Gain Advanced App Store Insights with New AppDNA AI Taxonomy

AppTweak is proud to launch AppDNA & GameDNA, an AI taxonomy that paints a more precise and comprehensive picture of the app competitive landscape. Read on to learn how AppDNA fuels key app store features and insights that nurture a data-driven ASO strategy.

Learn more about AI features on AppTweak

The challenge of typical app store categories

Each year, hundreds of thousands of apps and games are added to the App Store and Google Play. Developers classify these apps according to a limited number of around 30 store categories, allowing users to browse these categories to find new, similar apps they might also enjoy.

Let’s say you’ve developed a ride-hailing app. On the App Store, your app would fall under the “Travel” category; on Google Play, your app’s category would similarly be “Travel & Local.”

The above example is pretty straightforward. But for some developers, varying categorizations on the App Store vs. Google Play can pose challenges. For example, the popular dating app Tinder is able to categorize itself as a “Dating” app on Google Play, but does not have this possibility on the App Store. Instead, Tinder on iOS has to choose the primary category “Lifestyle” and perhaps a secondary category “Social Networking.”

Top 5 free apps in the Dating (Google Play) and Lifestyle (App Store) categories – Tinder’s primary categories on both stores. Notice the increased variation within the “Lifestyle” category on iOS. Source: AppTweak Top Charts, November 2022

Although the Lifestyle and Social Networking categories are somewhat relevant to Tinder, these categorizations remain too broad for Tinder to effectively compare its performance to other top dating apps on the stores. It becomes difficult to accurately benchmark its top KPIs (downloads, uninstalls, etc) against those of similar competitors, discover relevant threats and opportunities in its specific market, or understand how well it responds to user needs and expectations compared to its competitors.

Apps have therefore needed to rely on manual approaches to uncover competitors serving similar purposes or understand the relevant keywords that will magnify their visibility opportunities on the stores – until now. Introducing AppDNA, powered by Atlas.

Discover GameDNA, our new mobile gaming taxonomy

AppDNA AI: More accurately define an app’s core identity

To combat these challenges, AppTweak is excited to release its AppDNA taxonomy powered by Atlas, our in-house AI. AppDNA provides a more in-depth view of the app competitive landscape, grouping apps into over 200 detailed and relevant DNA types.

An app’s DNA is a more precise categorization defined by its core identity. Comparing apps with the same AppDNA will allow you to better identify relevant competitors, understand more relevant market trends, and derive key insights that can nurture your ASO strategy.

Learn more about Atlas, our app store semantic engine.

Difference between AppDNA and app store categories

While each app store groups apps into around 30 categories, we have been able to identify over 200 AppDNA types that more accurately describe an app’s core purpose. More specifically, there are 3 major differences between our AppDNAs and store-given categories:

• An app will only have one AppDNA type,
• Its AppDNA will not differ from store to store,
• And an app’s DNA is constant through time, as long as the app’s core identity doesn’t change.

Using our previous example, we are therefore able to identify that Tinder actually has the AppDNA “Dating.”

Another example can be seen in the iOS Health & Fitness category, where the top 5 grossing apps fulfill very different purposes:

The varying DNAs of the top 5 grossing apps, all grouped within the “Health & Fitness” category on the US App Store. Source: AppTweak Top Charts, November 2022

Thanks to our AppDNA, we can now more accurately understand the core identities of the top health & fitness apps, with DNAs pertaining to “Meditation,” “Weight loss,” “Women’s health,” and more. As a result, we can now compare apps to more relevant groupings, providing a multitude of opportunities to gain useful app store insights for an enhanced ASO strategy.

Enhance your ASO strategy with AppTweak’s AppDNA

We’ve worked hard to take our AppDNA taxonomy a step further than its advanced data science, also developing practical features that will help to fuel your ASO strategy on AppTweak.

First, all AppTweak users will be able to easily identify an app’s DNA from the app header, just below the app name. This is available for any app (or game) that is available in the US, and that has enough available public information for us to understand its core identity. In cases where at least one of these criteria is not satisfied, we will label the AppDNA as unavailable.

Though the AppDNA is only computed for apps in the US, you may still see this information for apps in other countries, if the app is already available in our database. For instance, having already computed this information for the US, we are able to indicate that the AppDNA of Facebook in any country is “Social Networks & Communities.”

AppDNA for Facebook in India, computed thanks to the availability of Facebook in the US

Hovering over the AppDNA in the app header will also show a description of that specific DNA type, providing more information about that specific label. You can then click the link “Explore all AppDNA types” to open an interactive graphic and deep dive into our entire taxonomy hierarchy.

And to take their ASO analyses even further, our clients now have exclusive access to a range of new features that benefit from our new AppDNA taxonomy:

Compare your app performance with more relevant competitors

Competitor comparisons are one of the most valuable functionalities of our ASO tool. Selecting competitors in the competitor widget — after clicking the “Add competitors” button — allows you to compare your app’s metadata, analytics, reviews and ratings, and more with competitors, offering valuable insights to gain (or maintain) app market leadership.

Our competitor functionality already provides users with a vast number of competitor suggestions in just a few clicks. With AppDNA, users will now be able to find competitor suggestions based on their specific AppDNA to compare their performance with the top apps sharing the same core identity.

Read these 6 tips to identify your main competitors on the app stores.

Visualize leading apps in top charts for each AppDNA

Our Top Charts allow users to explore the top-performing apps in their category at a specific moment in time. With the launch of our AppDNA, users can now deepen their analyses to view the top apps belonging to the same AppDNA, providing more granularity than the typical store-given categories.

For example, Uber is a “travel” app on the US App Store. Viewing the top charts of the iOS “Travel” category displays competitors like Airbnb, Expedia, Hilton, and Disneyland. While these are all top apps in this category, we can clearly see they don’t have business models very similar to Uber.

Top Charts for the Travel category on the US App Store

However, an AppTweak Enterprise plan will now allow you to filter our Top Charts by AppDNA or GameDNA! With this new feature, quickly identify the top-performing competitors serving the same market as your own app.

For instance, visualizing the top charts’ ranking for the “Ridesharing” AppDNA highlights completely different results from the store-given “Travel” category. Now, we can easily identify Uber’s true competitors, including Lyft, Lime, and Bolt. As a result, you are able to build a more specific and comprehensive picture of an app’s competitive landscape, identifying your closest competitors in just one click.

Top Charts for the Ridesharing AppDNA

Get more relevant AppDNA keyword suggestions

AppDNA is also available in our keyword suggestions! The AppDNA keyword suggestion tool indicates keywords relevant to an app’s specific DNA. These recommendations provide new high-volume opportunities to increase your app’s keyword visibility with the search terms most frequently used by apps that serve the same core purpose. You can access AppDNA keyword suggestions by heading to your Keyword Table > Keyword Suggestions > “Market Keywords”.

Learn how to choose the best keywords for your iOS or Android app.

Strengthen your ASO strategy with AppDNA

Developed by our talented team of data scientists, we have just launched AppDNA, powered by Atlas. Our AppDNA taxonomy paints a more precise and comprehensive picture of the app competitive landscape, grouping apps that share the same core identity into over 200 relevant and detailed DNAs.

With AppDNA features exclusively available for AppTweak Enterprise plans, you can now:

• Compare your app performance with more relevant competitors.
• Visualize leading apps in the top charts for each AppDNA.
• Get more relevant keyword suggestions for your app (coming very soon!).

We have also developed our GameDNA taxonomy and valuable features for game developers!

Don’t miss out on this amazing opportunity to enhance your ASO strategy with AppTweak.

Talk to our team