The Death of Apps
Last night I spent two hours watching Anil Varanasi’s podcast:
Watching Meter Command reshape its interface in real time - no reloads, no context switching, no hopping between screens... To me - it just felt the future snap into focus: the UI melted and re-formed around user commands in real time.
I keep thinking that the age of fixed apps is ending - so why are we still building for yesterday? Fuck siloed apps!
Gen AI actually allows us to build malleable products - more adaptive & personalized, that move beyond old rigid solutions.
What is Malleable Software?
It’s a living workspace users can reshape on the fly.
So imagine planning a trip:
“Barcelona • Mar 15-20 • check flights”
Your doc instantly recognizes dates and places. You see a live map of every place you’ve typed, walking times between spots, daily forecast - right beside the packing list you’re drafting. No app-switching. No copy-paste. The software molds itself to your content and flow.
Why Now?
Since the start of the internet, turning human need/ intent into code was hard. Gen AI solved that problem. You describe what you want in plain English and get working features in seconds. The tech bottleneck is gone; now we must rethink how software behaves when everyone can shape their own tools.
Fixed apps vs. malleable software - key shifts
Where Your Data Lives
Fixed Apps: Your flights live in one app, your hotel bookings in another, your itinerary notes in a third. To move data between them you need to export, import, copy, paste…
Malleable Software: Everything should ideally live in one shared space that all tools can read and write. Your flights, accommodation, and daily itinerary aren’t separate - they’re different views of the same data. Change a flight time in one place, it updates everywhere.
See Coda: one doc becomes a live database, kanban, or calendar without leaving the page:
Real-time collaboration
Fixed Apps: Google Docs has live collaboration. Figma too. But they can’t easily collaborate with each other. Each app had to build co-editing from scratch (and they still can’t talk 😅).
Malleable Software: Real-time sync (through tech like Conflict-free Replicated Data Types - CRDTs) is built into the foundation. Any tool, any device can edit the same content simultaneously (ideally even offline which is why many people are also talking about local-first CRDTs).
How You Move Between Tools
Fixed Apps: Twenty browser tabs open. Command-Tab, Command-Tab, Command-Tab. Constant context switching burns your brain cells…
Malleable Software: Tools compose in one space. Your trip plan has the outline, map, weather, and calendar all visible together. Hover over (or drag) a location in the text, it highlights on the map. No switching - everything you need surrounds your content.
Re-Using a View
Fixed Apps: A chart lives only inside the app that drew it.
Malleable Software: Views are like lego blocks - you can drag into any doc or workspace.
How Features Get Added
Fixed Apps: Submit feedback and wait...
Malleable Software: See a color picker that you like in another tool? Drag it into yours. Need to track something new? Add a field. Ask AI to code a feature while you watch.
Starting Simple vs. Starting Structured
Fixed Apps: Fill out these required fields - this is how we decided trips should be planned.
Malleable Software: Start with a messy note. Add computation when you need it. The structure emerges from your actual needs, not someone’s guess about them.
Mentions & Links
Fixed Apps: Deep links often break outside the app.
Malleable Software: Typing “@” drops a live reference that every tool understands (place, date, person, file).
The Role of AI
Fixed Apps: A chatbot sits in the corner… It can answer questions but can’t actually do anything.
Malleable Software: AI is your co-creator. Describe a feature, watch it materialize.
When Things Change
Fixed Apps: Version 2.0 breaks your workflow. The integration you depended on? Deprecated.
Malleable Software: Your tools should have version control like Git. Try an experiment on a branch. Don’t like it? - roll back.
Smart suggestions
Fixed Apps: Help lives in menus / static settings.
Malleable Software: The workspace notices nearby data and proposes formulas, filters, or widgets on the spot.
Speed and Ownership
Fixed Apps: Every click is a round trip to a server. No internet - no work…
Malleable Software: Ideally, things run locally first. Instant feedback as you type. Works on a plane. Sync when connected.
To read more on this: