Apple launches iMessage App Store with various iMessage apps, games, and sticker packs
Let the deluge begin... Not long after the Super Mario Run iMessage sticker pack was made available to iOS 10 users, Apple has unleashed the entire iMessage App Store.
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple previewed third-party iMessage apps at WWDC as part of iOS 10's messaging overhaul, which added rich media, bubble effects, and 'emojification' to conversations. Days after teasing the Super Mario Run sticker pack — complete with a 'Notify' button whose availability to ordinary developers was left unclear (App Store 'Notify' button) — the company has now opened the full iMessage App Store.
This makes iMessage a distribution surface in its own right, but the arc bends quickly: within six months, Sensor Tower counted only 5K apps with games leading at 25.9% and developer interest already waning, while Apple was threatening to pull the top-grossing Phoneys sticker pack over content concerns.
First-order effects
- iOS 10 users gain a dedicated store of iMessage apps, games, and sticker packs inside Messages, and developers get a new — but separate — submission and review pipeline alongside the main App Store.
Second-order effects
- Apple inherits a second curation workload: the threatened takedown of the top-grossing Phoneys sticker pack shows moderation disputes now arise on this new shelf, not just the main App Store.
Third-order effects
- Sensor Tower's six-month readout — 5K apps, games dominating, developer interest fading — suggests the App Store playbook does not automatically transplant to every Apple surface; platform gravity depends on whether the surface sustains daily engagement beyond novelty stickers.
The trend: Apple is extending its App Store model into individual first-party surfaces like iMessage, testing how far third-party ecosystems can be replicated outside the main storefront.