Exactly, I find I suffer from that myself. Hardly any new apps are installed on my phone.

Highly recommend it, with KISS or any other launcher.

Trackercontrol.org isn't a total solution, but it definitely helps.

I refuse to install apps on my phone now.

I have been building websites for 3 decades. I do not see the need to create another platform to force people to use.

It does seem like we are past the time when new apps did genuinely new and novel things. Almost anything today is a riff on something else.

I might be wrong, bu my impression, living in the NorthEast US in the Boston area, is that very few people really care about privacy, and that almost everyone is glad to give up their privacy in exchange for saving a few seconds

not saying this is right or wrong; just it is what it is

I currently use a older phone that has no PII on it for apps I don’t trust much (p2pcam apps, drone piloting, etc)

Why would you want Playstore if you don't want any (more) apps?
Only way to add accessibility features (usually missing by default) and security updates for the existing apps.

It's abusive.

So are websites using recaptcha for existing accounts logging in.

https://trackercontrol.org/

i don't remember their exact answer because there wasn't really any. many years later, in December 2025, Google discontinued instant apps.

i think they were onto something. it's cool to be able to just use apps without installing them. it's just... we already have it.

a long time ago, at a conference, a guy from Google gave a talk about the cool new thing, "instant apps". Android apps that you don't need to install. just open them and start using right away! and it will only download the pages you open. crazy!

when the time for QA came, people formed a long queue to the mic. i was the first. i asked: "so, how is it different from web apps?". the minute i said it, almost everyone left the queue, muttering: "damn, that was my question".

I kinda feel bad cos that might be their only source of revenue, but who actually likes seeing ads like it's a freakin' jumpscare ?

It's really useful to me cos it's also like a Little Snitch or pihole but runs in your phone and just has more features. It's also free and open source.

https://github.com/celzero/rethink-app