Features

Top 10 mobile apps in South Africa 2024: AI romance dominates

Luis Monzon

19th December 2024

As the year draws to a close, we check out the most popular apps for South Africans on mobiles, by far and away the most popular way local users check out the internet and travel through cyberspace.

According to data analysts SimilarWeb, social media platforms are still the most popular for users, with WhatsApp dominating both Android and iOS app stores. Other favourite social media apps include Facebook, TikTok and Instagram.

Interestingly, X is not featured on either top 10 list. It is the 46th most popular free app on the Apple App Store and it doesn’t feature in the top 50 apps on the Google Play Store. While Twitter has never been the most popular app in South Africa, it is interesting that so many government institutions use the app for official communications when the likes of TikTok are far more popular.

In terms of ecommerce, Temu is the only name of note and tracks with its exploding popularity in South Africa on both app stores. Shein is found further down the list, both of which are more popular on stores than Amazon Shopping.

Hilariously, Google Maps is the most popular navigation app on iOS and the fifth most popular app overall. It doesn’t feature on the Android list because it comes built into Android devices. This means that iPhone users are still looking to use the Google Maps app instead of Apple’s alternative, likely because of Google’s convenience (Google a place and then select “directions.”)

Spotify is the most popular music streaming platform on either store, however since Apple users don’t have to download Apple Music, the Similarweb list doesn’t show how popular it is compared to Spotify.

Ride hailing apps are more popular on iOS, while “Lite” versions of social media apps are more popular on the Google Play Store. This may be because more affordable model handsets use Android OS, and their users are more concerned about money spent on mobile data than Apple smartphone users.

There are two notable apps that have caught our attention.

On the Google Play Store, the number five most popular app in terms of usage in South Africa is Talkie, an AI chatting app where users can chat with generative AI as if they were other people.

*Talkie now even offers voice calls where a generative AI plays your favourite virtual hunk.*

Talkie is one of those “AI girlfriend apps” where users develop relationships with fictional characters. According to the website, you can even make your own characters using prompts but there is a host of AI girlfriends available to chat with, each with their own preset personalities, complete with AI generate images.

*Looking for romance? Chat with Edward Cullen.*

Studies have shown that these sorts of apps are used to scrape sensitive information from users, where your AI girlfriend is programmed by the app makers to ask you more and more private questions in efforts to “get to know you” when in fact the app makers are looking to sell your details to advertisers.

The Ticketmaster app is the other notable in the South Africa top 10 list, being the most used of the iOS apps. It is likely that with the Chris Brown concert on the weekend, and the upcoming Calabash 2025 event featuring Green Day and The Offspring in January, South Africans are spiking usage on this app in efforts to secure their tickets.