Attendees do not hate event apps – they hate bad ones. Here is why the tech is not dead, and how organisers can finally get people to use it
For years, the event app was the thing everyone bought and nobody opened. Organisers paid for it, pushed it in five emails, and watched attendees ignore it until the check-in line. So the question “do we still need event apps?” is fair.
The short answer: yes. But not for the reasons vendors gave you in 2018.
Why events resisted apps
The resistance was not irrational. It came from three real problems.
First, the download. Find the mobile event app, wait for it to install on conference Wi-Fi, make a login, verify an email. For a two-day event, that’s a lot to ask. In a 2026 Clutch survey 45 per cent said they only download an app they truly need. Attendees on corporate phones often cannot install anything their IT team has not approved.
Second, the timing. A recent study found nearly four in five organisers promote their apps in the months before the event, yet most attendees download it on the day. Months of effort, and the app shows up when the event has already started.
Third, the app itself. Most were a digital copy of the printed agenda. The schedule did not change, the bios did not change, the map did not change. People got what they needed in five minutes and closed it. No surprise that 67 per cent of organisers see little value in apps once the event is over.
Meanwhile, WhatsApp groups and a website link felt good enough. Free, already installed, no training.
All of that is true. But look closely and every objection is about bad apps rolled out badly. None of it says attendees do not want an app. And none of it says organisers do not need one.
The attendee’s side: why they would want one
Think about what an attendee actually does at a conference.
They are walking between halls, half-listening to a session, trying to catch one person they flew in to meet. They do not want to read. They want to be told: go here now, this session moved, the person you wanted is at Booth 14.
That is a job for the phone in their pocket, and they already run their lives through apps. A WhatsApp group can tell everyone the same thing. It cannot tell you your next session, your meeting at Room 3, or that the talk you saved just moved to Hall 3.
Attendees say so themselves. Studies show 55 per cent of attendees say the mobile event app can make or break their experience, and 73 per cent expect in-person conferences to use modern event technology.
Attendees do not hate apps. They hate apps that waste their time.
The organiser’s side: why they need one
Here is the part that changed the most. Events used to be judged on how they felt. Now they are judged on what they produced.
So where does that data come from in a physical room? Badges can tell you where someone stood and for how long. That is it. WhatsApp can push updates, but it records nothing about who did what.
The app is the only channel that gives the attendee something useful and records what they do with it, in the same place. Which sessions they saved. Who they messaged. Which meetings they booked. Which sponsor they spent time with. Badges track. WhatsApp informs. Only the app does both.
That matters most for sponsors, who pay for most events. As one lead retrieval guide puts it, no lead data means no way to show ROI. A sponsor renewing next year wants a report, not a vibe.
It matters for running the event, too. Agenda and schedule updates are one of the top reasons organisers use apps, cited by 57 per cent. And it matters for networking, which most events still get wrong: only 60 per cent of organisers rate their networking as somewhat effective. Meetings booked in an app beat hoping two people bump into each other at the coffee station.
Tying it together
Put the two sides next to each other and the old debate falls apart.
The attendee wants a guide in their pocket. The organiser wants a record of what happened. The app is the one place both happen at once. Thats why it is worth it.
But there is a catch, and it is the same one that hurt apps for a decade. Your data only covers the people who use the app. Adoption is the ceiling on everything you want to measure. So the rollout is not a side task. It is the whole game.
Make it the only place something useful happens: check-in, live changes, meeting booking, Q&A. A Cvent app strategist warned that handing out a paper guide makes attendees much less motivated to download the app. Launch it the day registration is confirmed, not the week before. Give people a reason to open it early.
So, do we still need event apps? Yes.
Just ask one question before you launch yours: on day two, with no push notification, why would anyone open it? If you have a real answer, attendees will use it, and you will finally have the data to prove your event worked.
Priyanka Parashuraman is a content marketer at Nunify.
