This is an opinion piece. The views are the author’s own.
I recently went shopping for a new oven. I had a simple list of requirements: it should get hot, stay hot at the temperature I picked, and turn off when I told it to. What I got instead was a sales pitch about an app.
The app, I was assured, would let me preheat from the grocery store. It would send a notification when the timer ended. It could, in some models, suggest recipes. All I could think was: I am standing right next to the oven when it matters, and the oven already has a timer that beeps.
Every app is a new way to break
Here is my problem with appliances that lean on apps. Each one adds an account to create, a password to forget, a Wi-Fi network to reconnect after the router dies, and an update that arrives at the worst possible moment. None of that makes food cook better. It just adds steps between me and dinner.
Worse, the app tends to outlive its welcome on the wrong end. I expect a major appliance to last a long time, ideally longer than several of my phones. Software doesn’t age that gracefully. Apps get redesigned, merged, rebranded or quietly abandoned. When the app goes, I don’t want the oven to lose half its personality with it.
Buttons are not old-fashioned. They are reliable.
The best interface for a kitchen appliance is still a physical one. A knob you can turn with a greasy hand. A button that does one thing. A display you can read across the room. These aren’t nostalgic touches. They work when the power blips, when the internet is down and when you’re in a hurry.
I’m not against connected features as such. A washing machine that pings you when the cycle ends is genuinely handy if you live in a big house. Someone with limited mobility may find remote controls truly useful. Fine. Offer that, and offer it well.
A modest proposal
Here is the rule I’d like manufacturers to follow: every core function must work fully from the appliance itself, with no account, no app and no internet connection. The app can be a bonus. It can’t be a requirement, and it can’t be where the good features hide.
Until then, I’ll be the guy in the appliance aisle asking where the knobs went. Somebody has to.