Will 2026 be the year of the ‘super app’?

(NewsNation) — Technology continues to evolve for smartphones, and now a phenomenon could take over the entire landscape in 2026 — “super apps.”

They’re described by experts as applications that build upon core functionality to mix and mash a bunch of seemingly unrelated services into one place.

“As more transactions become digitized, co-locating new functionality into a single app can help minimize the inconvenience and inertia customers experience when juggling a dozen different apps,” says Deloitte.

The idea/service has become increasingly popular in many countries outside the U.S. as a one-stop shop for users, modeled after China’s WeChat. Tech industry figures and investors have been watching super apps rise for years, after they first launched 15 years ago.

“There’s gonna be this massive convergence of Robinhood, Coinbase and the gaming companies with super apps,” investor Roger Ehrenberg said. “That’s the mega-trend I see.”

As of a few years ago, super apps in the Western Hemisphere weren’t gaining traction. However, Andreessen Horowitz’s Connie Chen thinks that is about to change.

“The reason you need executive buy-in is because switching to a super app model may negatively impact things like ad revenue in the short-term, as you give more screen time to partners than your core service — but it’s key to driving traffic to those partners so the flywheel spins,” she said.

“Second, Western companies may need to dramatically rethink their systems of identity and user control,” Chen added. “If I’m going to use one app for everything, I want control over what information about me is shared as a part of 1:1 friend conversations versus interest groups versus brands.”

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