5 App Growth Trends You Should Know Before Appsforum

The app economy is growing year after year. The industry is being reshaped by rising acquisition costs, stricter privacy regulations, changing consumer expectations and the rapid adoption of AI and these factors are changing how apps grow.

As we prepare for the next edition of Appsforum London, these are the five trends that are at the forefront of app development. Whether you're focused on user acquisition, retention, monetisation, or product strategy, our Appsforum agenda will have everything for you.

1. AI Is Transforming User Acquisition

Artificial intelligence is a buzzword within every industry and although we may feel this is all we talk about, it is now a core component of high-performing acquisition strategies.

AI is a tool used to make teams smarter and help make faster decisions. From campaign optimisation and audience segmentation to creative generation and predictive bidding, AI is enabling growth teams to scale more efficiently while reducing wasted spend.

Leading app businesses are increasingly using AI to:

• Predict high-value users before they install

• Optimise bidding across multiple channels in real time

• Generate and test creative variations automatically

• Forecast lifetime value (LTV) more accurately

• Identify early churn signals before they impact retention

  
  

The initial question was whether to adopt AI. Now, how do we integrate AI effectively into existing workflows, while keeping strategic oversight? 

2. Hybrid Monetisation Is Becoming the New Standard

Historically apps have implemented a single monetisation strategy. It consisted of subscriptions, advertising or in-app purchases. Nowadays, the most successful businesses are combining revenue streams to maximise user experience and revenue.

Hybrid monetisation allows apps to serve different user segments in different ways.

A casual user may engage with rewarded advertising, while a power user prefers a premium subscription. Others might make occasional in-app purchases without ever subscribing.

This flexible approach creates opportunities to:

• Increase average revenue per user (ARPU)

• Improve user satisfaction by offering more choice

• Reduce dependence on a single revenue source

• Reach audiences with different spending behaviours

  
  

The key is finding the right balance. Too many monetisation touchpoints can frustrate users, while too few leave revenue on the table.

The most successful apps continuously test how advertising, subscriptions and in-app purchases work together rather than treating them as competing models.

3. Privacy-First Attribution Is the New Reality

The era of unlimited user-level tracking is over.

How marketers measure campaign performance has been altered drastically by privacy regulations and platform changes campaign performance.

Instead of relying solely on deterministic tracking, leading app marketers are embracing privacy-first measurement through:

• Aggregated reporting

• Incrementality testing

• Media mix modelling

• Predictive analytics

• First-party data strategies

  
  

Success now depends on understanding trends rather than expecting perfect visibility into every customer journey.

Now businesses are investing in better experimentation strategies and stronger first-party data are finding themselves better equipped for the future than those trying to recreate legacy measurement models.

The conversation has shifted from "How do we track everything?" to "How do we make better decisions with less data?"

4. Subscription Fatigue Is Real

Consumers are becoming increasingly selective about the services they pay for.

With entertainment, productivity, fitness, finance and lifestyle apps all competing for recurring monthly payments, subscription fatigue has become one of the biggest challenges facing app publishers.

Winning new subscribers is only half the battle. Keeping them engaged is where sustainable growth happens.

Leading subscription businesses are responding by:

• Personalising onboarding experiences

• Demonstrating value earlier in the user journey

• Offering flexible pricing and billing options

• Reducing friction in cancellation and reactivation

• Continuously improving engagement after conversion

  
  

Retention has become just as important as acquisition.

Rather than asking, "How do we get more subscriptions?" the smarter question is, "How do we become an app people don't want to cancel?"

5. Creative Testing Has Become a Competitive Advantage

In a crowded app marketplace, creativity is often the single biggest differentiator.

Today's leading growth teams are running continuous creative experiments across channels, audiences and formats.

Modern creative testing includes:

• Multiple messaging angles

• Localised creative for different markets

• AI-assisted asset generation

• Video-first campaigns

• Rapid testing cycles with dozens, or even hundreds, of creative variants

  
  

The goal isn't simply to create more content; it's to identify what resonates with different audiences and quickly scale winning concepts.

As automation reduces the barriers to producing creative assets, competitive advantage increasingly comes from having robust testing processes and the ability to learn faster than competitors.

Creative is no longer just a branding exercise, it's a measurable growth lever.