Building mobile apps that stay simple

Most apps do not become complicated in one decision. They drift there, one reasonable addition at a time. Because we build, publish, and operate our own products, we live with that drift ourselves — which makes us unusually motivated to prevent it.

In practice that means we treat every new feature as a cost as well as a benefit. New code has to be tested, supported, translated, and explained. When something is added, we look for something to remove, simplify, or fold into an existing flow.

We also keep our releases small. Frequent, modest updates are easier to verify on real devices, easier to roll back, and easier to describe honestly in release notes. Large releases hide problems; small ones surface them early.

Performance is part of the same discipline. Startup time, battery use, and data use are treated as product features, because on a phone they are the difference between an app people keep and one they quietly delete.