Apple says these are the very best apps of 2020

Apple announces the best apps of the year every year about this time, and this year’s selection has a focus on making life easier and helping people keep connected during these difficult times. The company has also created a brand new exclusive product as a prize.

The very best apps of 2020

The App Store Best of 2020 winners recognise apps that are relevant, high quality, creative, usable and innovative – and that deliver what the company terms “positive cultural impact, helpfulness, and importance.”

What Apple said

Apple Fellow, Phil Schiller, took the boilerplate on this release:

“This year, more than ever before, some of our most creative and connected moments happened in apps. This was thanks to the amazing work of developers who introduced fresh, helpful app experiences throughout the year,” he said.

“Around the world, we saw remarkable efforts from so many developers, and these Best of 2020 winners are 15 outstanding examples of that innovation. From helping us stay fit and mindful, to keeping our children’s education on track, to helping fight hunger, their impact was meaningful to so many of us.”

From exercise to fantasy

Apple noted a few apps in particular:

“The independent developer of Wakeout! brought gentle exercise to home offices and classrooms with light-hearted and inclusive movements designed for everyone. Vast fantasy worlds in games like “Genshin Impact,” “Legends of Runeterra,” “Disco Elysium,” “Dandara Trials of Fear,” and Apple Arcade’s “Sneaky Sasquatch” delivered a great escape, while Disney+ offered a sense of unlimited possibility that many craved.

“Whether it was to facilitate distance learning through Zoom, create daily routines with Fantastical or lull us to sleep with Endel, the App Store Best of 2020 winners helped us live our best lives at home.”

So, without further ado, here are the best apps of 2020, according to Apple:

The best apps of the year 2020 are:

iPhone App of the Year:

Wakeout!, developed by Andres Canella.

iPad App of the Year:

Zoom.

Mac App of the Year:

Fantastical, developed by Flexibits.

Apple TV App of the Year:

Disney+.

Apple Watch App of the Year:

Endel.

The best games of 2020 are:

iPhone Game of the Year:

“Genshin Impact,” from miHoYo.

iPad Game of the Year:

“Legends of Runeterra,” from Riot Games.

Mac Game of the Year:

“Disco Elysium,” from ZA/UM.

Apple TV Game of the Year:

“Dandara Trials of Fear,” from Raw Fury.

Apple Arcade Game of the Year:

“Sneaky Sasquatch,” from RAC7.

What are the app trends in 2020?

Apple took a moment to explain some of the trends in app design in 2020

“Apps are a reflection of culture, and in 2020, developers overwhelmingly led a trend towards helpfulness,” the company said. “Around the world, app developers channeled their creative energy into helping users stay healthy, educated, connected, and entertained.”

• To help users get the daily self-care they needed, and to emphasise Black well-being, Shine launched a section specifically dedicated to the intersectionality of mental health and Black lives.
• For teachers and students needing to reinvent the classroom experience, Explain Everything Whiteboard offered a cloud-based collaboration tool so groups of students could continue to work on projects together, even remotely.
• For families seeking to connect with loved ones, Caribu added dozens of interactive games and more than a hundred books to its real-time video-calling platform.
• “Pokémon GO” reinvented their popular outdoor gameplay with at-home experiences.
• The United Nations World Food Programme’s ShareTheMeal app made it easy for users to make a difference in the lives of others, with more than 87 million meals shared to date.

Digital experiences win a real world award

To commemorate these 15 apps, Apple designers brought meticulous craftsmanship to create the first-ever physical App Store Best of 2020 award.

Inspired by the signature blue App Store icon, each award reveals the App Store logo set into 100 percent recycled aluminium, with the name of the winner engraved on the other side.

These will be highly coveted, I imagine — and will one day command high prices on the collector’s market, I suppose.

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