Business Apps in the US: iOS vs. Android, August 2026

We’ve fetched data from the US App Store and Google Play to see what professionals, shoppers, and businesses are actually installing, and why the market leaders are winning right now. Check out the report data below to find results by category and 8 takeaways that will help you sharpen your app marketing strategy by October. 

Category Totals: Google Play vs. App Store

The categories come directly from Google Play and the App Store. The 30-app limit is a tracked sample, not the total number of apps in a category. Important note: the same app can sit in different categories per platform. 

Two things jump out: iOS users install more of these apps than Android users across every business-relevant category, and they spend far more — Business and Productivity revenue on iOS is roughly 10x Android.

Who Leads on Each Platform (+ Combined Results) 

• ChatGPT leads Productivity on both stores, with around 630K estimated Google Play installs and 2.4M on the App Store. Its combined total of roughly 3.03M makes it the strongest cross-platform leader in the dataset.

• Shopping shows the biggest install volumes. Temu leads Google Play with 3.6M installs, while Vinted takes the App Store with 5.1M. Combined, Vinted reaches approximately 7.3M installs, narrowly ahead of Temu at 6.6M.

Business: Top 5 by Platform

Main insight: Indeed is an undoubted winner in the category, but the results gap with Microsoft Teams is much smaller on the App Store compared to Google Play positions. 

Finance: Top 5 by Platform

Main insight: Capital One, not Cash App, is the true cross-platform finance leader once iOS is counted.

Productivity / AI: Top 5 by Platform

Main insight: Combined across both stores, Claude overtakes Gemini and Meta AI for the #2 productivity/AI spot behind ChatGPT. 

Shopping: Top 5 by Platform

Main insight: Resale apps (Vinted, Depop, Whatnot) dominate iOS shopping installs far more than they do on Android. This insight is worth knowing if your paid user acquisition budget is split evenly across platforms by default.

What the Leaders Did in July-August 

Lessons Learned: Top 8 Tactics to Adopt

1. Release updates at regular intervals, rather than all at once. OpenAI pushed updates to ChatGPT almost weekly through July and August with new models, new tiers, new integrations. Constant, incremental releases reliably keep you in "what's new" feeds.

2. Turn your own usage data into a retention feature. Anthropic's "Reflect" doesn't add new capability but rather shows users how dependent they already are on Claude. If your product has usage data sitting unused, packaging it back to the user is often cheaper than building net-new functionality, and it works just as hard on retention. 

3. Go where the workflow already lives. Grok didn't compete with others and didn’t ask users to switch tools. They shipped straight into Outlook, Excel, and Google Workspace. This is the fastest path into a busy professional's routine. Not creating a new app icon but a plug-in to the one they already open ten times a day.

4. A $25 stunt can out-earn a media buy. Sometimes an unusual little idea can do more for a brand than a very serious ad campaign. Cash App’s tap-to-pay wand was cheap to make but kept people talking all summer.

5. Let the press do the install-driving for you. Vinted didn't just expand into the US; its CEO gave interviews to CNBC and Bloomberg framing it as a "fundamental shift" in consumer behavior as an expert on sustainable shopping. Free media coverage did the rest. 

6. Always-on spend wins the chart, but cutting corners on it becomes the story. Temu kept its install lead through sustained, aggressive ad spend, but Fortune's reporting on its reliance on inauthentic "creator" accounts shows the true risk. Growth built on shortcuts eventually becomes the scandalous headline, not the growth success story. 

7. Link the AI features to metrics that managers are already tracking. Indeed did not promote “AI-powered hiring” in an abstract sense, but instead cited specific figures: a 20% reduction in recruitment time and 31 hires per minute. AI in the B2B segment sells best when it is presented in the context of metrics that the buyer is already tracking.

8. A win on one platform isn't a win overall. Cash App leads installs on Android but loses the combined lead to Capital One once iOS is counted; Temu tops Android shopping, but Vinted wins overall. It’s necessary to assess the whole picture to know your real market position. 

Don’t Wait — Get Results