AI finds its way into Apple's top apps of the year | TechCrunch

"Apple on Thursday shared its annual list of App Store Award winners, continuing its tradition of celebrating the best apps and games of the past year. For 2025, the winning iPhone app was visual planner Tiimo, and the iPhone game of the year was the card game Pokémon TCG Pocket. Although Apple has continued to avoid naming a dedicated AI app or AI chatbot as its app of the year, AI was showcased among this year's winners."

"Apple's app of the year, Tiimo, for instance, is described as a visual AI planner that turns to-dos into plans with visual timelines. The app uses AI to break down your tasks into a realistic schedule by estimating how long each step of a task could take and helping you to create a plan. Meanwhile, the iPad app of the year, Detail, simplifies video editing with an "Auto Edit" AI feature that handles things like silence removal, zoom cuts, and adding titles and captions."

"A Cultural Impact winner, StoryGraph, uses a machine learning AI to make book recommendations based on your reading data, while another, Be My Eyes, offers an AI assistant that provides visual descriptions of real-world images for blind and low-vision users. And the Apple Watch app of the year, Strava, includes an AI assistant that turns workout data into insights. The company also announced winners for the iPad, Mac, Vision Pro, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and a standout within its own game subscription service, Apple Arcade."

Apple named Tiimo as iPhone App of the Year and Pokémon TCG Pocket as iPhone Game of the Year for 2025. Tiimo uses visual AI to convert to-dos into plans with timelines and duration estimates. The iPad winner, Detail, offers an Auto Edit AI that removes silence, adds zoom cuts, titles, and captions. Cultural Impact winners include StoryGraph, which uses machine learning for book recommendations, and Be My Eyes, which provides AI visual descriptions for blind and low-vision users. Strava on Apple Watch adds an AI assistant that turns workout data into insights. Winners span multiple Apple platforms and services.

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