Apple reveals its best and most popular iPhone apps in 2019
Retro games are making a comeback in new forms, Apple says
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Your support makes all the difference.Apple has revealed the most popular apps of 2019, and those it thinks are the best.
Spectra Camera, which uses artificial intelligence to create long-exposure images that can make people disappear, is the company's favourite app of the year.
But it was far from the most popular. The top charts of the most-used apps included a variety of expected names – such as WhatsApp, Instagram, Snapchat and YouTube – as well as newer apps like TikTok and the briefly wildly popular FaceApp.
Each year, Apple reveals both its choice as the best apps as well as the most downloaded across its devices and app stores. The winners can be found below.
This time around, winners were revealed as part of an Apple "special event" in New York City, which honoured the developers who created them. Unusually, Apple did not use the event to make any of its own announcements or to reveal new products, but instead highlighted developers that make their apps available through its platform.
Apple also awarded an Apple Arcade award for the first ever time, following the subscription service's launch earlier this year. It went to 'Sayonara Wild Hearts', which has been widely praised by critics.
As well as its awards and top charts, Apple pointed out two trends of the year, with one in gaming and the other in apps.
In gaming, it said that the theme of the year had been "Blockbusters Reborn", as a variety of different popular licenses from other platforms finally arrive in mobile. It pointed to games including Mario Kart Tour, Minecraft: Earth, The Elder Scrolls: Blades, Pokemon Masters and Call of Duty: Mobile as examples of titles that have long been popular on devoted consoles but had at last made it onto the App Store.
Its app trend of the year is "The Storyteller Within", and it said that a wide variety of apps had aimed to allow people to express themselves better. It featured apps like Unfold, Anchor, Canva Stories, Over and Spark Camera as examples of what it said were a "groundswell of apps".
Other awards went to Sky: Children of the Light as game of the year, Flow by Moleskine as iPad app of the year and Hyper Light Drifter as iPad game of the year.
The most downloaded apps and games of the year were:
iPhone apps – free:
1. WhatsApp Messenger
2. Instagram
3. Snapchat
4. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream
5. Messenger
6. Facebook
7. Spotify: Get music and podcasts
8. TikTok - Make Your Day
9. Netflix
10. Google Maps - Transit & Food
11. FaceApp - AI Face Editor
12. Uber Eats: Food Delivery
13. Amazon
14. Gmail - Email by Google
15. Wish - Shopping Made Fun
16. Uber
17. Just Eat - Food Delivery
18. Twitter
19. Microsoft Outlook
20. eBay Shopping - Buy and Sell
—
iPhone apps – paid:
1. Driving Theory Test 4 in 1 Kit
2. Official DVSA Theory Test Kit
3. The Wonder Weeks
4. Forest - Stay focused
5. Facetune
6. Dark Sky Weather
7. Squeezy NHS Pelvic Floor App
8. Ski Tracks
9. TouchRetouch
10. Afterlight — Photo Editor
11. kirakira+
12. Toca Hair Salon 3
13. Procreate Pocket
14. CITB Op/Spec HS&E test 2019
15. Northern Lights Photo Taker
16. AutoSleep Tracker for Watch
17. Hit the Button Maths
18. HappyCow Find Vegan Food
19. Full Fitness : Exercise Workout Trainer
20. Freya • Surge Timer
—
iPhone games – free:
1. Mario Kart Tour
2. Coin Master
3. Color Bump 3D
4. aquapark.io
5. Fun Race 3D
6. Stickman Hook
7. 8 Ball Pool™
8. Draw it
9. BitLife - Life Simulator
10. Drive and Park
11. Paper.io 2
12. AMAZE!!!
13. Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game
14. Run Race 3D
15. Crowd City
16. Traffic Run!
17. Polysphere - art of puzzle
18. Fortnite
19. Helix Jump
20. Call of Duty®: Mobile
—
iPhone games – paid:
1. Heads Up!
2. Football Manager 2019 Mobile
3. Minecraft
4. Plague Inc.
5. The Chase: Ultimate Edition
6. Rebel Inc.
7. Bloons TD 6
8. Tenable
9. Pocket Build
10. Bloons TD 5
11. Tipping Point
12. Geometry Dash
13. Earn to Die 2
14. Football Chairman Pro
15. Motorsport Manager Mobile 3
16. Countdown - The Official TV Show App
17. Mini Metro
18. Stardew Valley
19. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
20. Construction Simulator 3
— —
iPad apps – free:
1. Netflix
2. Amazon Prime Video
3. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream
4. BBC iPlayer
5. ITV Hub
6. Messenger
7. Facebook
8. All 4
9. Spotify Get music and podcasts
10. Microsoft Word
11. Google Chrome
12. Sky Go
13. TikTok - Make Your Day
14. Amazon
15. Calculator ٞ
16. BBC Sounds
17. NOW TV: Movies, TV & Sports
18. YouTube Kids
19. Gmail - Email by Google
20. Google Maps - Transit & Food
—
iPad apps – paid:
1. Procreate
2. Notability
3. GoodNotes 5
4. Driving Theory Test 4 in 1 Kit
5. Hit the Button Maths
6. Duet Display
7. Spelling Shed
8. Nebo Professional note-taking
9. Toca Hair Salon 3
10. Teach Your Monster to Read
11. Numberblocks Hide and Seek
12. Toca Life: Neighborhood
13. Affinity Photo
14. LumaFusion
15. Alphablocks - Letter Fun
16. Affinity Designer
17. Messaging for Whatsapp Chat
18. Peppa Pig: Holiday
19. Toca Kitchen 2
20. PDF Expert 7: PDF Editor
—
iPad games – free:
1. Roblox
2. Magic Tiles 3: Piano Game
3. aquapark.io
4. Color Bump 3D
5. Paper.io 2
6. Fun Race 3D
7. Draw it
8. Coin Master
9. Matchington Mansion
10. Run Race 3D
11. Fortnite
12. Tiles Hop - EDM Rush
13. Helix Jump
14. Polysphere - art of puzzle
15. Crowd City
16. Stickman Hook
17. Kick the Buddy: Forever
18. Homescapes
19. Traffic Run!
20. Wordscapes
—
iPad games – paid:
1. Minecraft
2. Football Manager 2019 Mobile
3. Football Manager 2019 Touch
4. Plague Inc.
5. The Chase: Ultimate Edition
6. Geometry Dash
7. Rebel Inc.
8. The Room: Old Sins
9. Heads Up!
10. Tipping Point
11. Bloons TD 6
12. Tenable
13. Stardew Valley
14. Amazing Frog?
15. The Room
16. Smart Baby Shapes: Learning games for toddler kids
17. Terraria
18. Pocket Build
19. Kingdom Rush Vengeance
20. Five Nights at Freddy’s
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