A Third of 2019’s Top New Apps Were Sidekicks to Instagram and TikTok

The popularity of TikTok, demonstrated by the nearly two billion installs it has amassed to date, is leading to the rise of new apps that complement the short video sharing standout and other social media favorites. Sensor Tower Store Intelligence data reveals that, of the 480 million installs generated by 2019’s top 20 new apps, nearly 38 percent were of video/photo editors and sticker apps positioned as enhancements for the likes of TikTok and Instagram.

Not only are such apps gaining popularity, but one, video editor MV Master, topped the ranking of most downloaded new apps released in 2019. The 61 million installs it generated globally accounted for 12.8 percent of all downloads for the top 20 new apps of last year.

Altogether, six of these social “sidekick” apps made it into the top 20, comprising one-third of the overall list. Ranked No. 3 was Jianying Vlog, a video editor from TikTok developer ByteDance, followed by sticker app Sticker.ly at No. 5 and photo editor PickU at No. 9.

VStatus and MBit Music—both of which facilitate the creation of stories for Instagram and video statuses for WhatsApp—rounded out the “sidekick” apps in the top 20, at No. 11 and No. 20, respectively.

The six apps combined for 180.2 million total installs. While the top 20 new apps of 2018 included five offerings complementary to existing social apps, their combined installs accounted for just 18.8 percent of the overall list’s downloads.

What’s Trending?

As social apps with strong content-sharing aspects continue to dominate the most-downloaded apps charts, we’re seeing the popularity of complementary apps grow alongside them. This trend has continued into 2020; photo filter app Beauty Collage Lite has already garnered 1.8 million downloads since its February release, placing it among the top 20 most downloaded new apps of the year so far.

Utilities that augment other apps’ experiences are a novel idea in the mobile world, and developing them is proving to be a successful strategy for app makers thus far. With standout examples continually reaching the upper tiers of daily app store download charts around the world, we expect this trend to continue into the foreseeable future.