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These App Store hidden gems prove there’s still room for great software in the AI era Sarah Perez 11:16 AM PDT · July 28, 2026 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%.
While there's valid concern that vibe-coded apps in particular could be cluttering the App Store with lower-quality content, there are plenty of interesting apps worth exploring, and those that resonate with consumers will rise to the top. Many also use AI under the hood to perform their magic — they're just not promoted as being "AI-powered."
Below is our latest collection of App Store hidden gems , which we've added to our Home Screen. You can also visit TechCrunch's prior app round-ups, like our looks at next-generation social apps , Apple Watch , and iPad productivity tools , and apps for digitally decluttering your life.
Albo (previously Sortd , but not that Sortd) is an excellent tool for anyone who regularly bookmarks content from social media, then promptly forgets about it. With Albo, the idea is that you'll instead share the link to the TikTok, Instagram Reel, YouTube video, or other website to the app. Albo will then automatically pull the details from the post and categorize and save the idea for you. That post and its notes will remain available in Albo, even if the original content creator deletes their post or video at some point in the future.
The app works with a variety of social apps, including Pinterest, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Reddit, and Facebook, plus browsers like Chrome and Safari. You can also add screenshots to Albo.
This makes it easy to save any sort of online inspiration for easy access, whether that's travel ideas, local spots to try, movie or shows to watch, books to read, recipes to cook, or workouts to do. Your collections can also be shared with friends.
Albo hails from the London-based app studio The Feel Good Project, which focuses on tech that makes users feel inspired and satisfied instead of drained by doomscrolling.
The app is free to use with advanced features available via subscription. We didn't love how heavy-handed it was in pushing the trial subscription during onboarding, however.
The recent parasite outbreak in the U.S. has people thinking more carefully about where their food comes from. Buying from local growers and bakers may be the safer option — and better for the community — but not everyone has time to make it to the farmer's market over the weekend.
Coop 's app offers an alternative through its neighborhood marketplace, where you can buy real handmade and homegrown items from the people near you, even from the farmhouse down the road that offers fresh eggs, or a neighbor willing to barter their items for yours. The idea is to allow commerce to stay local, while helping people turn their own garden, field, or craft into an additional income stream.
On Coop, you can browse and discover nearby sellers, follow your favorites, see how far they are from you, and purchase from them via the app's Stripe integration. The seller then receives the order and prepares it for pickup.
A colorful and somewhat chaotic app, PI.FYI , promises to bring back the "old internet," where you found recommendations through a network of friends, not algorithms. Having emerged from a cult newsletter , the app has been around for a couple of years, but still feels fresh and modern and very much like the alternative to social media it aims become.
In PI.FYI, you can track what you're into, share your taste, and browse by category or "scenes," like music, whimsy, retro, and literature, to find your community, read interesting articles, make lists, gather local recommendations, and play games with friends. The app exudes a retro vibe itself, as if it were built when the internet was a little less polished, too.
OK, it might not be as fun as sharing a letter via pigeon post , but the app for pen pals, Lettre , also embraces the fun of snail mail in a digital format. This letter-writing app lets you start new friendships with pen pals around the world, discovered through the app, or with anyone whose email address you already know. Unfortunately, letters are sent digitally through the app or email for now, but the company's FAQ suggests it is considering a postal mail option for the future, which would be so much fun.
While not a brand-new app, Sofa Time is one of several that is picking up where the recently shuttered TV Time app left off. The app has an easy-to-use, uncluttered interface for tracking the movies and TV shows you're watching, organizing your watchlist, discovering what to stream next, and getting reminders about new releases.
While Sofa Time's commenting section doesn't yet rival TV Time's forums, the app's social elements leave room for the community to grow, as it supports the ability to react with a GIF or image alongside your text, and includes built-in translation features to support a global audience.
ThingsBook , a new writing-focused app from South Korean internet giant Naver's U.S. subsidiary , is hardly an indie effort, but it's an interesting premise for what the future of social media could look like. Instead of doomscrolling, ThingsBook offers a flexible space where you can capture what you care about, whether that's through jou...
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