I don’t know about you, but I don’t like change. I don’t adopt new tech quickly. (We just got rid of our fossil CRT TV recently, for instance, and I still buy CDs and DVDs.) And I absolutely hate it when my favorite websites are redesigned; invariably, the design is worse. (Or, at least it feels that way when I can’t immediately find something that used to be right there.)
Which brings us to a recent change Plugged In has had to make: pulling the plug on our popular app. If you use the app regularly, you’ve probably already seen our notice there informing you that it’s now reached what techies euphemistically dub “end of life” status.
Honestly, it reached that point some time ago. For various technical reasons beyond my meager digital understanding, our app has gotten increasingly “buggy” and difficult to maintain.
That’s one critical factor in this decision.
Here’s the other one. When our app was launched some years ago, Plugged In’s website design wasn’t mobile friendly. Since the app’s arrival, however, our most recent redesign integrated what web gurus call “responsive design.” Basically, however big your screen is, the website automatically adjusts to fit it just right.
Thus, the need for a stand-alone mobile app is not nearly as great as it was when we first launched it. Everything the app used to do, our current website will do just as effectively and just as quickly on your smartphone.
So for anyone who regularly used the app, we thank you for your loyalty to it. We understand your frustration. And we apologize for this change. Believe me, I know changes like these can be really frustrating.
That said, we’d also humbly encourage you to simply use the website on your smartphone from here out, because it’s designed to work seamlessly on that platform.
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