Internet Connections

I have recently been on vacation away from Wifi and cell service for extended periods of time. Not only do I check my email way too often, but I've also come to realize that there lots of apps on my phone that require a constant Internet connection for seemingly no reason. About a week before I left, I completely wiped my device to get a fresh start, so undoubtedly there were several more apps that share this same problem but I never encountered them. So to start, here's a short list of my apps that shouldn't need Internet all that often:

I'll go into more depth about these and why they should work offline, but I first want to give a shoutout to apps that work surprisingly well offline:

NYT Games

I use NYT Games every day to play the Wordle. Since its takeover by the New York Times, it has gone downhill in terms of usability, but thats not the point. The old Wordle (by Josh Wardle at powerlanguage.co.uk) used to rely on simple cookies and a preset list that was sent with the webpage. The javascript on this page would search the wordlist for today and play the game. If someone were to download the page during this time (which I did in early 2022) they could open that page offline and play the Wordle as if nothing had happened. Of course, I do understand that some updates needed to happen to remove certain offensive words, but I remember reading that they took out a single digit number of words, or some other low amount.

Even if they took out half the words, they could just send the updated wordlist the next time someone requested the page. Here's the flow for old Wordle: User requests page → Server sends page and wordlist → Browser handles javascript and cookies. No further requests to the server. Here's what I imagine the new flow to be: User requests page → Server asks for account login → User provides details → Server checks if today's word is completed → Server sends webpage → Browser queries some JSON API for today's word → Server sends word → Browser handles playing → Browser sends status to server → Browser sends score to server → Server records score → Server sends cumulative statistics. If you're not a paying subscriber, it attempts to show you an ad before you can play. As you can tell, the new version is much more complicated.

With the Times now being a games company, you'd imagine that could have simplified this. I will give them credit for making the cloud sync work (a genuinely nice feature) but a wordlist isn't hard to include or make, and it wouldn't even be noticed in all the bloat that modern websites send anyway. For the other Gales, I can understand a little more connection is needed because they are crafted by hand with much less tile before they're ready, but the wordlist for Wordle has been effectively complete since it was released in 2021-ish. Just send the wordlist.

Garmin Connect

This app is Garmin's device management and activity feed for Garmin wearables users. There are effectively two sections: your data from your device and workouts from your friends. I understand that checking for new activities needs a connection, but it could just say "Hey, no Internet. Check back later." I also don't think the app always used to be this way, but it now requires a connection to the Internet just to sync your device. A device that only has Bluetooth and couldn't connect to the Internet if it wanted to. Now the app requires the Internet to talk a device exclusively over a different protocol. Garmin Connect does sync health data to the cloud so it's available on their web interface as well as other devices, but it would be shockingly easy to store unsynced data on device then uploading all captured data when it gets the chance.

The positive is that the wearable itself works perfectly fine offline and stores workouts on-device until it gets synced my phone, but my watch has far less available space to store all that data and I worry about older workouts being lost if they can't be uploaded in time. Again, as with NYT Games, having cloud sync is genuinely helpful feature. But it doesn't/shouldn't always be the forefront feature. People today and especially modern tech services can demonstrate a little patience. Grab the data it can, then upload when possible. Instead what it does now is refuse to load any feature with the banner that says no Internet connection and the far more worrisome "Garmin is currently experiencing an outage" message that it now displays.

Duolingo

Last but not least is Duolingo, the language-learning app. I was learning Latin then French and currently Italian. The app relies on learning modules that feature a varied method of instruction, like sentence translation, matching pairs, speaking, and listening. Some of these modules, especially listening, are heavier on resource method. I think Duolingo could offer an "Offline Mode" that sticks to text-only modules and downloads them. Since Duolingo is now an AI-first company, they could even have their AI write the new code for them. Because I didn't have a connection to do my daily lessons, my streak of 132 was broken.

Closing Thoughts

I write all of these things not as a baseless complaint of corporations not bending to my will, but as a critique of failing to meet user's needs. It's not uncommon for people to go on vacation, the traveling portion may not have Wifi. Their phone plan may not allow roaming or charge outrageous fees. The resort may have no or spotty Wifi. Perhaps they simply live in a rural area that carriers have left behind. Or maybe they don't get unlimited data and want to save it, but still have their daily habits. Whatever the reason. having your services be online-only prevents a portion of the user base from accessing those same services.

I also write this as someone who has made my own apps (available on GitHub). None of those apps has even an inkling of network connection, because not only did that thought never cross my mind, but they also work perfectly offline. My water tracker uses only one API to call water usage and record the same, both of which happen offline and are uploaded when Apple decides they should be, but it isn't even necessary for the second step to happen. When talking about this before I wrote it, I made a commitment that any of my future apps will be offline-first and use an Internet connection only when absolutely necessary, and even then, sending over as little data as possible. It also has the benefit of being faster and more secure.

I wanted to give a much shorter summary of why those other apps were so great.

📅 Posted 2025-06-22.

📝 Updated 2025-06-22.

© 2025 Isaac Greene.