Why Do People Use Apps They Hate?

I keep hearing the same thing.

"TimeLeft is rubbish." "The events are awful." "The matching is random." "Nobody follows up."

People say this to me. To my face. Sometimes in the same conversation where I tell them I've built something that does exactly what they're describing.

And then they keep using TimeLeft.

The frustration

I want to be clear: I'm not angry at these people. I don't think they owe me anything. But the pattern is genuinely confusing.

They identify a problem. They articulate it clearly. They describe what a solution would look like. The solution exists. They don't use it.

I've been trying to figure out why, and I think it comes down to a few things that have nothing to do with product quality.

The cold start problem

The app needs users to work. Events need attendees. Matching needs a pool of people to match from. And when you're new, the pool is small.

So someone downloads the app, looks around, sees a handful of events with a few attendees, and thinks "this isn't where the action is." They go back to the app with more people, even if that app is worse in every other way.

It doesn't matter that my matching is better, that the event curation is more thoughtful, that the follow-up features actually exist. What matters is whether it feels alive. And "alive" is a numbers game early on.

This is the chicken-and-egg problem every social product faces. You need users to attract users. The product can be perfect and it doesn't matter if the room feels empty.

The devil they know

There's also just habit. People have TimeLeft on their phone already. They know how it works. They've been to a few events through it, even bad ones. The friction of trying something new, downloading another app, creating another profile, figuring out another interface, is enough to keep them where they are.

Especially when "where they are" is good enough. Not great. Not what they want. But functional. And functional beats unknown almost every time.

The question I can't escape

This is the part that keeps me up at night: is the problem marketing or is the problem the product?

If people haven't seen the app, that's a marketing problem. If people see the app and don't use it, that's a product problem. And if people use the app and don't come back, that's a different product problem.

I think we're mostly in category one. People just haven't seen it. They don't know it exists. And the ones who do know it exists aren't sure it'll be worth switching from what they already have.

But there's a harder question underneath that: am I over-engineering this? The apps people complain about are simple. Basic. They don't have personality matching or behavioural psychology or smart recommendations. They just have a list of events and a sign-up button.

Maybe that's enough. Maybe all the things I think make this project better are things users don't actually care about. Maybe I've been building a cathedral when people just wanted a room.

I don't believe that. But I think about it.

What I'm doing about it

Honestly, I don't have an answer yet. The cold start problem doesn't have a shortcut. You can't fake a community. You can't pretend the room is full when it isn't.

What I can do is keep running events. Keep making them good. Keep showing up even when the turnout is three people. Because three people who come back is worth more than thirty who came once.

And maybe, eventually, the room won't feel empty anymore.

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They told me exactly what they wanted. I built it. They went back to the app they hate. I'm still here.