Meet The Apps Vying For The Crunchie For Best Mobile App Of 2015

The 9th Annual Crunchies are right around the corner. On February 8, some of your favorite startups, entrepreneurs and investors will make their way to San Francisco’s War Memorial Opera House for the Oscars of startups and technology. They’ll be hoping to win a Crunchie award in one of 12 categories up for grabs at this year’s show.

The Crunchie for Best Mobile App goes to the mobile application that made the most waves in the mobile app landscape in 2015. Below are the companies that have been selected as finalists for the Best Mobile App award this year, as well as a look at some of the previous winners.

The 2015 Nominees

Citymapper

Citymapper is a hot startup that aims to make cities around the world easier to use. The service provides real-time travel directions using a variety of different transit modes, from public transit like subway, bus and rail, to ride-sharing services such as Uber and bike shares. Citymapper is currently available in 29 cities around the world, and is aggressively expanding into new ones with input from the community.

Facebook Messenger

Facebook’s Messenger service grew at an incredible rate in 2015, going from 500 million users in November 2014 to over 800 million users at the end of 2015. Messenger added a slew of new features to the platform in 2015, including video calling, conversation customization with emoji, the ability to send and receive payments, and the M virtual assistant, which is currently being tested in the Bay Area.

Periscope

Twitter’s live video service Periscope launched in March as way to discover the world through someone else’s eyes. Users can watch Periscope streams from people all around the world, and even though the service has been active less than a year, users have created over 100 million live broadcasts. While it didn’t quite make it into 2015, Periscope broadcasts will now start showing up in Twitter for iOS, and will soon be coming to Android and the web.

Robinhood

If you’ve ever traded stocks, you’ve probably been charged a fee for every trade you made. Robinhood aims to change all that by providing commission-free trading, instead making its money on those who upgrade to the company’s managed margin accounts (currently in beta) and accruing interest on customers uninvested cash balances.

Wish

Wish is the leading mobile commerce platform in Europe and North America that focuses primarily on the value shopper. Its mobile-first approach to shopping has led to some pretty lofty funding totals — the service has raised $578.5 million in five funding rounds, including a massive $500 million round closed in the first half of 2015.

Past Winners

Note: The Best Mobile App Crunchie was introduced with the Second Annual Crunchies show in 2008, so there wasn’t a winner in this category at the first show.

imeem – 2nd Annual Crunchies Winner

imeem started out life in 2003 as an instant messaging service that let users chat, blog, and share files. That didn’t work out, and in 2006, it pivoted into a social network that let people discover, play and share music, music videos and pictures. It was acquired by Myspace in 2009.

Foursquare – 3rd Annual Crunchies Winner

Foursquare is a geo-technology platform that helps users explore the world around them. Launched in 2009, the company has since pivoted into two standalone applications – Foursquare, a city guide and discovery app, and Swarm, the check-in service that initially made Foursquare so popular.

Google Maps – 4th and 6th Annual Crunchies Winner

If you’ve ever used a smartphone, you’ve probably used Google Maps, Google’s stellar navigation service for Android and iOS. It probably comes as no surprise to you that the service won not one but two Best Mobile App Crunchies, one in 2010 for its superb Android app, and another in 2012 for its completely revamped app for iOS after Apple kicked Google Maps off iOS in favor of Apple Maps.

Evernote – 5th Annual Crunchies Winner

Initially launched as a connected note-taking app, Evernote has since expanded into a suite of software and services that lets its users capture, create, organize and find information they need across platforms. The company has hit a rough patch of late, however, and has shut down some of its software like Skitch to focus on the core Evernote experience.

Snapchat – 7th Annual Crunchies Winner

Snapchat began as a service that let users share pictures that automatically disappeared after a brief period of time. That’s still largely how the service is used, but the company has added longer-duration stories, live stories and a Discover channel that connects users with content from brands like ESPN, Comedy Central and National Geographic.

Storehouse – 8th Annual Crunchies Winner

Storehouse is a visual storytelling app that makes it super easy to convert your pictures and videos into stories. An update in September 2015 rethought the entire iOS application by focusing on more private sharing of stories, and since then they’ve launched an app for Apple TV and finally launched on Android.

Which of the incredible apps up for the Best Mobile App Crunchie will win the award this year? Find out at the 9th Annual Crunchies on February 8. The best way to experience the Crunchies is to be there live in person, so be sure to head over to our ticketing page to secure your spot for as little as $115.

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