Five old Android apps remain relevant and functional
Updated
Updated · How-To Geek · May 6
Five old Android apps remain relevant and functional
12 articles · Updated · How-To Geek · May 6
The list spans K-9 Mail, Poweramp, Paprika, SoundWire and Weather Underground, launched between 2008 and 2011 and still available on Google Play.
The report says K-9 Mail now underpins Thunderbird for Android, while Poweramp has topped 50 million downloads and continues receiving updates from developer Max MP.
It argues some early apps have outlasted Android’s shift from the 2008 Android Market to today’s nearly two-million-app Play Store through steady maintenance and niche usefulness.
Why do a few classic apps thrive for over a decade, while thousands of their popular contemporaries have completely vanished from our phones?
After Google's 2025 monopoly loss, will classic apps find it easier or harder to survive the next decade against new competition?
What hidden costs and missed innovations arise from maintaining 15-year-old software instead of building entirely new solutions from scratch?