Is the App Store still a source for new technology innovations, or has artificial intelligence development become the hottest new technology to be created today? We pondered that question this week when Apple introduced it iPhone App of the Year finalist, which surprisingly included a trio of long-time favorites – the hiking app AllTrails, the language learning app Duolingo, and the travel app Flighty. Instead of highlighting new releases that caught fire within the year, as it did last year with winner BeReal or 2021 with Toca Life World, for example, Apple has selected several high-quality apps that have been around for some time and created a NEXT .
But Apple’s choice, which ignores the explosion of AI applications for some reason, might lead you to believe that there aren’t many young and interesting gems to be found in today’s App Store — a place where apps like TikTok, Temu, and those from Meta and Google often dominate the top charts.
As it turns out, this is far from true. However, great new apps can be harder to find these days, unless they go viral on TikTok by paying influencers to push their way into the top charts. Meanwhile, the App Store’s editorial collections have gotten a little stale. In the Apps tab, for example, there are collections like “best dating apps,” “best audio apps,” and “best streaming apps”—none of which contain any surprises.
Finding App Store gems, as well as those on Google Play, now requires more research, it seems.
Having done a bit of this digging ourselves, we wanted to highlight some of the more interesting and (relatively) new releases we’ve come across in the past few days. We’ll bet you’ll find at least one app on this list that you haven’t heard of yet or that piques your interest.
What new apps are you trying? Send me your TestFlights! sarahp@techcrunch.com or @sarahprz on the threads; @Sarahp on Mastodon.
Empty spaces
Image Credits: Empty spaces/Jeffrey Waters
Blank Spaces is a minimalist home screen launcher for iOS users. While iPhone doesn’t support actual launchers like Android does, this app offers a Home screen widget that provides tap access to your most used apps without distraction or clutter. If you’re trying to wean yourself off apps and your phone, the app could be a useful tool in managing your screen time. I’m thinking of creating a “stop” focus mode where this widget is the only option.
Subscription: $3.99 per month, $13.99 per year, or $22.99 for lifetime access.
Break the web
Image Credits: Break The Web Technology Co. (opens in new window)
If you want to stay tuned for the latest news and events, Break the web it’s certainly an interesting way to do it. The app offers real-time, AI-powered summaries of internet trends and news, sorted by radioactivity. It also shows different points of view (think: left and right) on stories to give you more perspectives on the news. Other features include trending alerts to keep you up to date on breaking news and an AI-generated daily newsletter that recaps the day’s events. Be warned, though: The app warns that its content is generated by AI, which isn’t perfect. Inaccurate, inconvenient or even offensive material may appear from time to time, the app says. Still, it’s an interesting experiment in AI-powered news summaries — and with its bright, bold colors and vertical scrolling, it feels as familiar as TikTok from the get-go.
Price: Free
Drag your finger
Image Credits: Swipewipe/MWM (opens in new window)
We heard about it from a Gen Z teenager: Drag your finger is a Camera Roll cleanup app that makes cleaning up your junk photos more fun. The app uses a simple Tinder-like swipe mechanism to keep (swipe right) or delete (swipe left) your photos. And if you accidentally scan, you can still go back with a tap. You can also long press to see a photo’s metadata if that helps you make your decision. The app lets you complete one month at a time, and when you’re done, it’s deleted. A progress wheel also tracks your progress on the main screen so you can see how far you have to go.
Subscription: $4.99 per week, $9.99 per month or $29.99 per year and a 3-day free trial.
Corner
Image Credits: Corner International, Inc. (opens in new window)
The personalized map and social networking app Corner is a new way to curate places you love or want to try, and share them with friends. As you travel, you can add places from around the world that you’ve enjoyed, or you can share links to places from websites and apps like Instagram, TikTok, and Maps. Corner uses artificial intelligence to then find the place in the shared link and save it to your Corner as you build your bucket list. Based on your use of Corner, the app will also provide personalized recommendations as it learns more about your likes and interests.
payment
Image Credits: Feeeed/Nate Parrott (opens in new window)
Feeeeed — that’s “feed” with four e’s — is a new kind of RSS reader that lets you follow any website that supports RSS, as well as YouTube channels, TikTok profiles, Reddit communities (subreddits), and even email newsletters. However, unlike traditional news readers, Feeeed lets you do more, like adding flashcards to help you learn something as you scroll or reminders of something you need to do. You can also track the weather, create a reading list that reminds you to read your saved items, or turn websites—like those with stock prices—into living “maps.” It was built by a designer at The Browser Company (makers of Arc), feeeed is a new look for a personalized news reader experience.
Price: Free
Bandto
Image Credits: Bandto, Inc (opens in new window)
An app that feels a little ahead of its time, Bandto uses artificial intelligence to drive introductions between professionals for networking purposes. To use the app, you log in with your resume, like your LinkedIn profile, and fill in details about your industry, occupation and digital footprint. You can then add goals to your status such as “Network”, “Work with me”, “Search”, “Interested” and more to tune the algorithm to match others. As you travel, you can discover others in your industry in any city and connect with people through the app’s recommendations powered by OpenAI. You can also join professional networks around your industry, sector or interests.
Price: Free
Hard cover
Image Credits: Hardcover LLC (opens in new window)
Goodreads Alternative Hard cover is a new social network for book lovers that lets you keep track of what you’re reading and what you want to read while connecting with other readers and friends. In addition to rating and rating books, the app also helps you find new books to read through lists, title trends, friends’ shelves, or books by genre and mood. As you use the app, Hardcover will provide a personalized match score that helps you decide whether you’ll like a book. We also appreciated that the integration allowed us to import our data from Goodreads, although it’s a technical process to download and upload a .csv file. A few quibbles: The app doesn’t offer Apple ID sign-in and was slow to load when we tried it. Hopefully that’s just because it’s getting popular!
Price: Free with backer options of $4.99 per month or $49.99 per year.
