FaceApp Went Viral – How This Can Impact Your ASO

FaceApp, an app that applies filters to photos to make people look older went viral in July. The app was launched back in 2017, but in just a few days, it became the most searched for app in the US and many other countries. Despite privacy concerns, the app has been downloaded more than 27 million times across both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, since July 17th. Read on to learn more about FaceApp and how you can take advantage of viral apps for your ASO.

Most popular app in the Top Charts

FaceApp, a photo filter app went viral – and fast! It took the app only 4 days to go from position #1381 to #1 in the top charts on the Apple App Store. For the Google Play Store it took FaceApp 5 days to go from ‘unranked’ to #1. Today, FaceApp is listed in the ‘top free apps’ in more than 155 countries.

FaceApp is ranking #1 in the top charts in both the Apple App Store and Google Play store. Source: apptweak.com

FaceApp is the most searched for app in the Apple App Store

In just a few days, FaceApp is the most searched for app in major countries like the US, UK, and France. FaceApp is now more popular in the app stores than Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat, Youtube, and Tinder.

Read more about Apple’s Search Popularity or AppTweak’s Volume metric.

FaceApp went viral in just a few days and managed to get more searches than all-time popular apps like Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Youtube, Tinder and WhatsApp. Source: apptweak.com

The Search Popularity increased fast! In only 4 days the Search Popularity climbed from on average 55 to 98 or more.

Mid-July FaceApp went viral. In just a few days the Search Popularity of ‘Faceapp’ increased from on average 55 to 98 or more in the US, UK, and France. Source: apptweak.com

FaceApp has been downloaded more than 27 million times

Since July 12th, FaceApp has been downloaded more than 27 million times across both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. AppTweak estimates the app has been downloaded over 11 million times on Apple devices and 16.6 million times on Android devices.

Since July 12th, FaceApp has been downloaded more than 27 million times across both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store

The countries with the most downloads on the Apple App Store are:

• United States: 5.6 million
• China: 889,000
• United Kingdom: 415,000
• Russia: 345,000
• Brazil: 294,000

The countries with the most downloads on Google Play are:

• India: 4.46 million
• Brazil: 957,000
• Philippines: 942,000
• Turkey: 850,000
• Indonesia: 830,000

Learn more about AppTweak’s Download Estimates Feature.

How to take advantage of viral apps for ASO

Mobile marketers can take advantage of the exposure these viral apps generate. Specifically for the case of FaceApp we see that related keywords started trending as well. Search Popularity for keywords such as ‘old face’ or ‘old age app’ doubled in just a few days, giving lots of exposure to competitor apps that rank for these keywords.

Not only the branded keyword ‘FaceApp’ gained a lot of Search Popularity, but also related keywords such as ‘old face’ or ‘old age app’ became popular searches in the last few days. Source: apptweak.com

Interestingly FaceApp does not rank very high on most of these general keywords. It looks like FaceApp did not spend much time optimizing its app for ASO (the iOS app does not have a subtitle and the Android app lacks keywords in the title and short description), leaving lots of opportunities for competitors!

FaceApp does not rank very high for general keywords, leaving room for competitor apps to steal away downloads.

Aging Booth, for example, benefited from the buzz generated around FaceApp. Aging booth ranks #1 on the keyword “old face” and “old age app”. As the Search Popularity for these keywords doubled in just a few days, downloads for Aging Booth soared. In June Aging Booth iOS app received an estimated 1,600 downloads on average. On July 16th, Aging Booth generated a total of 198,106 downloads in one day on the Apple App Store! That is an increase in downloads of 12000% in just a few days.

As a result, Aging Booth category rankings jumped, from #170 to #1, giving the app even more exposure in the top charts.

Aging Booth’s downloads soared a few days after FaceApp went viral. As a result, Aging Booth’s category ranking jumped to #1 on the Apple App Store in just a few days.

Not surprisingly, FaceApp got also featured in the Apple App Store. On July 17th, Faceapp was featured in the Middle East in the Daily List ‘Take a Perfect Selfie, Photo & Video’. This featuring helped to provide extra visibility to the other apps listed: Fabby, Bestie-Portrait Selfie Editor and YouCam Makeup.

FaceApp got featured on the Apple App Store in the Middle East on July 17th, providing visibility to the other apps listed in the Daily List.

Other apps take advantage of the popularity of FaceApp by running ads on the keyword “faceapp” or “face app”. Today a total of 36 apps are bidding on the keyword “Faceapp” in the United States. Most apps bidding on these keywords are photo editing or other photo filter apps. But the app with the highest Share of Voice on this keyword is Sephora. It is however a question of whether or not Sephora is actively targeting this keyword or if Apple is showing a Sephora ad as a result of a broad match with the keyword “face”.

A total of 36 apps are bidding on the keyword “FaceApp” in the US Apple App Store.

Monitoring viral apps proves to be a very important part of your ASO routine. By increasing your rankings on trending searches you can increase your downloads exponentially! You can use AppTweak to spot trending searches and spy on viral apps.