Romain Rouillard / Photo credit: FIORA GARENZI / HANS LUCAS / HANS LUCAS VIA AFP 7:47 p.m., April 5, 2024

The American site Gizmodo organized a tournament bringing together 32 applications and invited its readers to determine which one would inherit the title of “best application of all time”. A competition won by Google Maps which won in the final against... the flashlight.

Internet users have spoken. Invited by the online media Gizmodo to elect the best application of all time, they voted in favor of Google Maps, the online navigation system, launched in 2005 by the American digital giant. The application, which is still one of the most downloaded in the world today, won against the... flashlight while YouTube and the Calculator had to bow out at the gates of the final. 

The competition brought together a large panel of 32 applications chosen according to very specific criteria. The media Gizmodo has analyzed the lists of the most popular applications each year in the Apple App Store. The applications, eligible for the title, also had to be useful, original, enduring, but also benefit from a certain influence. This is why certain very recent applications were not included in the competition. 

Spotify eliminated in the first round 

However, certain absences are noted, like TikTok or Facebook. Regarding the network created by Mark Zuckerberg, Gizmodo considers that the platform is not specifically geared towards mobile use. Conversely, we find, in the panel, certain applications which will delight nostalgic people, such as Vine, a platform, now defunct, which allowed you to post and view very short video sequences.

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The very addictive Flappy Bird, a mobile game which consisted of making a bird fly while avoiding pipes, was also there, as well as the essential WhatsApp, Instagram, Twitter (now X), Snapchat and Twitch. 

These applications, although downloaded by billions of Internet users around the world, actually had little chance against Google Maps, which received nearly 85% of the votes. We will still note the good performance of Venmo, an online payment system owned by Paypal, beaten just before the last four, just like Google Earth or even Duolingo, a platform dedicated to fun language learning. Among the surprises, we can note the elimination, in the first round, of Spotify, Twitch or even Snapchat.