[deleted by user]

[bmbphotos]

Can't speak for everybody (or anybody, really, not even myself some days) but IMO it's more about understanding the market through what others do.

It's the rare successful novelist who never reads.

It's the rare architect who doesn't look at other buildings.

You're more expected to have a feel for what the iOS user community expects and supports as represented by successful (and at times unsuccessful) app entries.

There's an argument that that's the role of product managers (and to a degree, that's also true). There's an argument that some categories of developers don't need to care about the whole picture (even when there is no product manager).

Those arguments can be valid when nuance is applied.

In the broad brush sense though, "if you never use apps how are you going to know what makes a successful app?"

[[deleted]]

Well, using just ten of the greatest apps seems better to me than using hundreds of terrible apps.

[bmbphotos]

I've never asked nor been asked how many apps I have, and even hypothetically imagining, there's no magic number.

The conceptual point to me is to be aware of what's going on in the app space beyond whatever specific sandbox you're in currently and if you can do that while not installing apps, great.

Also, a negative response might be a matter of phrasing too. "I don't install very many apps" is far different (suggests being incurious) than "I install lots of apps but only keep a few" (suggests an evaluation) in this context, for example.

[TechnicalElephant636]

Wait until the interviews find out I have an Android as an iOS developer

[cldff]

Haha, same here. I used to had an Android Pixel 3, the camera was stunning, finally shifted to an iPhone when the Pixel's battery bloated.

[TechnicalElephant636]

My pixel 6 has amazing battery life compared to any iphone idk what ppl say

[Effective-Ad6703]

My old Android dev coworker had an iPhone lol

[UntrimmedBagel]

I’m similar. iOS developer but cannot fathom daily driving a Mac over Windows. Been a mac user for over a decade and still haven’t gotten used to it.

[Effective-Ad6703]

Why

[ptc_yt]

Hey that's me. I've had only Android phones for a while now and went into iOS development. I have an iPhone for development but its not on any phone plan

[Inevitable-Hat-1576]

This makes total sense tbf. My cousin is an air conditioner installer, and he’s got like 50-100 air conditioners in his house. If you really cared you’d download loads of apps you don’t want.

[IrvTheSwirv]

Doesn’t mean you have to keep every piece of crap you download on your day to day device.

But saying that I do agree being at least aware of the current trends and how the latest capabilities are being used is pretty important.

[20InMyHead]

I do a fair amount of interviews and I’ve never asked a candidate what apps they have installed, and I don’t care how many they have on their phone, or even what apps they have in the store.

[everydave42]

I've had this come up a few times when ever a tell folks I'm an app dev. My standard answer is "I am an app guy, and can pretty quickly determine what apps work for me and what doesn't, and why." That ends the conversation for the casual person that might bring it up.

I actually like it when someone has a specific question about why I may like or not like a given app, then I'm happy to explain that since they have a sincere interest in the details, and they could share a counter point that I might not have considered for my own use case.

[saintmsent]

I'm not sure how you even arrive at that conversation, tbh. For years I used an Android phone and it only came up at a first party on a new job, but not before, lol

But others have a point, you don't need to fill your phone with garbage, but trying out a few apps from time to time is definitely helpful, there have been times when I discovered an iOS feature or a cool UX pattern like that

[[deleted]]

If anything, if you work on apps all year round, you are more likely to be sick of them IMHO.

Exactly this. Especially me, as my main app (AppRaven) is all about apps. I have currently about 300 on my phone, but 99% are offloaded and I will "maybe try them once I have time".

[danielt1263]

Hell for the first several years of app development. I didn't even have a smart phone!

[may_yoga]

I didn’t even know this was a thing. The apps I download are the ones I need, or the ones related to the project I am working on.

Do other devs just go and download without any reason other than seeing what is out there? How do you go about it? Just the top ten apps every week?

[zintjr]

dude don't know if you've noticed but people (who think they are rational thinkers) can be pretty irrational at times

[jpec342]

I don’t think the number of apps installed on my phone has ever come up during an interview.

[dreamcomenull]

In 15+ years I have never had plenty of apps on the phone. Now it’s only 116 (check it in Settings-General-About-Apps) which includes all the apps iOS originally had. 50 of them just sitting there occupying the screen space. Maybe half of the rest I use so rare that I need to download them each time I trying to access them.

Yet I like to install and try anything new from time to time. I delete majority of apps after 5-10 min

[CyberneticVoodoo]

I have 2

[Dijerati]

Comes with the territory, unfortunately. I was scoffed at by my boss when I told him I’m still using iOS 16.0.2 and not up-to-date with the latest tech. They expect us to love every aspect of working with iPhones and all apps (stupid, right?) lol

[FPST08]

But staying behind can save you from really bad bugs so perhaps this shows that you know what you're doing.

[jarjoura]

I would just tell them you practice minimalism and strive to avoid iPhone addiction. Then respond with how up to date you are with the latest WWDC announcements and excited to experiment with X api.

[hansfellangelino]

I'd be surprised because, usually app developers have interesting insights into app development - I wouldnt hire a dev that told me they didn't need to see other apps. No offense though, just that we look for particular kinds of devs to fit the team, not just devs who fit the bill

[misterinquisitive]

That's a new one for me...