I think your usage is atypical. If you look at, say, the nielsen stats for app usage[1] the average amount of apps used per user just continues to go up and up and is over 26 apps at this point.<p>Good integration always provides the best user experience and you need an app to best integrate into someone&#x27;s phone to provide push notifications, use quick reply type, etc; really to make sure of a phone in the most efficient way possible right now it just has to be an app and I don&#x27;t see that changing anytime soon.<p>But look at the apps you mention that you do use: &quot;gmail, maps, messenger, calendar, contacts, and web browser (chrome)&quot;<p>Windows Phone doesn&#x27;t have Google Maps so the navigation and overall map experience isn&#x27;t as good. It doesn&#x27;t have Chrome so you can&#x27;t share your bookmarks between all your devices. Without dedicated Google apps it&#x27;s harder to take full advantage of Google services.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nielsen.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;en&#x2F;insights&#x2F;news&#x2F;2015&#x2F;so-many-apps-so-much-more-time-for-entertainment.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.nielsen.com&#x2F;us&#x2F;en&#x2F;insights&#x2F;news&#x2F;2015&#x2F;so-many-apps...</a>