The Apps We Pretend We Barely Open
Everyone has at least a few apps they’d immediately hide when someone peeks at their screen. Whether it's a dating app or a sim game you've gotten far, far too invested in (yes, you might be in love with a fictional character), you'd likely vehemently deny downloading any of them. Here are 20 apps people are embarrassed to admit they use all the time.
1. TikTok
Plenty of people (ahem, men) insist they only downloaded TikTok because their friends kept sending them videos, but take a look at their screen-time report and it'd say otherwise. But hey, we get it—it's an addictive app. No need to be ashamed. Now, if you're spending more than three hours on it, though...
2. Tinder
Oh, you have Tinder on your phone? So, you're actively swiping through and checking your matches each day? It's precisely these kinds of questions that make people hide the app on their phone or bury it in a folder, simply because they don't want nosy friends demanding details.
3. Candy Crush Saga
Candy Crush might be just another game, but it's been around long enough that it's mostly lost its appeal. If you still have it downloaded, people will probably assume that you have no life. The real embarrassment kicks in when they see just how high your current level number is.
4. Reddit
Being on Reddit 24/7 might not seem so bad—that is, until you're spending enormous amounts of time scrolling through highly specific communities that you would never mention to anyone offline. You may also have way too many throwaways where you've asked some pretty embarrassing questions.
5. FaceApp
You don't use filters, of course you don't! You're au naturel. You don't have FaceApp on your phone, definitely not. And if anyone does spot it and ask, it's just because you forgot to delete it after testing out a different hairstyle or color. You obviously don't have an entire private collection of edited pictures.
Laura Beauty Designer | Brasil on Pexels
6. Snapchat
For some adults, admitting they still use Snapchat regularly can feel like they're admitting they never fully left their teenage phone habits behind. Sure, it might be a great app to keep up with certain friends, but maintaining long streaks? Yikes.
7. Temu
People love educating others on not buying cheap junk until you find they have Temu downloaded on their phone. What's more, they have active orders, and lots of them. The real awkwardness arrives when yet another package appears and they have to explain why a miniature vacuum cleaner was an entirely necessary purchase.
8. Astrology Apps
There's nothing really wrong with checking your horoscope every day, but that's still probably a habit most people would rather not admit is part of their morning routine. And you'd definitely not want them to find out that you've been regularly checking compatibility readings on you and your crush...
9. LinkedIn
LinkedIn sounds like a strictly professional app. Totally not an app you're spying on people with, trying to see where your high school friends ended up. Suddenly, what was supposed to be networking starts feeling a lot more like you're just snooping.
10. Duolingo
Learning a new language is a great thing! Using Duolingo to do it, though, probably isn't the way to go. Most users care more about protecting their streak than making noticeable progress in the language itself, anyway, meaning they don't have much to show for when it comes to actually speaking it.
11. Facebook
Ah, the original snooping app. Sure, Facebook has been mostly taken over by boomers, but that doesn't mean people don't still use it to scroll through profiles of classmates they haven't spoken to since high school. Spying aside, it's probably embarrassing to admit you've friended all your aunts and uncles on there, too.
12. BeReal
BeReal was built around posting glimpses of real life rather than highlight reels, but keeping up with it can become its own habit. Some users continue posting every day even after their friends have largely deleted the app, which can be pretty awkward when others find out.
13. Facetune
You're au naturel, remember? If you don't have FaceApp on your phone, you'd definitely don't have Facetune—you look effortless already! Okay, fine, you might use it for minor lighting adjustments or quick touch-ups. If anyone asks why you look different in every photo, that's just the makeup.
14. Pinterest
No, you didn't spend hours looking up fictional characters on Pinterest or planning your pumpkin patch outfit. Yes, fine, you may have hundreds of carefully organized boards for projects that will never happen, but no one has to know.
15. Life360
Life360 is great for keeping track of your loved ones, but you might check it far more often than you'd admit. In fact, you might be so invested, you even open the app just to see how long someone was at the grocery store for, and whether they’ve left yet. You're not a stalker, though. Obviously.
16. Character.AI
Admitting you're single is probably far less embarrassing than confessing you're in a relationship with an AI-generated character. Just imagine the face that people would make! Sure, some may use Character.AI for simply passing time when they're bored, but most of the time, they're way more invested than that.
17. Love and Deepspace
Speaking of Character.AI, if you have Love and Deepspace on your phone, you know you're never letting anybody else know. Between the dates, messages, character interactions, and romance-heavy storylines, no one ever has to know that you're kinda in love with Sylus.
18. Plenty of Fish
Plenty of Fish is probably not as embarrassing as Tinder, but it's still a pretty niche app that you might get an odd look or two if anyone ever found out about it. For one, it may reveal just how dry your dating experience has been, so much so that you'd have to go on PoF.
19. Wattpad
Ooh, boy... if anyone catches you reading on Wattpad on the train, you're tossing your phone into a fire. Still, that hasn't stopped you from deleting the app—how else would you know when your favorite author or story has updated? Now, as for that One Direction fanfic you read years ago...
20. Instagram
Pretty much everyone has Instagram on their phone, but most people don't just use it for liking and posting photos. In fact, many use it as yet another snooping app, where they might watch someone’s Stories every day, check who they’re dating, or look through tagged posts without ever liking a thing. It gets a little embarrassing when you realize you know far more about someone’s life than they probably know about yours.
