Categories of apps

[Priya]

Categories of apps

There are 33 categories of apps in Google Play and 24 categories in Apple’s App Store. And there are just 7 app categories that have managed to reach more than 3% of users, according to Statistica research. See for yourself:



This clearly indicates what purposes are people using mobile apps for. They tend to do business, communicate, entertain and play games, educate themselves, and relax, of course.

Gaming apps

By far the most popular category among types of apps, as more than 24% of all mobile applications, available in the App Store, fall into this section. Nothing surprising surely, and the average personal time spent on games would only increase, according to the same research.

Mobile gaming has always been thriving, prompting app developers to invest more time and resources into creating new games and mobile versions of well-known stationary games. From user perspective gaming apps offer the sense of achievement and high engagement in the process – an average gaming session is about 8 minutes long. For developers game apps category is the most profitable one.

Examples of game apps:

    Clash of Clans (Android & IOS)
    Candy Crush Saga (Android & IOS)
    Angry Birds Go (Android & IOS)
    Temple Run (Android & IOS)
    Solitaire (Android & IOS)
    Trivial Crack (Android & IOS

Business apps

Also referred to as productivity apps, they holds the second place with the considerable 10% share. Modern-day smartphones are capable of performing many complex tasks on the run.

Billing, buying, booking, sending emails, tracking working progress – you name it. Business apps vary from B2B applications to office and personal apps to boost productivity and minimize expense: imagine that you can find Android app developers for hire, recruit a new sales-manager or buy new cartridges for your office printers just with one tap.

Examples of business apps:

    Adobe Acrobat Reader (Android & IOS)
    Voxer Walkie Talkie Messenger (Android & IOS)
    Indeed Job Search (Android & IOS)
    Facebook Pages Manager (Android & IOS)
    Dragon Dictation
    Square Register – Point of Sale (Android & IOS)

Educational apps

This category is somewhat blurry in its content, as it may encompass a vast field of mobile apps. In other words, an app can be educational to some extent and still do not fit in this category. Or otherwise. However, it’s good to know that we as society care about self-education, which brings this category to the top 3 of our list.

Kids can learn while playing educational game apps. Students may learn out of the class and adjust individual learning pace. Moreover, according to recent reviews many educational apps are useful for teachers as well – organizing a teaching process better, educating themselves, etc.

Examples of educational apps:

    Duolingo – Learn Languages for Free (Android & IOS)
    Photomath – Camera Calculator (Android & IOS)
    Quizlet: Flashcard & Language App to Study & Learn (Android & IOS)
    Lumosity – Brain Training (Android & IOS)
    TED (Android & IOS)

Lifestyle apps

Probably, the widest category in ‘types of apps’ topic, as it covers plenty of common human activities and interests. From shopping, fitness and workout tracker to fashion, virtual fitting room and even weight loss. Such applications for personal lifestyle often are the ones that push technical innovations the most and developers constantly get requests to create a solution for personal or working tasks, or leisure and fun.

Examples of lifestyle apps:

    Tinder (Android & IOS)
    Text Free: Free Texting (Android & IOS)
    AroundMe (Android & IOS)
    PINK Nation (Android & IOS)
    The DailyHoroscope (Android & IOS)
    The Game by Hot or Not (Android & IOS)

Entertainment apps

We are talking about streaming, chatting, searching events, watching videos online, posting photos to Instagram and so on. Applications for entertainment are often closely related to gaming due to same goal – to agitate your mind.

These are the apps that have a tendency to invoke a kind of dependency, they keep us engaged, logged in, always checking for updates. On the bright side, imagination and talent of app creators bring lots of fresh and fun things to our lives, so we will never be bored again, that’s for sure.

Examples of entertainment apps:

    Netflix (Android & IOS)
    Dubsmash (Android & IOS)
    Talking Tom Cat (Android & IOS)
    Amazon Prime Video (Android & IOS)
    NBC – Watch Now and Stream Full TV Episodes (Android & IOS)

Utility apps

Utility software is used on a daily basis by literally everyone of us, we don’t even realize it. Though unlike others types of apps, utility apps display the shortest user session times. People use these to just get things done and move on. Falling into top categories of mobile apps can be explained by sheer amount of practical individuals leveraging their gadgets to full potential. For example taxi apps. However, most popular types of applications here are scanners, trackers, healthcare, first aid manuals, etc.

Examples of utility apps:

    Bitmoji – Your Personal Emoji  (Android & IOS)
    Flashlight (Android & IOS)
    QR Reader (Android & IOS)
    Speed test (Android & IOS)
    My Verizon (Android & IOS)
    myAT&T (Android & IOS)

Travel apps

Travel apps’ purpose is 100% crisp and clear, as the title suggests – to make your traveling easier, more comfortable, fun and informative. Some of them turn your smartphone into universal travel diary, some can literally guide you through the unknown sites abroad using maps, some provide translation assistance. That’s why most of today’s tourists seem to be digitally-savvy all-knowing travelers.

Examples of travel apps:

    Google Earth (Android & IOS)
    Uber (Android & IOS)
    United Airlines (Android & IOS)
    Fly Delta (Android & IOS)
    Airbnb (Android & IOS)
    United Airlines (Android & IOS)

Summing up

There are obviously more app categories and types of apps. But we just touch on most general categories mentioned above. Hundreds of sport, health and fitness apps fitting the Lifestyle section, digital books are just one among thousand faces of education and entertainment.

The golden rule for app developer is one: no matter what type of application, it has to make life easier. Either for everyone or certain group of people, either in business or pure senseless fun. And all types of apps, be it native, hybrid or web apps, always cater to needs of the end user. Each type of apps has it’s strong and weak points, thus business requirements purely dictate the choice of one or another.

SOURCE:  https://thinkmobiles.com/blog/popular-types-of-apps/