So long, Ashley Madison; hello, Tinder: VB App Engagement Index July 2015

Tinder had the biggest increase in app store ranking over the past 30 days, according to new data from SimilarWeb. And games, games, games were huge on Android.

We have just published the first VB App Engagement Index, powered by data from SimilarWeb. It is a free monthly update on what’s hot and what’s not in the world of apps, with a focus not so much on pure downloads or sheer numbers of users, but app engagement: how dedicated an audience has each app managed to gain.

Above: App store ranking top gainers – June 2015

Image Credit: John Koetsier

Tinder was the top gainer in app store ranking over the last month, helping it separate oh-so-slightly from another dating-ish app: Hot or Not. One place where Hot or Not has an advantage? While 32 percent of Tinder users open the app daily, 39 percent of Hot or Not users open that app daily … meaning it is significantly more sticky.

(Not literally, we hope.)

Get the free VB mobile app engagement index: July 2015
The full report includes leaderboards, game winners and losers, and more

Joining Tinder on the iOS gainers lists were apps from Walmart, Lyft, and various utilities.

Interestingly, Tinder is now installed on almost 3 percent of smartphones in the U.S., and almost 1 percent of smartphone owners in the U.S. use it daily for almost two minutes in about eight brief checks per day.

Above: Tinder versus Hot or Not

Image Credit: SimilarWeb

Social winners and losers

Pinterest and Tumblr were the only gainers in terms of raw user numbers in the past month, but that’s not the whole story:

Above: Top social winners and losers

Image Credit: John Koetsier

While Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Twitter were both down slightly in number of users on Android (SimilarWeb does not have all the same data for iOS), every social network was up or even in terms of sessions/user in the past month, with the single exception of Pinterest.

Interestingly, Twitter users who stayed (or joined) are more passionate about tweets than they were a month ago: average time per session was up almost 4 percent.

Not even Facebook — which has the most average sessions/day at over 16 — beats Yahoo’s Tumblr for engagement, however. Tumblr users spend an average of 4 minutes and 21 seconds in the app, seven times a day.

But Facebook is the undisputed king when it comes to reach. The app was installed on over 70 percent of Android smartphones in the U.S. last month, and very likely a similar or higher percentage of iOS phones. And Facebook remains the top free app on Android, and the fourth-highest free app on iOS.

For the complete — and free — report, head on over to VB’s research site.