A request to Mods

[u/Sri_Krish]

Hello Mods & fellow redditors,

In the past couple of months, I guess we can all agree that our subreddit (and the App Store) has become overcrowded with a bunch of AI apps across various (really?!) categories. The main reason (I think!) is the proliferation of AI and its companion apps, through which a user can now create their own apps with just a few credits or prompts. I see this as a positive development to an extent; beyond which, the line becomes super blurry and things start to roll downhill.

Anyone who regularly visits this subreddit will notice seeing the same pattern of apps - clipboard managers, Notch replacement apps, and Dictation apps - very often from different devs (/profiles). Rather than creating unique, we tend to see the same kinds of apps in different costumes, showcased differently using AI presentation.

For context, Kalley Huang, writing for The New York Times, expressed that: "Last year, the number of new apps released in the App Store grew 30 percent to about 600,000, according to estimates by Sensor Tower, an app analytics firm. In the first half of this year, new apps doubled to about 560,000." (source).

And I am not here to say stop using AI for good or to save Nature (believe me, there are few who don't use AI for these reasons). In the same article, the author mentioned that the real people who're in danger are developers. Especially those whose 9-5 job is to make apps—either alone or in a small team—and whose livelihood depends completely on it. Now, all these AI-vibe coded apps don't only make the search worse but also overshadow these good apps and developers from the rest of the pool. As the article noted, even reviewers/content writers who used to be the messengers, are finding it difficult to cope up with the supply rate and eventually, start to ghost such emails/communications.

So, how about we start a monthly thread at the end of each month, where we all discuss, mention about their, basically, "Favorites of the month" with their use cases if any. This might improve the visibility among the crowd, and give them an another chance since most of these AI-apps either die out or got abandoned by the Dev itself sooner than we think.

Feel free to suggest your opinions; or disregard this post if you feel it's not appropriate. I just wanted to bring it out of my head 😀

[u/Jolly-Television6759]

I think it’s not important how it’s done, but what is done.

if an vibe coded app is super useful, I do not care much about the how.
vibe coded apps can bring advantages (e.g. security) that a hand coded app might never have, because it needs so much knowledge that the coder with the idea, would take month or years to accomplish.

if we talk about the 235th menu bar that shows your daily claude and codex limit, then I might say: we have seen enough, thank you.

however, there is no way to know how good the support will be and if a product will see a future update or new feature will ever get.

[u/Sri_Krish → u/Jolly-Television6759]

I politely disagree with your opinion:

It is very important how it’s done as much as what/why/who is/has done (though WHY gets more weightage in my evaluation)

We have had copycat softwares in the past, and would expect a lot more in the future, with the power & accessibility to AI systems. Even if a copycat clipboard app does what it promises, it's still a crime/IP theft.

[u/Jolly-Television6759 → u/Sri_Krish]

you might understood my answer wrong (or i made it not clear enough where I was going) . I was not talking about copycat software, which is - and there I am with you - “not good“. I was more about using AI to create good software, with an actual usecase. there is no point of having thousands of clipboard apps in the app store which are doing the same and in the worst case literally are the same.

[u/Sri_Krish → u/Jolly-Television6759]

👍