WordPress Apps are Juggling Features
Posted on February 15, 2023 by Aywren
WordPress is finally making the move to break their single app into two separate apps - which was something I heard was in the plans a good while back. So, starting in March, if you want to see blog stats, interact on Reader, and get notifications about comments and reactions, you have to install the Jetpack app instead.
And that list of features was the most important and only reason I ever used the WordPress app to start with.
In the meantime, the WordPress app is taking a backseat (IMHO) as only a publishing app. Which... I never wrote full blog posts on my phone and likely never will. So that makes the signature WordPress app worthless to me now.
I'm sure someone out there might use the app for blogging, but I just can't imagine tapping out full posts on a mobile device. Maybe if you have a tablet with a keyboard - yeah, I could see that.
Overall, it feels like all the most useful things from WordPress.com are being ripped out and put in a Jetpack app. This makes me leery because I know how they like to monetize Jetpack... so what features are they eventually going to put behind a paywall on down the line?
Developing and supporting a whole second (free) app takes time and money. Not to mention ripping out the working pieces of the original app and making sure that it didn't break anything. I find it hard to believe they're doing that without some form of monetary strategy in mind.
Of course, after their wishy-washy choices on what they were charging for a WP.com blog last year (which caused me to move from the platform), I don't have a lot of confidence in them. None of this affects me since I haven’t had their apps installed since I left the platform. But I still worry about the future of WordPress for the small blogger.
In fact, I hope to be talking about an alternative I’ve been exploring (outside of this site), and how it could grow to be something stronger. Stay tuned!