French social media app BeReal, which has users post unfiltered daily selfies at random times and is now available in eight languages, took App of the Year honors from Apple’s 2022 App Store Awards, which recognized 16 global “apps and games that inspired users to engage more deeply with the world.” Fitness tracker Gentler Streak won in the Apple Watch category, with genealogy program MacFamilyTree 10 voted best Mac App of the Year, while Spanish-language app ViX took the TV App of the Year category. GoodNotes 5, which takes digital note-taking to the next level for Apple Pencil support, was named best in class for the iPad.

“From self-taught solo creators to international teams spanning the globe, these entrepreneurs are making a meaningful impact, and represent the ways in which apps and games influence our communities and lives,” Apple CEO Tim Cook said in an announcement that contains the complete list of winners.

Electronic Arts’ battle royale “Apex Legends Mobile” took top honors in the games category, while puzzle challenge “Moncage,” from X.D. Network was named iPad Game of the Year. Devolver’s immersive card battler “Inscryption,” which leverages experimental storytelling, is Mac Game of the Year.

“App Store has had a challenging 2022 with an impact on revenue and regulatory battles,” reports TechCrunch, noting “it had to allow developers to use third-party systems for in-app purchases in regions including South Korea and the Netherlands,” while the U.S. and EU continue to examine the company’s practices with an eye toward antitrust violations.

Proactively, Apple in March “allowed ‘reader apps’ — apps that give users access to digital content like music, books and videos — to include external links for users to create and manage their accounts,” while in June it “relaxed some of its rules around binary content in the app, using HTML5, and lottery and donation-related apps.”

In October, Apple moved in the opposite direction, cracking down on NFT app functionality and mandating that NFT purchase systems use its in-app platform with Apple getting a percentage of each sale.

In addition to launching its redesigned Apple Music Replay, which now highlights subscribers’ music-listening trends, Apple Music announced its year-end chart “ranking 2022’s top songs, top Shazams, top fitness songs and tracks with the most-read lyrics,” as reported in Variety.

The Kid Laroi and Justin Bieber collaboration “Stay” was No. 1 on Apple Music for 2022, while the Elton John and Dua Lipa pairing “Cold Heart” topped the Shazam global chart.

Apple Music’s revamped 2022 Replay experience lets subscribers explore top songs, albums, artists, genres and more. “Although Replay is still only accessible via the web, the redesign brings the annual recap feature closer to the interactive nature of Spotify’s Wrapped experience,” TechCrunch writes.

Apple Music Replay is available at replay.music.apple.com, and requires a log in (which can be the same credentials used for Apple Music).

Related:
YouTube Music Starts Rolling Out Its Personalized End-of-Year Recaps, TechCrunch, 11/29/22
Spotify Wrapped 2022 Is Here, and It’s Giving Everyone a ‘Music Personality’, The Verge, 11/30/22