Why does it feel like there are no more new apps?

Probably because the market is saturated. There can only be so many ways to make a todo app.

Most software made today is the same recycled ideas with a different coat of paint.

So, there are very few new apps that would generate enough value to a majority to be newsworthy

I've worked in the industry for the last 11 years, and my experience is that the industry has changed dramatically.

In 2012, there were still huge niches in smartphone software that has not yet been filled. There were also almost no barriers to entry - a team of <10 people rapidly expanding didn't have to think about Cookie Banners or Google Play store delisting. Finally, there was the promise of a huge payout - the win condition for a startup was to BE the next Google.

In 2023, dominant players have captured all aspects of the software experience and when a new idea becomes popular (Snapchat in 2016 is a good early example), big tech has the lawyers and developers to simply clone it with a higher budget (e.g. Insta & FB Stories, Youtube Shorts). Because of scale, big companies can more easily afford to deal with regulation and can even sometimes regulate their competitors (Play Store). Finally, big tech is guaranteed high payout for developers - these days, the win condition for a startup isn't to BE the next Google, its to be acquired by Google.

The eventual end of all this is Google continuing to strangle open & free Android by buying/shutting down any new ideas and extracting more and more rent from its platform.

The only way to opt out is to move to non-Play AOSP alternatives.

How do you mean? New apps release daily. But they've become so normal that only very rarely is one newsworthy.

But also, how many new apps do you need? And... why do you need them? Do you not have apps for all your use cases already?

All the lemmy clients were my last app adventure. :)

I still download new stuff, but it's usually one of

• game
• little FOSS project that's replacing an existing app
• app that belongs to some service that I am using

Almost everything has been done already. Most new app ideas are just gimmicks thrown onto existing concepts.

I heard there was a new app coming, but I believe it's still under review

I suspect they’ve started making device-agnostic apps using JavaScript and React Native. I’m pursuing Purescript solely because I was not willing to commit to iOS nor Android’s completely different ways of doing things…and I love Haskell style syntax.

I may be an outlier but that’s personally why I’ve avoided specifically targeting Android as a developer.

Have you tried Candy Crush? Flappy Bird? Those are the main ones.

Because like recycled movies in Hollywood, there is a circlejerk of app making void of creative energy.

TrashFuture has hit on a few new attempts at Killer App firms, but it's all Mindfulness this and AI that.

I think the last app I downloaded was an AI art app, which I used maybe twice.

Because there really isn't. Everything be it games, apps, websites or movies are just remakes/reskins of the same old thing. People (and companies) seem to be afraid to fail, and thus don't take on the unknown or new. Just repeat the successes instead of making their own.

Apple killed any possibility of innovation by lobotomizing the masses