The App Store is broken. Even though the number of apps and developers and downloads goes up each year, the browsing experience for the consumer has remained largely the same, meaning that the vast majority of apps go entirely undiscovered. This could explain why Facebook’s ad revenue from mobile apps is up more than 50 percent as of last year.
Betaworks’ Homescreen app (and website) aims to solve that issue of discoverability. The app, which lets users share a screenshot of their homescreens to their Twitter network and beyond, has introduced a new update that offers a sort of map-view interface, letting users venture out from their own profile to those of the people they follow on Twitter, and beyond to unknown profiles.
As per usual, the app offers a list of all the apps on people’s homescreens, which users can click on to see more information, such as a description, the percentage of homescreens on which the app appears, and other apps that often accompany that specific app. It’s a discoverability platform that starts with the people you care about the most and extends into the unknown, always giving useful information that can potentially lead to more discovery.
All the while, Betaworks has a clear look at the apps people actually use, as opposed to the apps they’ve downloaded and forgotten in some auto-named drawer.
Plus, in a world of over-sharers, Homescreen offers another way for users to express themselves that has already existed for some time through Twitter. Your smartphone is likely the most personal device you own. Likewise, your homescreen is just as much a representation of your identity as your clothes are, or your home is, or well… your Instagram.
Homescreen offers users a way to check out each other’s homescreens, which is far more intriguing than you might assume, as well as share their own.
You can check out the Homescreen update on the App Store.
