One of the things we take for granted is that any app we enjoy is always available to download and use, no matter how many times we switch devices. Sadly, some apps get delisted and removed, or support is dropped. While it doesn’t happen often, it’s frustrating when it does, especially when the app in question is something you rely on or enjoy using more than most. These are the apps we wish we could bring back from the dead.
If you were ever a part of Android’s customization scene (more on that later), then DashClock will be familiar to you. If it isn’t, its function is easy to explain. DashClock was a configurable widget that was intended to offer glanceable information. It could show battery status, unread Gmail counts, the weather, calendar events, alarms, and unread texts out of the box. What made it even better was its extension system. Anyone could make an extension that would display new information and publish it on the Play Store, and quite a few were developed over the years.
Sadly, the app received its last update in 2016. That didn’t interfere with functionality, though, as the app could still be downloaded and used until this year. Something in Android 14 completely broke the app, and you can’t even install the APK anymore. Sure, today we have Google’s At a Glance widget, but it’s nowhere near as flexible as DashClock was (thoughSmartspacer can help with that), and I’m going to mourn its loss.
Third-party launchers
This might seem like an odd inclusion, given that third-party launchers still exist and arefrequently updated. Things aren’t like they used to be, though. Android 10 introduced the gesture navigation system we use today, but many people may not remember that it broke custom launchers. It was months before Google released an updated version of Android 10 that supported them, and even then, the launchers themselves had to add support on their end as well.
Four Android versions on, it still isn’t plain sailing. Gesture navigation works with custom launchers, but animations and interactions are buggy, especially when swiping into the overview screen.
The other thing to consider is missing OEM features. Samsung added Widget Stacks with the launch of the Galaxy S22, and it quickly became one of the best features One UI has to offer, with us hoping Google would add a version of its own in our Android 14 wish list. This is baked into the One UI launcher, so you miss out if you use Nova or Smart Launcher. Some third-party launchers have added something similar, but most haven’t, and this is just one example of the kind of thing you end up sacrificing.
Recently, Apple has been in the Android headlines forcontinuing to squash Beeper Mini, an app that allows Android devices to use iMessage. However, this isn’t the first time Apple has killed an Android app. At the start of 2020, Apple purchased Dark Sky and announced that it would shut down the Android app. Dark Sky was a top-rated app thanks to its intuitive interface and accurate forecasts.
Google Weatherhas come a long way since then. Still, for many people, nothing has replaced Dark Sky yet, and considering the iOS version of it was killed earlier this year as all of its features were rolled into the default iOS Weather app, it’s unlikely we’ll ever see it return.
Twitter clients
Twitter used to allow third-party apps, and while the system wasn’t perfect, it worked well enough. At the start of the year, Twitter decided to, in the words ofOptimus Prime in Dark Of The Moon: “Kill them all.” The official Twitter app is much better than it used to be, but the unofficial clients still added a lot of functionality that was otherwise missing. Tab customization and scheduling tweets are just two things I miss most.
Reddit clients
No, there isn’t an echo in here. Like Twitter clients, third-party Reddit apps took a major hit this year, although not quite in the same way. To ensure it makes money from your time on the platform, Reddit started to charge for API access. Reddit is a business; understandably, Reddit wants to make money, but this was an extreme way to do it. These apps don’t work without API access, and the prices Reddit charges are high.
Many popular apps are still around, but things aren’t the same. They all charge subscriptions now to address the API issue. Relay has a basic subscription plan of $1 a month, but that only gives you enough API access to average half an hour of daily browsing. You don’t need me to tell you that most people spend more time on Reddit than that each day.
A lot of Reddit clients shut down, and the ones that didn’t have changed a lot since Reddit made this change. If you still want to use a third-party client, we have a list of thebest remaining apps here.
Those are the apps I wish we could bring back from the dead. Of all of them, DashClock hurts the most, as the only reason I can’t use it anymore is OS incompatibility. I’m sure all of you have apps, widgets, and services you miss as well. Alas, we’ll have to learn to get on without them.
