Andy Walker / Android Authority
🗣️ This is an open thread.
We want to hear from you! Share your thoughts in the comments and vote in the poll below — your take might be featured in a future roundup.
Over the weekend, my colleague Rita El Khoury published an article detailing how a stripped-down version of a Google app is better than the full-fat thing. In particular, she argued that Google Maps Go trumps Google Maps, especially for doing the one thing the main app should be good at: navigation.
Earlier this month, our Joe Maring also posted a detailed look at Google Gallery, a threadbare offline alternative to Google Photos, and declared it a far smarter way to browse photos stored on your phone than, well…Photos!
This begs the question: Have Google’s mainline apps grown too bloated, too cumbersome, and lost track of their core reason for existing? To offer a nickel, I feel that some have been stuffed to the brim with AI features and other fluff, while others remain ripe for further development (ahem, Tasks).
So here are the questions:
- Do you think that Google’s mainline apps have grown too bloated for their own good?
- Should Google offer “lite” alternatives to all of its apps?
- Are you often searching for other options to Google’s apps, or are you happy with their functionality?
- If you could have just one new Google “Lite” app, what would it be?
Do you think Google should offer more “lite” versions of its apps?
4 votes
👇Sound off in the comments: What do you think of the state of Google’s apps in 2025 — brimming with too many features or the more, the merrier?
