Stale App Store apps of US local businesses: a 2026 scan

Key findings

• 21.6% of 9,734 apps (2,101) were last updated before 1 August 2025.
• 9.8% of 9,734 apps (953) have not been updated for about three years.
• By genre, Business apps are the stalest: 30.3% of 1,691 (512 apps). Finance is the freshest large genre at 11.2% of 437.
• Health & Fitness (21.2% of 1,461), Lifestyle (23.3% of 1,454) and Medical (23.4% of 680) all sit above one in five.
• 7,038 of the 9,734 apps were updated in 2026, and 1,170 in 2025. The tail is long: 149 were last updated in 2018 or earlier.
• 6,062 of the 9,734 apps list a website on their store page, so a stale app often has a live site next to it.

Stale share by app genre

Genre is the category the developer chose on the App Store. The table lists every genre in the scan with at least 32 apps; three smaller genres (Weather, Magazines & Newspapers and Book, 18 apps in total) are left out because their samples are too small to read.

Two readings stand out. Business apps go stale most often. Food & Drink (12.5% of 909) and Finance are the freshest, possibly because ordering and payment flows break loudly when left alone. That is a guess about cause, and the scan cannot test it.

When was each app last updated?

Counts by calendar year of the last update, all 9,734 apps. We do not turn these into shares; the stale shares above use the 1 August 2025 cut-off.

The 2026 row is the biggest by far, so most apps in the sample saw an update this year. The risk sits in the older rows: 365 apps were last updated in 2023, and 647 in 2022 or before.

Why the update date is only a proxy

An old iOS update date does not mean an app is broken. It does mean nobody has rebuilt it against current tools, and that matters on both stores.

• On iOS, Apple can remove apps that have not been updated in about three years and see very few downloads, after sending the developer a notice. Check the current rules on Apple's developer site.
• On Android, Google Play requires apps to target a recent API level. An app that does not may be hidden from users on newer devices. We did not check target API levels, so we cannot say how many of these businesses also have an Android app at risk.
• Libraries inside an app, such as payment, login and maps kits, can stop working or lose support while the visible app looks unchanged.
• A rarely used app can still be fine. An app that handles bookings, orders or loyalty points is where a stale build costs money.

What a local business owner should do

1. Find every app listed under your nameSearch the App Store and Google Play for your business and your old developer or agency name. Many owners learn of a forgotten app this way.
2. Check who holds the developer accountsThe accounts, signing keys and source code should belong to you, not a former freelancer. If they do not, fix that first.
3. Decide: update, rebuild or retireIf customers use it monthly, plan an update. If almost nobody does, consider a good mobile website and retire the app after telling users.
4. On Android, check the target API levelOpen the Play Console for your app and compare its target API level with the current requirement on the Android developer site.
5. Watch for store noticesApple and Google send notices to the account holder. Make sure that mailbox is monitored.

We build and maintain iOS and Android apps; see mobile app development and our guide to what an app costs to maintain. Projects start at $1,500, and a fixed quote follows within one working day of a short call. For website signals in 25 industries, read the AI search readiness study and the research index.

Method and limits

We queried Apple's official iTunes Search API for the US App Store on 9 November 2026 with 81 local-business search terms, such as dental office, hvac service and church. We kept apps that look like one business's own app: the developer has three or fewer apps, the app is not a game or entertainment title, and it is not built from a known app-builder or booking-platform template. That left 9,734 apps.

Stale means last updated before 1 August 2025. The data cannot show downloads, whether an app still works, the business behind it, or Android status. Search terms steer the sample, so it is not every local-business app. Counts of apps are exact for our sample; no margin of error is attached because it is not a random draw.