever.

Eventually they run out of meaningful improvements, so they start redesigning things that were already fine just to show investors "progress"

[Marcus11]

I swear some apps genuinely peak at version 2.3 and then slowly descend into chaos with every update after that.

They start off clean and fast, then suddenly you need 8 menus and a tutorial just to find the thing that used to be one tap away

[Slay]

I actually like when apps stay boring.

If an app does one job well and doesn't constantly reinvent itself, that's honestly a blessing in 2026

[Solo Buffer]

I think part of the problem is A/B testing gone wild.

They optimize tiny engagement metrics while ignoring overall usability, so you end up with an app that's technically "performing better" but feels worse to actually use

[RandyOrton26]

Sometimes I just miss when software felt like tools instead of experiences.

A hammer doesn't need a new "engagement strategy" every six months. It just hits nails. And that's enough

[PhilippeMercadal]

The funniest part is when they say "we listened to feedback" and then proceed to ignore every comment in existence.

You just know somewhere in a meeting someone said "users will adapt" and everyone nodded like that's a valid strategy

[ProperMadlad20]

It's not even a feeling anymore, it's a pattern.

They add "improvements" that nobody asked for, move buttons around, and then act surprised when users complain that basic functionality feels buried under design experiments

[Carol15]

My conspiracy theory is that some product managers don't actually use the apps they ship updates for.

Because there is no way someone who uses the app daily would think "yeah, let's move this button to a completely different galaxy" is a good idea

[Shane95]

Honestly, a lot of it is just feature creep.

They keep adding things to justify updates, but instead of improving the core experience, they just stack new layers on top of a perfectly fine foundation until everything feels sluggish

[Hitman99]

I still remember when messaging apps were just messaging apps.

Now they want to be payment systems, social networks, content platforms, and probably your morning alarm clock if they could get away with it

[Rhys]

Hot take: some apps get worse because they optimize for new users over existing users.

They forget that people who already know the app exist, so they end up designing onboarding experiences that annoy everyone else

[Brittle Coder]

At some point it feels like every app tries to become a "platform" instead of just doing one thing well.

And in the process they lose the simplicity that made them popular in the first place

[WildManCena23]

This is basically enshittification in real time.

Start with a great user experience to attract people, then slowly shift toward monetization and engagement metrics until the original product is barely recognizable

[Ann]

Some updates feel like they were designed for screenshots, not real usage.

Everything looks cleaner in a press release but takes three extra taps in real life

[Pale Connor]

To be fair, sometimes people overreact to UI changes.

You get used to muscle memory and any change feels like betrayal, even if the new layout is technically more efficient

[DecentBloke]

The worst offenders are apps that add "AI features" to everything.

Suddenly you're opening a calculator and it's suggesting inspirational quotes instead of doing math