Over the weekend, my colleague Rita El Khoury published an article detailing how a stripped-down version of a Google app is better than the full-fat thing. In particular, she argued that Google Maps Go trumps Google Maps, especially for doing the one thing the main app should be good at: navigation.

Earlier this month, our Joe Maring also posted a detailed look at Google Gallery, a threadbare offline alternative to Google Photos, and declared it a far smarter way to browse photos stored on your phone than, well…Photos!

This begs the question: Have Google’s mainline apps grown too bloated, too cumbersome, and lost track of their core reason for existing? To offer a nickel, I feel that some have been stuffed to the brim with AI features and other fluff, while others remain ripe for further development (ahem, Tasks).

So here are the questions:

• Do you think that Google’s mainline apps have grown too bloated for their own good?
• Should Google offer “lite” alternatives to all of its apps?
• Are you often searching for other options to Google’s apps, or are you happy with their functionality?
• If you could have just one new Google “Lite” app, what would it be?

👇Sound off in the comments: What do you think of the state of Google’s apps in 2025 — brimming with too many features or the more, the merrier?