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The YouTube Android app has more installs than there are people alive on Earth
It's only the second app to ever reach the 10 billion mark
Wow, y'all really like to watch videos on YouTube. Google's Android video player app, which was first publicly available way back on the 1.0 launch version of the very first Android phone, has now been downloaded from the Play Store over ten billion times. Quite a lot of that figure has to be from before it was even the Play Store.
Spotify hits a billion Android installations, doubling in just two years
The music platform is leaving its competition in the dust
Spotify wants to be your first, last, and only destination for all things audio. And based on the amount of people using it on Android, it's certainly getting there. Yesterday the app passed the notable 1 billion download mark on the Play Store. Now that Google Play Music has been axed (rest in peace), Spotify is the most downloaded music app on the platform. Notably, Spotify rapidly climbed from the 500 million mark to a billion in just over two years.
Netflix hits one billion installs on the Play Store
It does come pre-installed on many devices, though
With everyone holed up at home, Netflix has probably been getting a little more usage than usual. Those extra few downloads could have just tipped the app over one billion downloads on the Play Store, which is no small feat even for an app that comes pre-installed on some devices.
Snapchat's fortunes may be turning around. Okay, so the glasses idea was a bust, and the company's stock has spent the last year below even the IPO price, but we millenials are really into making ourselves look like terrifying dog-human chimeras, for some reason, and we've driven the app to over a billion installs on the Play Store. (Though the platform's ubiquitous use among adult models may also explain the rising popularity.)
This five billion figure is tempered by the fact that Chrome comes pre-installed on Android devices running Google Play services, but it's a feat worth noting nonetheless. Chrome has been picking up some interesting new features recently, like a password generator, better file sharing, and since its 2019, a dark theme.
Hitting a billion installs on the Play Store is so passé — over thirty apps have now reached that milestone. Hitting 5 billion installs, on the other hand, puts you in an elite group with YouTube, Maps, and Search — and Gmail just made the cut.
Over the weekend, the Google Maps app reached 5 billion downloads on the Play Store and we celebrated that momentous occasion with virtual champagne and confetti — well, just a short post really. However, our eyebrows were a little raised when we noticed that the Google app still hadn't made it to that coveted number, but now they're dropping as it has just caught up.
Being physically lost is apparently a much bigger incentive for app usage than being at a loss from an information perspective. The Google Maps app has just hit over 5 billion downloads on the Play Store, beating Google's own search app to the punch. The latter still hasn't reached that coveted number, but we all know it's a matter of time.
Back in May of 2016, Google announced two new messaging apps: Allo and Duo. The former, as you probably know, is being killed off in about three months. Duo, however, is still alive and kicking, as it's a pretty good video calling app. It just hit a whopping one billion downloads on the Play Store, which is no small feat.
Have you heard about this website, Facebook? The social network is crazy popular, boasting more than two billion users — that's more than a quarter of the planet's population. As a testament to its wild popularity, the lite version of Facebook, appropriately named Facebook Lite, now has more than one billion installs on the Play Store.
YouTube has been streaming video since before some of our younger readers were born. Since its launch in 2005, it's become mind-bogglingly popular. It also comes pre-loaded on every Android phone with access to Google Play, which has led to a significant milestone in the app's history: YouTube has now seen more than five billion installations on Android.
With their fingerprint sensors, iris scanners, and facial recognition tech, Samsung phones feature more methods of biometric authentication than most, if not all, of their competitors. However, the Korean company is now being sued by a US-based "data security firm," PACid Technologies, for infringing on two US patents and one Korean patent with its biometric features.
People are downloading more apps than ever. According to App Annie, the Google Play Store saw over 19 billion downloads in Q4 2017, with year-over-year growth at 10%. That's around 145% more than the Apple App Store, which garnered around 7.7 billion downloads. That being said, the App Store still blew the Play Store away in terms of revenue.
Sure, Verizon's running those ads that tells you how obvious it is their network is best, but AT&T wants you to know it's not sleeping on the job. Today, the carrier announced that it plans to have LTE coverage for 300 million people by the end of 2014. For those counting, that leaves only about 10 million out in the entire country.
Following up on last week's editorial, I decided it may be interesting to take a look at the other side of the story – that is, what effect has Google's 10 Billion App promotion had on the developers who were invited to participate?
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and the awesome 10 Billion Apps promo, sadly, reached its final day. I wish it could go on forever and become a regular thing, at least with one app a day - how about it, Google?
The fun is, sadly, almost over - welcome to day nine of the 10 Billion Apps promo. Today, we have 10 new apps/games and only 1 repeat. Here they are:
Day eight of the 10 Billion Apps promo is upon us, and today we have only 5 6 7 (thanks, Hugo, rampagedeluxe) new apps compared to 8-10 that we've been seeing until now. Looks like Google is really running out of options, but alas - here they are: