We updated the article in 2026 - we went through the text, links and illustrative images.
Soon we may not need to install apps, Google and surprisingly Apple will help us with that.
“There's an App for That.” This is the slogan that has defined the mobile world since 2008. Apps seemed like the way to do everything. Products ran ads and showcased their new apps, and even the family restaurant around the corner from your house had its own app.
When the App store was created in 2008, Apple was the first to popularize the idea of nice packages or applications that can be downloaded to the phone. However, this concept of centralized software distribution was not that new. Many handheld and desktop devices already had some form of app built before the Apple App Store debuted. In retrospect, the reason Apple succeeded is a combination of timing and technology. By 2008, the iOS (then „iPhone OS“) platform was able to offer access to the emerging 3G network, had a well-documented development environment, had great graphics, and most importantly, had the support of a tech giant. Mobile apps made sense. It was the most efficient way to deliver the latest content and services.
People don't care how it all works, they just want the result. The ability to download and run an application was first offered by the iPhone. Android soon followed. Smartphones became cheaper, the Internet became faster, applications won.
Okay, so where is the error?
Nowhere. But nowadays we can do it better.
We see that mobile applications have succeeded because of the right combination of fast network connectivity and capable processors in a hand-sized size. However, technologies have advanced much further. The world of apps has grown.
Content delivery and recognition
Everyone with a smartphone has experienced this at some point: „Wow, this restaurant / store is offering 20% off … oh but only if you have this app“ or „Wait, do I have to download an app for this? However, I just want to see what my friend posted.“ You've probably heard from a friend or seen some really cool app on a billboard that will change your life 100%, but you're hesitant to install it, or worse, pay for it.
The problem is twofold.
First: delivery. Paying for and installing an app used to be a magical and quick experience. It is now an act of commitment for many. You wouldn't believe how many people need a compelling reason and a really heartfelt speech just to try a new app. Just think of that one friend of yours who still refuses to download the Messenger app. Businesses want to deliver content and services to customers as easily and quickly as possible, but a growing reluctance to install is a barrier.
The second problem is content recognition. Many popular apps, like Instagram, started out as just a mobile app that delivered a lot of content within a closed platform. You had to download and register Instagram to follow your friends' photos. There are certainly many other applications today with useful content that is not searchable or viewable in your browser. A fragmented internet, where creative and original content is locked up in platforms, is not the internet we know and love.
Application relinking and indexing work, but not enough
Now that we understand the problems, let's look at the existing solutions.
App linking may not sound familiar to you, but you experience it every time you click on a YouTube link in another app and then the YouTube app opens to play a video.
Google, Apple and Facebook all use variants of this technology. App relinking gets you to the app that best showcases the content you want.
The other half of the existing solutions is app indexing. Google and Apple have provided options for third-party content providers to show their own content in search results.
Perfect. We seem to have the content delivery and recognition issues resolved.
The user searches for something, the in-app content is displayed in the results. Then the user clicks on a link that will take him to the application.
You may have already noticed what other problems we have here. What if the app doesn't support app linking and indexing? And what if I don't want to install the app just to read the article? The list could go on.
Let's get rid of „apps“. Let's see how we could do something without them.
App Streaming from Google
Google's approach to the problem of content delivery and recognition relies on application indexing and relinking. This is a great opportunity for Google to stay relevant in a mobile market that is increasingly dependent on app content instead of web search.
Not long ago, Google introduced an impressive technology that almost no one remembers – App Streaming. Instead of installing apps like we're used to, we just click and Google will send us only the right parts of the app we were looking for. It is not necessary to install it. This could be the first pilot experiment of Google and their cloud platform. But the idea of streaming apps to your phone is nothing new. It was actually bought by Google from Agawa a few years ago.
By combining App Streaming and App indexing, we can remove two barriers to all information previously locked away in mobile applications.
On-Demand resources from Apple
While Google's fantastic solution is still in the experimental stage, Apple is going in more or less the same direction with its developers.
On-Demand Resources (ODR) is a technology that downloads a small core application just for installation and then downloads other parts and content as needed. ODR is mainly used in games where the user only downloads assets (graphics, video, etc.) for a few starting levels. iOS then downloads multiple levels and deletes assets on retired levels to free up space.
Speaking of Apple, I want to introduce you to the vision of Steve Jobs and the first iPhone. You may still remember that the first iPhone was a closed platform without a developer environment and third-party applications. His solution? Web applications.
Web applications do not need to be installed. They are web-friendly, which means they can be indexed and searched by search engines. But wait, isn't that exactly what we want today? Probably yes.
The future without an application
Much of what streaming has to offer competes with other sophisticated web technologies.
On top of all that, what we really need is a platform-based app streaming solution that truly overcomes the challenges of content delivery and discovery.
Let's imagine the possibilities: regardless of the operating system or brand of supercomputer you have in your pocket, you will be able to run an application and view its contents. As far as developers are concerned, an app can only be created once and ported to all devices and browsers.
By combining the application streaming that Google has and the gradual storage of parts of its applications in the cloud that Apple already offers, maybe one day there will be a future where we do not need to install applications and the line between websites and applications will be erased.
Welcome to a future without apps.
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SOURCE: Free translation of the article The Future is Without Apps
