https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2026/05/why-reddit-blocked-my-daily-visit-to-its-mobile-website/
I've been having the same thought. Not with respect to Reddit but other things, including "work" things.
My phone storage is maxed and I don't want to get a new phone. I deleted all the photos and a lot of other things, but lately have been trying to get rid of apps.
I genuinely like the Merlin bird app from Cornell - not at all enshittified and it is a case where a website doesn't do the job (because you need internet for a website and you generally don't have that when trying to ID birds). But it was well over a GB.
As I've done that, I realize that websites that once worked fine are now unusable. A service I use to manage our rental has a crappy app (it's one of those that basically seems like a wrapper for the web page). It offered a slightly better experience than the website, but only slightly. So I went back to the website to find that it is now unusable on mobile.
This is because the guy didn't sign up for an account. Reddit has trouble selling ads to display to random visitors.
The enshitification continues.
>apps
I try to keep apps to a minimum on my phone and use the browser for almost everything, because the apps have a lot of tracking stuff in them, plus they take up space.
MSN news mobile started freezing me out and telling me I needed the app, so I just quit using MSN. They are not that special.
In many cases, though, a browser is just not a replacement for an app.
- Merlin works offline to identify birds by their song
- Gaia works offline to map terrain and show your position and, if you want, your track.
- Coros for my watch GPS has no website interface until after you've gotten your track off your watch
- iNaturalist only works with a camera
- audiobooks and podcasts need an app
- the Mountain Project app gives me all the data from the website when offline and basically there is almost never service at a climbing area.
And so on.
For about a year I had removed my browser and kept my apps. The apps are more useful to me. The problem was that when we were traveling I couldn't even open map links because they all pass through a browser before redirecting to the app.
But my preference is a phone with key apps and no browser. That forces me to go to the computer if I want to, say, check The Core or The NYT, so it's more of a conscious act.
A phone with just key apps and no browser is super useful for tasks I care about but also very limited for task I would be better off avoiding, like my impulse to look something up.
To me, the browser is the worst app to have on my phone.
https://raisedbyturtles.org/yodas-last-teaching