C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- After the latest update, the T Life and T-Mobile app are now functionality the same.
- Even the general UI, feature tour, and setup wizard are identical.
- Reportedly, T-Mobile always planned to consolidate everything under one roof and according to an employee on Reddit, the T-Mobile app will eventually be retired in favor of the newer T Life app.
T-Mobile rebranded its popular T-Mobile Tuesdays app earlier this year with the introduction of T Life. Initially, T Life worked just like the original T-Mobile Tuesdays app, but after the latest update you’ll find the T Life and T-Mobile apps have essentially the same UI and feature set. As first spotted by Android Police, both apps are now on version 10.0 and there’s even the same setup wizard and feature tour.
It might seem odd that T-Mobile would provide nearly identical app experiences in two different packages, but odds are the company felt two apps were redundant. According to a T-Mobile employee who goes by the name JMiKey on Reddit, the plan was always to consolidate everything under one roof with T Life being the one central app for all things, including home internet, discounts, plan settings, and much more. For now, the company is supposedly just unifying the two apps so customers don’t have to make an immediate change.
We’ve reached out to T-Mobile for further clarification and confirmation and will update this post if we hear anything back, but this makes sense. For one, the T Life tagline is “one app to rule them all”, so T-Mobile is just making good on that promise. It’s also a move that’s pretty common. For example, Verizon has also consolidated all its services into one app, including internet access and cellular service. Not only does this save development resources for the company, but it’s easier for the customers too.
We should note that while the functionality of the two apps is the same, the T Life app is loaded with ads. Meanwhile, the T-Mobile app takes a lighter approach here. This isn’t too surprising, as we’ve seen companies get more aggressive with ad revenue over the last few years and so pushing more ads into the new app isn’t anything out of the ordinary.
What’s harder to figure out is why T-Mobile didn’t just phase out the T-Mobile Tuesdays app and migrate everything over to the T-Mobile app. Maybe they feel the name T Life is trendier? Regardless, you might wonder if you really need both apps. The answer is no. We’d recommend deleting the T-Mobile app, especially since it may eventually be phased out and you’d be forced to go back to the T Life app.
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