- Apple has announced the finalists for its App Store Awards 2024
- It highlights the best new apps for the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, and more
- For the first time, it also includes apps for the Apple Vision Pro
Yes, it’s that time of year again – no, we’re not talking about the Black Friday sales, but the end-of-year highlights lists that arrive for everything from Spotify Wrapped to Google TV. Today, it’s Apple‘s turn – with the tech giant revealing the finalists for its annual App Store Awards.
If you’re looking for a new app for your iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch, the App Store Awards is a handy breakdown of the new ones you may have missed. We now have shortlists for the potential winners across every Apple platform –including, for the first time, the Apple Vision Pro.
In this round-up, we’ve focused on the non-gaming nominees across all of Apple’s categories. We’ve also rounded up the apps included in Apple’s more nebulous ‘Cultural Impact’ award, which nevertheless highlights some interesting and more left-field apps.
iPhone apps of the year
1. Kino
The team behind the Halide camera app is a mainstay of the App Store Awards, having won the iPhone App of the Year in 2019 with Spectre – and now it’s been nominated again for the video app Kino.
Kino landed earlier this year with support for the iPhone 15 Pro’s Apple Log video format, which gives you much more flexibility when color-grading videos. But it’s not just for pros either, with handy features that help you pick the best settings to achieve a cinematic motion blur and more.
Apple praised the app for “turning everyday moments into cinematic masterpieces”, which is potentially going overboard. But Kino certainly has a strong shout for being one of the best video editing apps around for iPhone.
2. Runna
We’re happy to see Runna in Apple’s App Store Award finalists, because it’s a fine new option for planning and executing your running goals. Our Runna review praises its detailed stat breakdowns and also the audio prompts to help you understand your pacing.
The app first launched back in 2021, but the motivational tool has developed into a popular option for those who need a motivational coach for anything from a 5km to a marathon. Its layout is pretty, but that’s something beginners will appreciate – particularly when hitting ‘the wall’ after 200m.
3. Tripsy
Tripsy is another app that’s been around for a while (first launching in 2019), but it’s aging like a fine wine – particularly now that travel’s been back on the agenda for a couple of years.
The app is designed to lower your stress levels while traveling by rounding up your itinerary (including hotels, must-see spots, and more), giving you flight alerts, and storing your documents in one place.
More recently, Tripsy’s added support for weather conditions and a customizable dashboard – so if 2025 is going to be a big travel year for you, it’s worth checking out.
iPad apps of the year
4. Bluey: Let’s Play
Not content with making our guide to the best Disney Plus shows, the Australian animated TV series Bluey is also in Apple’s App Store Awards finalists for its iPad app.
Bluey is about a family of Blue Heeler dogs who are exploring the realities of everyday day life and is naturally aimed at young kids (even pre-school or toddler age). The app lets you explore the family home, make up stories, and rebuild the house as you see fit.
Apple praised the app for “delivering lovable characters and family-friendly fun” and it certainly seems to deliver on that.
5. Moises
We expected to see a lot of AI-powered tools in this year’s App Store Awards – and this music app fits that bill. The idea is pretty simple: Moises lets you separate a song into its various elements (or ‘stems’) and remove those parts so you can practice along.
For example, you can split a song into vocals, drums, bass, guitar, and more, and also adjust their speed or pitch to suit. Naturally, you need to pay for its more powerful features (subscriptions start at $5.99 / £4.99 / AU$9.99 a month), but there’s a free starter plan to give you a taste of its handy talents.
6. Procreate Dreams
Procreate has long been one of our favorite drawing apps, so we were very excited to try out its animation-themed Dreams sibling earlier this year – and it’s impressed Apple enough to make its shortlist for iPad app of the year.
We certainly fell for some of its charms, particularly the fact that it’s completely subscription-free and supports older iPads (running iPadOS 16.3 or later). We found it to be very intuitive for first-time animators too, particularly the Performance Mode which lets you animate your assets and effects in real-time.
