These App Store hidden gems prove there’s still room for great software in the AI era
The App Store is still thriving with new and innovative apps, despite the rise of AI agents. Many of these apps use AI under the hood to perform their magic, but are not promoted as being AI-powered. The App Store has seen a significant increase in new app releases, with a 60% year-over-year increase worldwide and an 80% increase on Apple's iOS store alone.
- ▪New app launches have soared in 2026, with worldwide new app releases up 60% year-over-year as of the first quarter across both the Apple App Store and Google Play.
- ▪The rise of AI coding has enabled people to ship software more quickly, and allowed novices to participate in the app ecosystem.
- ▪Some apps, such as Albo and Coop, offer unique features and services that resonate with consumers and provide alternatives to traditional social media and online marketplaces.
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| Original publisher | TechCrunch |
| Canonical URL | https://techcrunch.com/2026/07/28/these-app-store-hidden-gems-prove-theres-still-room-for-great-software-in-the-ai-era/ |
| Publication time | Tue, 28 Jul 2026 18:16:39 +0000 |
| Retrieval time | 2026-07-28T18:30:30.774Z |
| Last seen | 2026-07-28T18:30:30.774Z |
| Headline source | Publisher (no WeSearch rewrite) |
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| Excerpt method | First ~120 words (~800 chars) of extracted publisher body, fair-use limited. |
| Summary | WeSearch · cerebras-chat (WeSearch summarizer) |
| Summary source text | contentText |
| Citation coverage | Summary is a WeSearch-generated derivative; primary citation is the original publisher URL. |
| Cluster | 2ETE5_jOGhS- · 1 stories |
| Cluster logic | Grouped by semantic title/content similarity across sources within a rolling window. Same-publisher template collisions are excluded from coverage comparison. |
| Ranking reason | Story pages are not engagement-ranked. Hub feeds use recency, with optional source-diversified chronological ordering (cap consecutive stories per source). No personalized ranking. |
| Publisher visit | Yes — open original |
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| Indexing | May the item be indexed (stored, ranked, made findable)? | Allowed |
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| AI summary | May WeSearch generate its own short summary of the article? | Limited |
| Retrieval / RAG | May the content be exposed for third-party retrieval-augmented generation? | Not asserted |
| Model training | May the content be used to train AI models? | Not asserted |
| Commercial reuse | May the content be reused commercially? | Not permitted |
Basis: Derived from the published RSS/Atom feed. Contact: [email protected]. Reviewed: 2026-07-24.
Opening excerpt (first ~120 words) tap to expand
Apps are back, or maybe they never left in the first place. While some people debate whether people will shift away from apps as AI agents make accessing online services more efficient, we’ve found the App Store to be alive and well, with a recent explosion of fun, creative and innovative tools, experiences, and other indie efforts. Some of the more recent launches may be attributed to the rise of AI coding, which has enabled people to ship software more quickly, and allowed novices to participate in the app ecosystem. According to one report, new app launches have soared in 2026, with worldwide new app releases up 60% year-over-year as of the first quarter across both the Apple App Store and Google Play. On Apple’s iOS store alone, that figure was an even higher 80%.
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