Last updated: October 2026
We've been building apps for over 20 years and every year we write down which trends we think will matter. Some of our calls have been spot on and some have aged badly. You'll find both at the end of this article.
This year the change is easy to spot. AI is no longer an add-on you bolt onto an app. It's becoming part of how apps are built, how people find them and how they get things done. Alongside that, the rules around payments, app stores and accessibility are shifting in ways that affect UK businesses directly.
These are the trends we think are worth your attention if you're planning a new app or updating an existing one and what we'd do about each.
1. AI that Runs on the Phone, Not just in the Cloud
Until recently, adding AI to an app usually meant sending data to a cloud service and paying for every request. That’s changing. With iOS 26, Apple opened its Foundation Models framework to developers. It gives apps access to the AI model built into Apple Intelligence, running entirely on the device. It works offline, the data never leaves the phone and Apple doesn’t charge developers for using it. Google offers similar on-device options on supported Android phones.
What it means for businesses: you can add useful AI features without running costs that grow with every user and without sending customer data to a third party. Think summarising long documents, smarter search, filling in forms from a photo or suggesting next steps. That matters most in sectors like healthcare and finance, where data privacy is very important.
Our view: start with one task that genuinely saves your users time, rather than adding AI because competitors have. The best AI features are often the ones users barely notice. If you’re weighing up where AI could help, our custom AI development team can help you find the right starting point.
2. Apps that AI Assistants Can Use
People are starting to ask AI assistants to do things for them, not just answer questions. Both Apple and Google are building ways for their assistants to take actions inside third-party apps: booking, ordering, checking a balance or logging a job.
What it means for businesses: if your app doesn’t make its key actions available to these assistants, it risks being skipped when a customer asks their phone to “rebook my usual appointment”. It’s a similar shift to when businesses had to make their websites work on mobile.
The same thinking applies behind the scenes. Many of the businesses we speak to aren’t looking for a chatbot. They want AI agents and AI automation that take repetitive admin off their team’s plate.
3. Passkeys are Replacing Passwords
Passwords are on their way out. According to the FIDO Alliance, there are now an estimated 5 billion passkeys in use worldwide. In its 2026 research across ten countries, including the UK, 75% of consumers had already turned on a passkey for at least one account.
What it means for businesses: passkeys let users sign in with their face, fingerprint or phone PIN. They’re quicker than passwords and much harder to phish. For an app, that means fewer people giving up at sign-up, fewer “forgot password” support requests and better protection against account takeover.
Our view: offer passkeys as the default sign-in for new apps and add them to existing ones, while keeping a backup option for users who aren’t ready to switch.
4. Contactless Payments Inside Apps
Since Tap to Pay on iPhone launched in the UK in July 2023, businesses have been able to take card payments using nothing but an iPhone, with no separate card reader. Apple then went further, letting third-party apps in the UK use the iPhone’s contactless chip for things like in-store payments, loyalty cards, event tickets as well as car, hotel and office keys. Apps need an agreement with Apple and must meet the relevant industry requirements.
The UK regulator is pushing for more openness too. In June 2026, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) consulted on requiring fairer access to contactless features on iPhone. As of September 2026, it hadn’t yet made a decision.
What it means for businesses: for retailers, hospitality, events and field services, the phone can now be the till, the loyalty card and the ticket. We’ve built payment and rewards apps such as Yonda and Shop St, so we’ve seen how much smoother this makes the experience for customers. Find out more about our tap to pay solutions.
5. App Store Rules are Loosening in the UK
In October 2025, the CMA designated Apple and Google as having “strategic market status” in mobile platforms. That gives it new powers to set rules for how their app stores work. In June 2026, it consulted on letting developers point customers to payment options outside the app stores, with any fees Apple and Google charge for this having to be justified.
What it means for businesses: if your app sells subscriptions or digital content, you may eventually be able to keep more of each sale and have more control over the customer relationship. These rules aren’t final yet, so we’d plan for them rather than rebuild for them. If you’re designing a new app’s payment flow now, build it so it can adapt.
