App Clips launched at the height of the pandemic with iOS 14 as a way to use an app without fully installing it, but it hasn't made much headway in two years.

App Clips allow the user to complete everyday tasks like ordering lunch, renting a city bike, testing a video game level, or messaging that hilarious TikTok cat to coworkers without the constraint of downloading the full app.

Apple's mission statement is to "bring the best user experience through innovative hardware, software, and services," and App Clips had potential by offering a sleek, compact app experience that offered a trial-run of an app's performance before downloading.

For the user, the main benefits of App Clips are: time, minimizing iPhone clutter, and less collection of sensitive data. Besides a happier customer, benefits for the developer largely remain to be seen.

In addition to user data, our usage patterns are just as profitable to developers as the sandwich you're about to purchase from some transient App Clip.

Now, two years later, App Clips remain problematic for developers and consumers.

App Clips would've been a great option for mobile ordering from apps that you have no interest downloading in their entirety. For me, a regular consumer, that is most of them.

App Clips was released in 2020 with handsome fanfare. Two years later, we've implemented preventative strategies necessary in the long battle against COVID and iOS users are deeming the great outdoors "safe" again.

Source: Appleinsider