App Store Awards 2025: Multiple Winners from Europe

Apple's App Store editorial team has honored its apps of the year. Among them are several from Europe.

(Image: Apple, Bearbeitung: heise medien)

Dec 4, 2025 at 11:29 pm CET

6 min. read

By

Malte Kirchner

From the outside, it might seem like a pure PR award to some. But for those honored, Apple's App Store Award is much more: "Internally, we joke that it's a bit like the Oscars for App Store developers. But it definitely feels like it. It's one of the biggest accolades you can get as a developer," says Paul Veugen, founder and CEO of the Dutch company Detail Technologies, which developed the AI video editing app "Detail: AI Video Editor."

And Veugen and his team can indeed put the coveted trophy, a large blue metal block resembling the App Store icon, on their shelf this year: "Detail" was awarded iPad App of the Year. That's a shame for Germany's Leo Mehlig, whose app "Structured" was among the three finalists. But in a way, they are all winners in the end. Because the attention generated by the big Apple stage ensures a surge in downloads one way or another: "When the announcement as a finalist came, we saw an immediate big jump," says Paul Veugen. The other finalists are likely to experience something similar.

17 Apps and Games Honored

The all-in-one video app "Detail" is developed by a 15-person team from Europe, Canada, and South Africa and aims to significantly simplify video creation. It combines recording, editing, and distribution, utilizing the full range of what iPhones and iPads have to offer, such as multi-camera recording, real-time rendering, and on-device transcriptions. For automatically creating titles, descriptions, and content suggestions, Detail uses Apple's Foundation Models, the founder told heise online. The AI is therefore processed locally on the device.

17 apps and games have been awarded the App Store Award this year. In addition to various device and service categories, Apple also honors apps with a sustainable cultural impact with the editorial award. And this year, Klemens Strasser from Graz, Austria, can take home this special prize. He already won the Apple Design Award in the summer, Apple's second major award for developers. He received this at the WWDC developer conference in June.

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Won Two Apple Awards in One Year

Which award is more significant? Strasser shrugs. The awards are not really comparable: The Design Award is more of a developer award. It resonates more strongly within the developer community and highlights apps that Apple considers role models. The App Store Award is likely more about which apps excite the audience. And the most beautiful award in the end is probably the feedback from users and buyers of the app: "I get so many nice reviews and emails every day from people saying the game helps them cope with anxiety or that it's a much better alternative to scrolling through TikTok," Strasser explains.

The puzzle game "Art of Fauna" uses historical animal illustrations. According to Apple's commendation, it combines fun gameplay with species conservation and comprehensive accessibility. The special feature: players can switch between an image and a text page – originally intended as an accessibility feature for blind and visually impaired people, it is used by many users to learn more about the animals. A portion of each purchase goes to nature conservation projects, says Strasser. So far, 1250 square meters of forest have been protected. The app counts over 2.5 million puzzles played and almost 11,000 reviews. And if you have a phobia of certain animals, you can also hide them.

A kind of sequel to the app is already in the works. "Art of Flora" is set to be released in March. The title hints at it: This time it's about flowers.

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App Store Awards 2024: 17 winners and a hint with the fence post

AI Plays a Role in Many Apps

The team behind the planner app "Tiimo" from Copenhagen, Denmark, is also delighted with the symbolic bouquet of appreciation from Apple. With the help of AI, the software transforms thoughts into structured daily plans and is particularly aimed at neurodivergent individuals. The app, managed by CEOs Helene Lassen Nørlem and Melissa Würtz Azari, with nearly 3 million downloads, uses Apple's Foundation Models for on-device processing of sensitive data such as mood and daily reflections, while OpenAI's AI is used for the co-planner.

For Melissa Würtz Azari, who herself has ADHD, the app also offers significant benefits for her: "When you're neurodivergent, it's very important to visualize time," she says. The AI breaks down large tasks into smaller steps, prioritizes automatically, and replays if necessary.