The most successful apps simplify our lives. They make us come back because they offer a service that fulfils its promise. Normally, this is something simple, like the best way to read the news or schedule appointments. So when an app fails, it somehow does the opposite of what it should: it makes life more difficult. Here are, in my opinion, the five most overrated apps.
Facebook
SwiftKey
I'd heard a lot about SwiftKey. Recommendations began to pile up for this app. I finally succumbed to peer pressure and gave it a go a few months ago. At first, it was a delight. Swiping merrily around my screen with my opposable digit seemed somehow preferable to tapping. But SwiftKey never really adapted to my typing. Its aggressive autocorrect meant I ended up going back to correct words so much that any time saved in swiping was lost in correcting. The interface lagged pretty frequently. I quickly reverted to Google Keyboard: it's lightweight; it never lags; it looks nicer.
Clean Master
Making mountains of outlandish promises (boosting performance by 80 percent, hibernating apps to save battery, RAM boosting and CPU cooling), Clean Master is the ultimate example of an app that does not fulfil its promises. Want to save battery, storage space and memory? Don't have a million apps and files on your phone.
Having free RAM isn't going to speed up your phone, anyway, and Android does a fine job on its own of clearing RAM when it's needed.
Clean Master's most useful features (task manager, storage management, cache clearing) have existed in stock Android's Settings menu for years now. And doing it this way avoids the unnecessary bloat and dubiousness of Clean Master.
Okay, so maybe this one's an easy target at the minute, but the Facebook app offers pretty much nothing to any user that can't be had from a simple web page shortcut added to the home screen. Add a shortcut, allow notifications from Chrome and delete the app to save on RAM and battery consumption and storage space. Alternatively, use Metal, a skin for the web page that functions more like the app, with a notification shade bar.
