App hoarders: all filler no killer

And it's about time I confessed: I am an app-Messie myself, and a particularly bad case. I'm always cluttering my smartphone with countless apps and it's hard for me to get rid of them. At some point there were almost 300 apps, including the pre-installed system ones, populating my Pixel smartphone. And my addiction to applications has multiple causes.

Primarily, there's a perfectly rational explanation: I prefer to have an app on my smartphone, which I only need once a year, rather than not having the app installed the moment I need it. Of course, you can usually download apps quickly from the Google Play Store, but there are always times when you have a bad or no Internet connection.

Games make up a large part of my app collection. / © NextPit

A typical examples for me is Mealy. After all, you never know when you might feel like looking for an exciting recipe. The same goes for my favorite car rental app. I haven't used the latter in a long time, but what if I don't have it the moment I need to rent a car? Then I'm prepared!

It was pointed out to me by our community that Mealy is no longer on the Google Play Store! Surely, I made the right decision to hold on to it. After all, Google can pull an app from the store, but not from your device...

Always something new

Another reason for my choice of profession is my inner need to always have something new on my smartphone. Almost every day I install a new app to try it out, and I usually manage to get rid of it quickly if I don't like it. But then there are the apps, which are "actually quite nice" and nestle in my app drawer.

And of course there are countless games that entertain me for a few minutes or even an hour or two. After a while, I reach for them maybe four times a year.

But while the 32 GB memory of my first Pixel smartphone still keeps me in check, it's the ever-increasing internal memory that gives free rein to this collecting frenzy. Maybe that's why I shy away from devices with large internal memory, which many users love so much. After all, I need to be forced to do spring cleaning from time to time and clean up a bit.

How do you see it? Do you prefer to have the right app for every situation on or do you also collect apps that you almost never use? Or do you manage to keep things in order order. If so, how? Let us know in our comments!

Note: Compulsive hoarding, a.k.a. Messie's syndrome is an obsessive-compulsive disorder that can be caused by a mental disorder and should not be ridiculed in any way. Among other things, those affected will find help here.