Apple by App Store Awards 2022 Focuses on ‘Cultural Impact’ One of the biggest winners of this year’s Apple App Store Awards was BeReal, the new social media app that’s been going viral over the past few months.
Apple highlighted 16 apps and games for 2022 that offer “extraordinary experiences and [made] a profound cultural impact.” In its announcement, the tech giant said BeReal won iPhone App of the Year for giving people an authentic glimpse into the everyday lives of their friends and family.
First: apps
- BeReal allows users to share a selfie of themselves along with a picture of their environment during a two-minute window that the app randomly picks for them each day. However, the fact that other social media apps have introduced or are testing features similar to what they are doing is a clear testament to the “impact” they have had on the space. A reverse engineer found an experimental feature essentially identical to that of Instagram in August, while TikTok unveiled its own look in September.
- Another big winner, which took the title of Best iPad App of the Year to take digital note-taking “to the next level with best-in-class Apple Pencil support” is GoodNotes 5. One of the features of GoodNotes 5 that was the main booster for winning this award, is that users can Treat their iPad like any book or notebook with the app, as it allows them to make notes in the margins and highlight important text, among other things.
- MacFamilyTree 10 won Mac App of the Year for its ability to create virtually amazing family trees as it gives users the ability to collaborate with relatives all over the world
- Apple TV App of the Year won TelevisaUnivision ViX‘s Spanish-language streaming service.
- The fitness tracker, which received the Apple Watch App of the Year award, was named Gentler Streak.
Second: Games
- For the iPhone, Apex Legends Mobile has outperformed all other titles
- The winners of best games for iPad and Mac were puzzle game Moncage and card fighter Inscription, respectively.
- For Apple TV, The Wild West stealth game El Hijo won Best Game for its exceptional appearance on the big screen.
- Named the best Apple Arcade game, Wylde Flowers is a life simulation game that combines farming and magic.
- Finally, League of Legends Esports Manager won the first China Game of the Year award.
In addition to the main winners, Apple also highlighted five apps for impacting people’s lives and influencing culture. These apps include
- How We Feel, which encourages users to record their emotional well-being to help them articulate it better.
- Dot’s Home is a time travel story that highlights systemic housing injustices.
- Locket Widget helps forge connections between people by allowing users to send live pictures to the home screen of their friends and family.
- Waterllama helps rationalize and conserve water.
- Inua – A Story in Ice and Time, which takes users on an adventure rich in Inuit lore and tradition.