That said, there were a few niggles and missing features when we first tried Procreate Dreams, so we’re looking forward to giving it another spin following its App Store Awards nomination.
Apple Watch apps of the year
7. LookUp
Not to be confused with the Visual Look Up feature on iPhones, which works a bit like Google Lens, this handy Apple Watch app is instead designed to improve your English vocabulary.
Powered by the Oxford English Dictionary, it includes ‘Word of the Day’ cards complete with illustrations. You can also tap cards to confirm pronunciations, etymology, and synonyms – which sounds ideal whether you’re an English learner or an improver.
8. Lumy
Lumy has been around for over a decade now, but it remains one of the best ways to track the location of the sun and moon on any date – making it ideal for planning a ‘golden hour’ photo shoot.
It isn’t just for photographers, with the seven-day weather info making it a useful ally for hikers and walkers. And Lumy’s clean design and Apple Watch complications make it particularly good on a smartwatch. If Photopills is a bit too much for you, Lumy looks like a fine alternative, particularly for Apple Watch fans.
9. Watch to 5K
This app has been a mainstay on our guide to the best Apple Watch apps, so we’re glad to see it given a nod in the App Store Awards 2024 – even if it’s far from new.
The appeal of Watch to 5K remains its simplicity – if you’re not quite ready to tackle an ultra-marathon, it’ll guide you through making a training plan that’ll push you towards finishing a 5km run in under 30 minutes.
You get all the usual metrics like pacing, calories burnt, and heart rate – and it integrates nicely with Apple Fitness, too.
App Store Awards – Best of the rest
An interesting inclusion in this year’s App Store Awards is a category for the Apple Vision Pro – and even though most of us won’t get to try those apps, it’s fascinating to see what Apple thinks is the current gold standard for its pricey headset.
Apple has praised the NBA app for “redefining the future of how users watch the sports they love”. If that future is to go fully mainstream then everyone will need to be wearing a mixed-reality headset, which seems quite far off – but the app’s courtside seats are certainly a novel experience.
Elsewhere on Vision Pro, Apple has highlighted the What If…? An Immersive Story “for inviting players into a new kind of Marvel experience”. We described the “part film, part game” app as “the most fun” we’ve had on the Vision Pro, so it certainly justifies its place – even if the competition is relatively thin.
The final non-gaming app that Apple has praised for the Vision Pro is JigSpace, which has been included for “empowering users to view 3D and augmented reality models with ease”. That’s a pretty niche one right there, so we’ll take Apple’s word for it.
And what about those Cultural Impact finalists? It seems sleep (or lack of it) has been a big theme of 2024, with two apps receiving mentions in that category. The Bear was praised “for turning bedtime into a calming, interactive experience”, while Apple gave BetterSleepthe nod for “helping users sleep – and feel – better”.
Outside of games, Apple has included DailyArtfor “inspiring curiosity about artistic masterpieces” and, slightly strangely, Pinterest for “inspiring new ideas and endless possibilities”. A suitable choice for this time of year is also Partiful, which Apple says has helped to simplify “social gatherings to foster connection and community”.
Lastly, Apple has included three apps that genuinely go beyond the usual remit of apps, including Do You Really Want to Know 2for “addressing misconceptions about HIV through an endearing interactive story”, Okofor “for making street-crossing safer and more accessible to all” and EF Hellofor “empowering language learners with AI-enhanced tools”.
Despite many apps in the list existing well before this year, we think it’s a pretty strong App Store Awards lineup. Here’s the full list of finalists, with Apple likely picking each category’s winner very soon.
App Store Awards – the full list of 45 apps and games
iPhone App of the Year
iPhone Game of the Year
iPad App of the Year
iPad Game of the Year
Apple Arcade Game of the Year
Mac App of the Year
Mac Game of the Year
Apple Watch App of the Year
Apple Vision Pro App of the Year
Apple Vision Pro Game of the Year
Apple TV App of the Year
Cultural Impact Finalists
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mark.wilson@futurenet.com (Mark Wilson)
