Are mobile apps really “dead”? With the rise of AI-generated micro apps and vibe coding tools like Google Opal, some believe users will stop downloading traditional apps and instead generate exactly what they need on demand. But is that realistic? In this edition of the Web News, Matt breaks down the growing narrative around AI-generated apps and questions whether everyday consumers actually want to prompt-engineer their own tools. He explores the hidden costs of app generation - bug fixing, long-term maintenance, shared user experiences, and platform longevity - and explains why general-purpose apps aren’t disappearing anytime soon.
I’ve been seeing the sentiment on social media here and there that mobile apps are “dead” because people are going to start generating their own personal apps using AI. This is primarily achieved through vibe coding, or the arguably “faster vibe coding” using offerings like Google Opal - that generates apps (often called micro apps) in seconds using even just a single prompt. The idea is that instead of downloading a general-purpose app from the App Store - that will often have more features than they need - users will instead generate the exact app experience they need on the fly.
