Over-featurising Apps: adding new features no one asked for

Endless tweaking, adding, removal, and A/B testing of features

It seems that even when all the features asked for by most of the audiences are provided, the apps’ creators want to keep adding and tweaking features.

This greed for eternal growth ends up biting back, in regards to user experience, as it costs VCs money and you see moderate growth if any from it.

It’s features like Facebook’s Meta AI search and retrieval feature that do have something to offer but undermine the user experience as they compete with preexisting search features and are forced onto users’ app journey.

It’s a constant exercise in fixing something that’s not broken. The features work readily but this practice in perfection ends up erasing quality of user’s experience. App creators should keep in mind users’ adjustment attributes and desire of constancy from features.

The perfectionism keeps employees occupied. New work is manufactured to keep employees working and to make it look like you’re adding meaningfully to the product or service when you know it’s already good enough. Constant “could be better” loop makes work for show.

If not perfectionism, feature changes intend to understand user behaviour as a reaction to new technologies like an AI question-answering program.

The ‘keep it fresh’ attitude appeals to a segment of users who are looking or will fall for something new in the app experience.

Sometimes it’s borrowing a feature that works well for a competitor leading to increased convergence of the apps and their capabilities.

Even if a feature doesn’t work in regards to maximising the apps’ KPIs (Key Performance Indicators), you still end up getting data on how users react to new features.

When an app creator knows they have the user, they can do whatever they want with the app knowing that the user would come back and use as compulsion.

App developers also consider the longer-term effects of new or altered features. Even if they don’t want AI search now, AI is increasingly going to be a thing and we want to stay on top of it.

Some features users get adjusted to and since they’re compulsive users they’ll learn accustoming.

It never hits a plateau in regards to the number and quality of features. They keep wanting to add more and more continuously. Even though the engine runs fine at 120kmph (speed limit), they want to make it a sports car engine which honestly is annoying more than beneficial.