Apple announces the winners of the App Store Awards 2022

Today, Apple announced its list of App Store award winners for this year, along with a ranking of the most downloaded apps and games in the free and paid categories. These rewards include apps for all of the company’s platforms, including iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Mac and Apple TV. For 2022, social networking app BeReal won app of the year for iPhone, while note-taking app GoodNotes 5 won the crown for best iPad app.

Synium Software GmbH’s MacFamilyTree 10—a visual family tree exploration application—was named Best Mac of the Year; TelevisaUnivision Interactive’s Vix streaming service received Best Apple TV App for improving stories in Spanish; and Gentler Stories’ Gentler Streak, an exercise and fitness tracker, won Best Apple Watch App of the Year.

Picture credits: Apple

Electronic Arts’ Apex Legends Mobile snagged Best Game for iPhone while XD Network Inc.’s Moncage won Best Game for iPad. Other game winners include Devolver’s Inscryption for Mac, HandyGames’ El Hijo for Apple TV, and Studio Drydock’s “Wylde Flowers” for Apple Arcade. Shenzhen Tencent’s League of Legends esports manager Tianyou Technology won Chinese app of the year.

BeReal has been a social media hit this year, forcing giants like TikTok and Instagram to emulate the format. The France-based company originally launched the app in 2020. But its format of receiving an alert at random times of the day to post a combined front and rear camera photo within two minutes has become popular this year. It’s a dramatic change that a social app won the best app crown this year compared to the best apps of the past two years “Toca Life World” (a kids app) and “WakeOut!” (a workout app). In its blog post for the awards, Apple described BeReal as an app to provide “an authentic look into the lives of their family and friends.”

Picture credits: Apple

“This year’s App Store Award winners have reinvented our experiences with apps that offer new, thoughtful and authentic perspectives,” CEO Tim Cook said in a statement. meaningful impact and represent how apps and games influence our communities and lives.

Last year, Apple had a bonus section called “The apps that brought us together.” So this year, it introduced a “Cultural Impact” section to honor select apps that have had “a lasting impact on people’s lives and influenced culture.” The list includes How We Feel Project’s How We Feel app to connect to daily emotion-based recordings; The Rise-Home Stories Project’s Home Stories Project to highlight stories of systemic housing injustices and their impact on people of color; Locket Widget by Locket Labs to enable live photo sharing with friends and family via a home screen widget; Waterllama, Vitalii Mogylevets’ hydration tracking app; and ARTE Experience’s Inua – A Story in Ice and Time to explore historical events from the Inuit tradition.

Picture credits: Apple

The App Store has had a tough 2022 with revenue impact and regulatory battles. It was to allow developers to use third-party systems for in-app purchases in regions such as South Korea and the Netherlands (only for dating apps). The US and EU are also looking for ways to control app distribution monopolies in different app stores. These regulations could force Apple to relax some rules regarding how it allows app distribution and payments on the App Store.

In March, Apple allowed “reader apps” – apps that let users access digital content like music, books and videos – to include external links that allow users to create and manage their accounts. In June, the company relaxed some of its rules around binary content in the app, using HTML5 and apps related to lottery and donations. In October, it cracked down on NFT functionality in apps, preventing developers from using digital collectibles to unlock new features. Additionally, he also demanded that any NFT purchasing system have Apple’s in-app purchase mechanism and give the company a commission. It also updated its guidelines to clarify that it will take a discount to purchase social media posting boosts in the app.

Apple also released the most downloaded apps and games in the free and paid categories of the year. Here are the best apps in the US: