People frequently complain about the lack of storage and poor battery life of their phone. The cause is apps. They use storage space and battery power. Can you live without apps? You can!

Do you need the Facebook app?

Facebook is a typical example of an app and many people would not like to get rid of it and it is often regarded as an essential tool for communicating with friends. Take a step back for a minute and ask yourself whether you actually need the app. Yes, you need Facebook, but does it have to be an app? Can you live without it?

It is important to realise that removing the app, or not bothering to install it in the first place if you have a new phone, does not mean that you cannot access Facebook. You can, and here's how.

Facebook has a perfectly good mobile website that can be accessed using the web browser on your phone. Just go to www.facebook.com and log in. Take a look at the two screenshots below taken on an iPhone (Android is almost identical). One is the app and the other is the website in the phone's browser. Which is which?

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Which one is the app and which is the website? Can you tell at a glance? The app is on the left and the website on the right. I think the website actually looks better than the app!

The website uses no storage because there is no app, and no battery when it is not running because websites don't run. All that is required is the phone's browser and nothing more. In this case I used Safari on an iPhone but Chrome on Android phones works just as well. Sometimes websites are almost as good as apps these days.

The Facebook app offers a few more features than the website and you can more easily share things from other apps for example. Do you really need this though? You can still post comments and images, and check in and so on through the website. Integration with other apps isn't there so you cannot share to Facebook and you have to open the browser.

Notifications only show when using the app and not the website. However, I have Facebook notifications turned off anyway because they are too distracting.

Do you need the Twitter app?

Twitter also has a very good website that works very well on mobile phones. Here is the Twitter app and the Twitter website in the phone's web browser. Which is which?

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The app is on the left and the website is on the right. The Twitter feed looks almost identical in the app and on the website (ignoring the fact that the tweets are different). The differences are at the top and bottom - the app has the toolbar at the bottom and the website in a browser has the toolbar at the top. The website has a nice floating blue compose tweet button.

Unlike the app, the Twitter website uses no storage and no battery power when it is not running. You have more apps for photos, videos or apps you actually need and more battery power.

Trello and Freedcamp websites vs apps

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If you use Trello, you might have installed the Trello app, but do you really need it? The Trello website works quite well in Safari on the iPhone and Chrome on Android phones. Freedcamp is a similar organiser, task manager and project manager. There is an app, but why install it when the website works so well?

Other apps vs websites

There are countless apps that don’t have websites of course, and so running all apps as a website in a browser window is not an option. However, even if you only remove half a dozen apps from your phone, you will have increased the storage space and improved the battery life.

So what other apps can you remove? The Outlook.com website works well, so remove the Outlook app. Microsoft OneDrive works in a mobile browser and you don’t need the app.

Lots of news sites work in a browser and you don’t need an app for them. I have browser shortcuts to The Guardian, Telegraph, Reuters, Metro, Mirror, and others on my home screen. Google News works in a browser too and you don’t need the Google News and Weather app.

Instagram in a web browser on your phone looks almost identical to the app and it is excellent. You can do almost everything in the browser that you can do in the app, but there is no app to install and it won't use any battery when not being used.

The instagram app? No, it's the website in a browser on a phone

You do miss out on a few things and you do not get notifications of events for instance. Mostly I don’t miss them and I keep notifications to a minimum anyway. In fact, I have notifications turned off for most apps, except email and a messenger app. They are a distraction and most are unimportant. Posting on Facebook is not the best way to get my attention and there are better ways like text messages, email, Messenger and so on.

If you look at what is on your phone you can probably remove several apps on both Android and iOS devices. To make it easier to go to the website in a browser, just save a shortcut to the home screen. One tap and it opens like an app.

Replace apps with shortcuts

After removing an app from your phone, go to the website and create a shortcut - an icon on the home screen. In Safari on the iPhone press the Share button and then press Add to Home Screen. in Chrome on Android tap the three dots to open the menu and press Add to Home screen.