9 App Store Hidden Gems Showing Great Apps Still Matter in the AI Age

Apps may be having another moment — or perhaps they never really went away.

As the technology industry debates whether AI agents could eventually reduce people’s reliance on traditional apps, mobile app stores continue to attract creative new software. A growing collection of independent apps is offering everything from smarter bookmarking and local shopping to digital pen pals, entertainment tracking and fitness motivation.

AI-assisted coding may be helping fuel that growth by making software development faster and more accessible to people without traditional programming backgrounds. One report found that worldwide new app releases across Apple’s App Store and Google Play increased 60% year over year in the first quarter of 2026. New releases on Apple’s iOS App Store alone jumped 80%.

The boom has raised concerns that quickly produced, AI-assisted apps could overwhelm stores with low-quality software. But it has also lowered barriers for developers with genuinely useful or unusual ideas. Some of the most interesting new apps even use AI behind the scenes without making artificial intelligence the centrepiece of their marketing.

Here are nine apps showing that there is still plenty of room for distinctive software in the AI era.

Albo turns forgotten bookmarks into organised collections

Albo, previously known as Sortd, is designed for people who constantly save interesting posts and then struggle to find them again.

Instead of bookmarking content inside individual social platforms, users can share links from TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other websites directly with Albo. The app extracts information from the post, categorises it and stores the idea for later. Saved information remains accessible even if the original creator eventually removes the content.

Albo supports services including Pinterest, X, LinkedIn, Threads, Reddit and Facebook, along with Chrome and Safari. Screenshots can also be added.

That makes the app useful for organising travel inspiration, restaurants, recipes, books, movies, workouts and other discoveries. Collections can also be shared with friends.

The app comes from London-based studio The Feel Good Project. Albo is free, with additional functionality available through a subscription, although its subscription trial is promoted prominently during onboarding.

Albo is available on iOS and Android.

Coop creates a marketplace for neighbourhood sellers

Coop takes the farmers market concept and puts it into a mobile marketplace where people can discover handmade and homegrown products available nearby.

Users can find local growers, bakers and other sellers offering items ranging from fresh eggs and produce to homemade goods. The platform can also facilitate bartering between neighbours.

Customers can browse sellers, follow favourites, check their distance and purchase products through Stripe. Sellers receive orders through the platform and prepare them for pickup.

The concept gives small local producers another sales channel while helping consumers buy directly from people in their communities.

Coop is available on iOS and Android.

PI.FYI brings back a more human internet

PI.FYI, created by Perfectly Imperfect, takes inspiration from an earlier era of the internet when recommendations were more likely to come from friends and communities than personalised algorithms.

The colourful social app grew out of the Perfectly Imperfect newsletter and lets users document their interests, share recommendations and discover people with similar tastes.

Users can explore categories and“scenes” focused on subjects including music, literature, retro culture and whimsy. They can also read articles, create lists, collect local recommendations and play games with friends.

Its deliberately unpolished visual style reinforces the idea of creating a social experience that feels different from mainstream algorithm-driven platforms.

PI.FYI is available on iOS and Android.

Lettre gives digital communication a pen-pal twist

Lettre attempts to recreate some of the anticipation and personality of traditional letter writing without requiring stamps or trips to the mailbox.

The app connects users with potential pen pals around the world while also allowing them to exchange letters with people whose email addresses they already know.

Letters are currently delivered digitally through the app or email. However, the company has indicated in its FAQ that physical postal delivery could potentially be introduced in the future.

Lettre is currently available only on iOS.

Sofa Time helps users keep track of what they watch

Sofa Time is emerging as one option for viewers looking for a replacement for the recently discontinued TV Time app.

It provides a straightforward interface for tracking movies and television shows, maintaining watchlists, discovering new entertainment and receiving reminders when new episodes or releases arrive.

The app also includes community features. Users can comment and react using images or GIFs, while built-in translation tools make discussions more accessible across different languages.

Its social community remains smaller than the one TV Time developed, but the underlying features give it room to expand.

Sofa Time is available on iOS and Android.

ThingsBook wants to replace doomscrolling with personal collections

ThingsBook comes from the U.S. subsidiary of South Korean internet company Naver and offers a different interpretation of what a social platform can be.

Instead of encouraging users to scroll through algorithmic feeds endlessly, the app provides a place to document interests and experiences. People can journal, record ideas, and organise books, meals, trips, hobbies, and personal goals into structured collections.

Naver describes the concept as a way to build a lasting record of aperson’ss interests rather than focusing on short-lived online trends.

ThingsBook is available on iOS and Android.

Pressed Petals transforms flower photos into a digital botanical journal

Pressed Petals combines a mobile app with the feel of an interactive art project.

Created by designer Cynthia Chen, the app turns photos of flowers encountered during walks into digital pressed specimens resembling entries in a vintage botanical journal.

It records where and when a flower was found and identifies both its common and scientific names. The result turns an ordinary walk into a collectable nature experience and could also give families another way to encourage children to explore outdoors.

Users can press two flowers for free before paying a one-time $4.99 fee to unlock the complete experience.

Pressed Petals is available on iOS.

Moods Faster simplifies mood tracking

Moods Faster, developed by Nick Leith, demonstrates the appeal of software built to perform one specific task quickly.

The app lets users record moods in Apple Health with two taps: one to select the mood and another to save it.

People can record either how they feel at that moment or their overall mood for the day. Optional details can be added to describe emotions or circumstances surrounding an entry.

Users can also choose different visual schemes, although some customisation options require a paid subscription. Moods Faster costs $1.95 per month.

The app is available on iOS.

Activate Fitness turns exercise into screen time

Activate Fitness was initially designed to encourage children to exercise by allowing them to earn screen time through physical activity. The app has since expanded its concept to include adults and entire families.

For adults, the system can essentially turn distracting apps into a reward for completing fitness goals. Someone could, for example, require themselves to reach a daily step target before gaining access to social media.

The broader family approach also makes the system less focused on restricting children while allowing parents to participate in the same behaviour they are encouraging.

Activate Fitness is currently available on iOS.

AI may be changing apps rather than replacing them

The rapid development of AI agents has raised questions about whether users will eventually interact with online services through assistants instead of opening individual apps. But the latest wave of mobile software suggests the traditional app format remains a fertile place for experimentation.

AI coding tools may actually strengthen that ecosystem by allowing smaller teams and independent developers to turn ideas into working products more quickly. At the same time, AI can operate quietly inside apps to provide features such as organisation, identification, and personalisation without becoming the product itself.

The strongest examples are not necessarily trying to become all-purpose platforms. Instead, many solve narrow problems particularly well — whether that means remembering an interesting video, finding eggs from a nearby farm, identifying a flower or preventing a user from scrolling social media before getting some exercise.

If the surge in new releases continues, the challenge may not be whether apps survive the AI era. It may be finding the genuinely useful ones among an increasingly crowded field.