What are the Popular Types and Categories of Mobile Apps?

by Judi T. Web and application developer

Today is the age of mobile phones and different types of mobile apps installed on them. People do so many of their daily tasks using these mobile apps therefore these mobile apps have become an integral part of our daily lives. In the market you can find all kinds of mobile apps. Now so many new businesses who never thought of using mobile apps are building the one for their businesses.

This is due to the reason that while some businesses want to go for App Development and want to remain updated with latest market trend while some are just meeting customer demand for an app which makes their everyday lives bit more easier. These apps fall into so many different categories and varieties of apps. As of today, there are 32 categories of apps in Google Play and 24 in the App Store. But for the starters there are mainly 6 major categories of apps which you need to understand before you begin developing your mobile app. Finding in which categories your mobile app idea fits is an important step towards making your idea a success.

In this article, we will tell you about the 6 major types of mobile app to help you determine in which category your mobile app belongs.

The 6 main types of Mobile Apps in App Store are:-

Lifestyle Mobile Apps :
In recent years we have seen lots of mobile apps getting developed in this category. A lifestyle app is one which supports some aspect of your lifestyle. By this I mean those types of mobile apps which are related to either of these:-

Fitness

Dating

Music

Travel

Food

The good thing about these apps is that once they are part of a user’s lifestyle they remain there for a long time. These are the apps which people use on a daily basis i.e. to help them find their next favorite song, restaurant or destination to travel. They are the apps which help them find what they like and dislike and where they are heading next.

If you have hired an App Developer and are developing a lifestyle app then you need to do something to attract your users. Something that your competitors don’t do and something your users just can’t live without.

Some popular examples of lifestyle apps are given below:-

Spotify
Tripadvisor
Uber

Social Media Mobile Apps :
In today’s time social media apps are the most popular types of mobile apps. We build our social networks and most of us use them on everyday basis. For example, Facebook alone reports over 1 billion active daily users. Social media apps should be fun to use, fast, continually expanding its features of the social networks they support.

Nowadays people shares lot more of their day-to-day lives than ever before. That’s why even other kinds of apps which don’t fall under the social media category too want to include social sharing functionality to become more popular and success.
For example, take a popular running and cycling app, Strava. It tracks your activities and also allows you to compare your stats with other people in your network. That means you can form an online running partnership or even a whole team without need to meet face to face.

There are many other apps for which businesses Hire Mobile Developer to build the app which allow you to share a product, high score or news with your social network. They try to make it easy for their users to share something which they feel exciting about without having to leave the app. Hence you too can add social sharing features to your app if you are providing a service which users can share with their networks. This functionality will motivate your users to keep coming back to share again and again with their networks.

Some of the popular social media apps are:-

Facebook
Snapchat
Instagram
Pinterest

Utility Mobile Apps
Utilities apps are those types of mobile apps which we use most often and most of them come pre-installed on your device and serve a single function or utility.
Some common types of mobile apps in the utility category are:-

Reminders
Calculator
Weather
Flashlight

We tend to use these mobile apps more often but for a shorter period of time. You will generally be required to open your calculator app to solve an equation and then you will close it.
You should do your best to increase the frequency of your utility app if you want to successfully monetize it. Although short visits are not so much profitable but they add up to significant revenue generation.

Gaming Mobile Apps
The gaming category is very large and also very competitive. Games are one of the most popular mobile app categories and need no explanation. These types of apps are popular among developers because they bring users back multiple times each week, sometimes multiple times per day even.
Also thing to be noted is that in the most successful games, both the frequency and length of play is high. Developers work to make their game as addictive as possible by offering users incentives whenever they come back every day or after each few days.
Some of the popular gaming apps are:-

Subway Surfer
Temple Run
Angry Birds
Clash of Clans etc.

News Mobile Apps
News and information apps are also very popular. They provide their users with the news and information which they are looking for in an easy to understand layout which efficiently navigates them to the things they care about most.
Some of the examples of different types of popular news apps are:-

Google News and Weather
Yahoo New Digest
Buzzfeed
Smartnews
Feedly
Flipboard
Linkedin Pulse
Reddit etc.

These above are the most popular names in news and they all provide something different. If you are developing a news app then you will need to find a unique way to communicate with your users because, the news will all be the same, you can at the most present it in different way.

Hence your opportunity to success is in the way you deliver it. You have to create something unique and give it into the type of news you will be reporting on to give it in such a way which your users like the most.

Productivity Mobile Apps
Productivity is also one of the most popular category of apps. These types of apps help the users accomplish a task quickly and efficiently, making the tasks easier and a fun.
Some of the examples of productivity apps are many of the products from both Google and Apple, like:-

Docs
Sheets
Waller/Pay

Also apps like:-

Evernote
Wunderlist

These types of apps are highly useful if they are used in a right way. They help users to accomplish a task more easily, quickly and efficiently than your competitors. Hence you can too become little more creative and create an app which do the things nobody else is doing right now.

Conclusion
We have just discussed about the major categories of mobile apps in the market. This list will help you to find out the category in which your app fits well and how you can make your app to stand out among the crowd. I assume you are just about to start the development process of your app. If you yourself are unable to develop the app but you have the idea, then you can contact any experienced mobile app developer to build an app for you. It should also serve your purpose well.