The news: ChatGPT is closing 2025 as the most downloaded iPhone app in the US, vaulting past entrenched social platforms, search, and shopping apps, per TechCrunch. Google Gemini was the only other AI app in the top 10, landing in the final slot. 

On iPad, ChatGPT was No. 2, just behind YouTube as the top free app, while image creation app Procreate led paid downloads—a nod to creativity as a durable category.

Trendspotting: This is the first time an AI assistant has outranked every social and utility app in the US. It marks an inflection point where AI becomes the operating layer of mobile life, shaping how people search, shop, plan, and navigate. 

The jump from No. 4 last year to No. 1 could also indicate a generational change—64% of teens ages 13 to 17 say they use chatbots, per Pew Research—as well as a behavioral one, as Temu’s shopping app fell from No. 1 to 13.

Why it’s worth watching: ChatGPT edging out Google, TikTok, Instagram, Maps, and Gmail shows how conversational answers are replacing link lists as the first stop for mobile discovery. 

That pivot chips away at Google’s mobile search stronghold and sets up a new rivalry between OpenAI and Google across apps, search, and on-device experiences.

Comscore data reinforces the pattern: AI assistants drive more usage than other AI categories like marketing, design, images, and video, across mobile and desktop. 

What this means for brands: AI assistants are the new entry point for mobile discovery, and brands should optimize content, creative, and ad journeys for users who start—and often finish—inside conversational interfaces.

The combination of ChatGPT’s emergence as the leading app and AI’s mobile surge sets the tone for reach and engagement, but it remains to be seen if this will change once AI search and agentic features are more tightly integrated into iOS next year.