Apple and Google Select AllTrails and Imprint over ChatGPT as ‘App of the Year’

Apple and Google have announced their best apps and games of the year for 2023. AllTrails, a hiking and biking companion, was named as Apple’s iPhone App of the Year, while the educational app Imprint: Learn Visually won as Google Play’s best app. Both companies chose Honkai: Star Rail as their Game of the Year. These year-end “best of” lists serve to gauge the status of the app marketplaces as well as the platforms’ celebrations and consumer preferences throughout the year.

Apple’s 2023 finalist apps include AllTrails, Duolingo, and Flighty for iPhone app of the year, which marks a departure from previous years. Notably, no AI app was chosen, despite the astounding success of ChatGPT. Another notable aspect is that Apple did not choose an AI app as part of its Cultural Impact winners. Generative AI was, however, recognized as the “Trend of the Year.” Google, on the other hand, highlighted “multi-device” apps and rewarded Spotify as the best multi-device app.

ChatGPT was the User’s Choice App of the Year in Google’s awards, and Monopoly Go! was named the User’s Choice Game of the Year. Google also recognized apps like Artifact, which was built by Instagram’s co-founders, and it created an AI category, which was won by Character AI — an app built by former Google researchers. Both companies also provided honorable mentions for apps that didn’t win their respective categories.

Overall, the awards represented the ever-evolving apps and games market, showcasing the creativity and innovation brought to life by developers. While Apple’s selections seemed to avoid the AI category, Google embraced it by recognizing various AI apps in different categories.