The Top 10 Most Impactful Apps of the Decade

In today's world, almost everyone in developed countries owns a smartphone with internet access, making mobile apps more essential than ever. Each year, millions of apps are downloaded, but not every app on your device carries the same level of significance when you stop to think about it.

Some apps serve a purpose once and are quickly forgotten. Others, however, have reshaped how we communicate and connect with each other. It's these transformative apps that truly matter in our lives. The following ten apps, released between 2010 and 2019, are the most significant, listed in no particular order.

10. Uber

By the close of 2019, Uber had expanded to 785 metropolitan areas around the world, operating in 63 countries. Despite its success and market influence, Uber and similar ridesharing services have faced criticism. They’ve been accused of underpaying drivers, causing major disruptions to the traditional taxi industry, and contributing to increased traffic by adding more vehicles to the roads.

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9. Instagram

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8. Tinder

Tinder operates with a simple concept: create a profile and swipe left if you're not interested in someone, or right if you are. If both individuals swipe right on each other, they can connect through the app. While some criticize Tinder for fostering a more prominent “hook-up” culture, measuring such claims is tricky. What’s easier to measure is the billion+ swipes the app generates every day. Above are the two most right-swiped individuals on Tinder in the UK.

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7. Snapchat

Snapchat’s success with its “story” feature pushed other platforms to follow suit. Despite offering the option to remove viewed content shortly after it’s been seen, more and more users have embraced it as a popular image-sharing tool. By limiting how long videos and photos stay on the platform, Snapchat has been able to expand its massive user base without needing to invest heavily in costly storage solutions. This has allowed the company to grow faster than many other tech companies with similar features.

6. Pokémon Go

Since its debut in 2016, Pokémon Go has been downloaded over a billion times. While the game is free to play, players can make in-app purchases for upgrades and tools to assist in their quest to “catch ‘em all.” By early 2019, the game had earned over $3 billion, a remarkable sum for a free app. The game’s greatest impact has been cultural, bridging the gap between casual and hardcore gamers around the world. By March 2019, players had collectively walked 23,000,000,000 kilometers—equivalent to walking from Earth to Pluto and back three times.

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5. Candy Crush Saga

Since its launch, Candy Crush has been downloaded over 2.7 billion times. In 2018, players spent an average of $4.2 million per day, and by early 2019, the game had accumulated an estimated $1.5 billion in total revenue. The game's success caught the attention of Blizzard, who acquired its developer, King, for $5.9 billion. Beyond the money, Candy Crush has had a notable cultural influence, inspiring multiple spin-off games, a television game show, and countless references in popular culture.

4. Apple Pay

By leveraging the power of smartphones, Apple created a payment system that can be secured through passwords, fingerprints, or even facial recognition. This futuristic technology, once envisioned in science fiction, has finally become a reality. It has also expanded to work with smartwatches. The influence of Apple Pay, Google Pay, and similar apps is now evident wherever credit cards are accepted, enabling nearly universal digital payments across the globe.

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3. FaceTime

2. Siri

After Siri became a huge hit with Apple users, other tech giants jumped into the digital assistant market. Google, Samsung, and many others developed their own assistants, but it’s Siri, the first to market, that still leads the pack. Siri made history when she voiced the character ‘Puter in the 2017 film The Lego Batman Movie, something no app had done before.

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1. Vine

Vine lasted until 2017 before it was discontinued. Initially, its impact seemed small, but it paved the way for a new generation of apps, notably TikTok, a Chinese platform that adopted a similar model of short-form videos, ranging from three to 60 seconds. Like Vine, TikTok skyrocketed in popularity and currently boasts over 500 million monthly active users across China and globally. Both Vine and TikTok had a significant cultural influence, especially among younger audiences aged 16 to 24, with a predominance of female users.

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