Zelle is sketchy even when compared to other cash transfer apps. They do a lot of freezing people's money. Don't use them if you have any other option.

Same here, mobile check deposit and Zelle are literally the only things I've ever needed a bank app for.

I used to never use Zelle for anything but too many friends/family want to use some sort of app for exchanging money & that's usually what we settle on. And my old landlord wanted rent paid via Zelle so that was another thing that forced me to install a bank app for Zelle purposes.

Mobile check deposit is a requirement when dealing with a bank without any locations nearby. In practice I only need to use that once a year or so, checks are kind of rare nowadays unless you're a business owner with clients/customers paying with checks.

For some banks, like Ally, you don't need the app to transact in Zelle. But yeah, I must have one for check-depositing.