6. Accessibility is now a Legal Requirement for many Apps
The European Accessibility Act has applied since 28 June 2025. It covers many apps and websites used by EU customers, including online shopping, banking and transport. UK businesses that sell into the EU are included. We’ve written a separate guide on how the European Accessibility Act affects mobile apps.
What it means for businesses: accessibility can no longer be a “nice to have” left for phase two. Proper screen reader support, readable contrast, scalable text and clear labels need to be built in from the start. It’s also simply good design. An app that’s easier for someone with a disability to use is usually easier for everyone.
7. A New Look for iOS and Android
In 2025, Apple introduced Liquid Glass, a new translucent design style across iOS 26. Google rolled out Material 3 Expressive on Android. Both changed how buttons, menus and navigation look and behave.
What it means for businesses: apps that haven’t been updated since can start to look out of place next to apps that have and users notice. That said, Liquid Glass was criticised early on for making some text harder to read. So we’d adopt the new system components where they help and test carefully for readability.
Our view: a design refresh is a good chance to fix long-standing usability issues at the same time. Our UX and UI design team usually starts with how people actually use the app before changing how it looks.
8. Spatial Computing Finds its Place at Work
Headsets like Apple Vision Pro are still a niche purchase for consumers. In the workplace, though, the case is getting stronger: training staff on equipment, guiding engineers through repairs and letting customers see products at full size. We’ve looked at this in more detail in how spatial computing is changing enterprise operations.
Our view: for most businesses, augmented reality on the phone is still the practical place to start. Everyone already has the device, and the use cases are proven. Explore our augmented reality development services to see what’s possible.
Looking Back: What We Predicted and What Actually Happened
We’ve been publishing trend predictions since 2016, so here’s an honest look at how they turned out.
We were right about conversation, but early – In our 2017 predictions, we said apps would increasingly let people interact through conversation, pointing to Duolingo’s new chatbots. It took another five years and the arrival of ChatGPT for that to go mainstream. Now chat-style interfaces are everywhere.
Our VR sceptics won the argument – Our team was split on virtual reality in 2017. One colleague compared it to 3D televisions. For phone-based VR, the sceptics were right: Google discontinued its Daydream VR platform in 2019 and by 2023 we were writing that mobile VR apps were dying. Dedicated headsets survived, but as a much smaller market than predicted.
Fintech raced ahead, just as we expected – In 2017 we said challenger banks would keep outpacing traditional banking and mentioned Starling, which had just received its banking licence. App-first banking is now completely normal and fintech remains one of the sectors we work in most.
Voice didn’t replace the screen – In our 2020 trends article, we wrote that voice interfaces could start to challenge the touchscreen, and quoted the popular prediction that half of all searches would be made by voice by 2020. That never happened. Voice settled into timers, music and smart home controls and Amazon has since rebuilt Alexa around generative AI. We were right that AI would change how people use apps. We were wrong about how: it arrived through typing and chat first, and now increasingly through assistants that act on your behalf.
Some “trends” quietly became the standard – Syncing your progress across devices and personalised experiences (2020) and dark mode (2023), stopped being trends because every good app now has them.
The lesson from ten years of predictions is that the technology usually arrives, but rarely in quite the form or on the timescale the hype suggests. That’s why we always start with the problem an app needs to solve, not the trend it could follow.
What This Means if you’re Planning an App
- Start with the problem, then pick the technology – AI, AR or tap to pay are worth it when they make a real task faster, easier or cheaper.
- Budget for updates, not just the build – Platform changes like iOS 26’s redesign and new regulations arrive every year. Ongoing hosting and maintenance keeps an app secure and up to date.
- Build in privacy and accessibility from day one – Adding them later almost always costs more.
- Design for flexibility – With app store rules still changing in the UK, apps that can adapt their payment and sign-in flows will be in a stronger position.
If you’re weighing up which of these trends are worth it for your business, we’re happy to talk it through. There’s no hard sell, just an honest view from a team that’s been building apps since before the App Store existed. Get in touch or read more about our mobile app development services.
Frequently Asked Questions
About app trends in 2026.
