It took me having a baby to figure out that not everything needs an app — here's the free tool I use instead

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There's an app for that, but does it really need one?

baby and mother in front of laptop holding a smartphone
(Image credit: Shutterstock)

There is an app for pretty much everything these days, no matter what it is or what you actually want to do. There are your standard apps like navigation or fitness, productivity services, and even apps that can identify birds by the sound of their call. That's right, Shazam for birds exists, and in my experience, it works really well. Even if it is a monumental battery hog if you're not careful.

There are hundreds of thousands of apps out there, across multiple devices and platforms. Some of them are great and genuinely useful. Others are a complete waste of bandwidth and deserve to be delisted as quickly as possible. Yeah, I'm looking at you, premium wallpaper subscription apps.

How we avoided the baby app extravaganza

Google Play logo on an android smartphone with corner hole punch camera

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

There's a lot involved with having a baby, beyond the actual process of having the baby. Getting yourself and your house in order is an ordeal, but things don't exactly ease off once they're born. Suddenly, you have a small defenseless potato-person that needs round-the-clock care.

It doesn't quite hit you how much care babies need until you're left to look after one for an extended period of time. There's a lot to do and remember, which doesn't really mix well with being more sleep deprived than you've ever been in your entire life. We're talking keeping tabs on feeds, diaper changes, sleep cycles, you name it.

Timing is important, too, so this naturally means there are countless apps out there to help you keep track of things. Sadly, apps being apps, they're all too busy trying to do everything at once and make you pay a monthly fee for the privilege. To make matters worse, my wife and I both had trouble actually accessing that information from different devices.

We couldn't share it across both accounts, and logging in with the same credentials didn't seem to want to work. Which is hardly ideal when we both need to be able to keep tabs on all that data on our own personal devices.

The solution? Scrap all the dedicated apps, and go for something simple that we know works via the cloud: a spreadsheet.

Spreadsheets are pretty great

google sheets app on phone and desktop

(Image credit: Shutterstock)

I mean, if you think about it, it doesn't matter what kind of tracking app you use; they're all basically just spreadsheets with a fancy interface on top. Once you get over the fact that you're looking at a giant, seemingly endless grid of boxes, it actually becomes quite simple to use.

Babies are expensive, and after the cost of formula, childcare and clothes they grow out of in two weeks, $10 a month for a subscription to baby analytics is an expense I can do without.

Feeding schedules in particular are easy to log. Pop in a time and amount, and you're done. Saving a shortcut to Google Sheets on my phone's homescreen means I'm always in the right place, and the fact it's in the cloud means it can be shared with anyone we like with the tap of a screen.

Spreadsheets being versatile also means that we can put in just about anything we need to log. Baby's had some medication? Log it in the same column, so you know exactly when he's allowed to have more.

The one drawback is that dedicated apps can offer insights that a lot of people couldn't do themselves — often utilizing some kind of AI. However, the fact that it costs money is an immediate turn-off. Babies are expensive, and after the cost of formula, childcare and clothes they grow out of in two weeks, $10 a month for a subscription to baby analytics is an expense I can do without.

Spreadsheets are free, and were not sharing some fairly personal information with another faceless tech company. Just Google, which already has far too much to be stopped at this point.

It forced me to revaluate my existing app list

apps on phone

(Image credit: Getty Images)

Apps are great to have, and no matter what you need, there's an app to handle it. Apple was always so fond of advertising that fact, if you remember. But just because there could be an app for that, that doesn't necessarily mean that there should. And I realized that I'm just as guilty as everyone else in filling my phone with unnecessary pieces of software.

Do I really need an app to test my internet speed when I can just use the browser version? Apps for websites that I only use infrequently, games that I've not played for multiple years, or two calculator apps. No, I'm not sure how that happened either. Nor do I know why I still have the Disneyland Paris app when I haven't been there for over a year.

It was time to trim some of the fat and free up some space. Or, at the very least, consolidate various apps and services into something a little more versatile. Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to take a nap before I get wrenched awake again by a screaming infant.

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Tom Pritchard
Tom Pritchard
UK Phones Editor

Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.

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