Research · October 2026

What should we build next?

What people are searching for on Google and the App Store in 2026, what the data says about getting users, and three ideas worth testing. The short answer: build a free web tool that answers something people already search for, then grow it into an app.

  • +232%Year-over-year revenue growth for generative AI apps (Sensor Tower)
  • 25B+Google Lens searches a month. Searching by photo is one of the fastest-growing kinds of search
  • $4.5BRecord in-app spending on Health & Fitness in 2025, while downloads stayed flat
  • ~3%Share of subscription revenue earned by apps launched in 2025 or later. New apps start far behind

What's growing

Where people are showing up, and where it's already crowded

Growth alone isn't enough. We want a category that's growing and where AI isn't everywhere yet.

Fastest-growing app categories

Median 7-day growth in how fast new reviews arrive, App Store + Google Play, August 2026 (Peekly). Reviews stand in for downloads, so treat this as a signal, not a count.

  • House & Home+63.6%
  • Maps & Navigation+54.7%
  • Art & Design+51.2%
  • Photo & Video+50.8%
  • Health & Fitness+50.2%

House & Home leads, and it's not a category the big AI apps are going after.

How crowded AI already is, by category

Share of subscription apps in each category that use AI (RevenueCat).

  • Photo & Video61.4%
  • Productivity41.1%
  • Business19.1%
  • Travel12.3%
  • Gaming6.2%

Skip another AI photo app. Six in ten already use AI. The room is in categories where AI is rare.

AI apps make money fast but lose subscribers faster

Share of subscribers still paying after 12 months (RevenueCat). AI apps do earn 41% more per payer in year one ($30.16 vs $21.37).

  • Monthly plans 6.1%9.5%
  • Annual plans 21.1%30.7%
AI appsNon-AI apps

AI alone won't keep people. The idea needs a reason to come back, like reminders, tracking or a recurring problem.

Google Trends check

What the search data says about the ideas

Pulled from Google Trends on October 11, 2026: US web searches, October 2021 to now. It confirmed the home idea, narrowed it to mold and water damage, and showed GLP-1 is bigger than we assumed.

Home problems people search for: 2021 vs 2026

Change in average Google search interest, 2021 vs 2026 so far (Jan to Oct). US, web search.

  • water damage+222%
  • home repair+114%
  • mold in house+65%
  • water heater leaking+6%
  • dishwasher not draining−30%

Water damage and mold are growing; appliance fixes are not. Idea 01 should start with mold and water damage.

Fastest-rising searches around mold

Google's "rising" related searches for "mold in house", past 5 years, US.

  • 10 warning signs of mold toxicity Breakout
  • signs of sickness from mold in house +2,250%
  • symptoms of mold toxicity +350%
  • signs of mold exposure +190%
  • mold remediation near me +180%

People are worried about their health, not only the repair. "Is this mold, and could it be making me sick?" is the question to answer first.

GLP-1 search interest is far bigger than the home searches

Average search interest in 2026 (Jan to Oct) for "zepbound" (a GLP-1 weight-loss drug) vs. the home searches, all in one Google Trends comparison so they share a scale (100 = the busiest week in the comparison). US, web search.

  • zepbound87
  • water damage38
  • home repair30
  • mold in house4
  • plant identifier2

"zepbound" went from 4 in 2023 to 87 in 2026. Rising related searches include "wegovy side effects", "glp-1 cost" and "tirzepatide". That makes idea 02 a much bigger market than idea 01, though GLP-1 tracking apps already exist, so it will be harder to stand out.

Google Trends shows relative interest, not search counts, and 2026 covers January to October only. Some rising searches for broad terms like "home repair" are local ads and quiz questions, so we only quote the rising searches that are clearly real people.

The ideas

Three things worth testing, best first

Picked for how quickly they could reach people through search, not just how big the market is.

01Top pick

Snap a photo, find out what's wrong at home

Take a photo of a leaking water heater, a mold spot, or a part you can't name. The app tells you what it is, how serious it is, roughly what it costs to fix, and whether to do it yourself or call a pro.

Start with mold and water damage, the two problems with the fastest-growing searches, and answer the health worry first. Then grow into free web pages, one per problem, and a paid home-maintenance tracker with reminders.

  • House & Home
  • Photo search
  • SEO pages
  • Web first, then app

Why it fits

  • Fastest-growing category in the data
  • Google searches for "water damage" are up 222% and "mold in house" up 65% since 2021
  • Rides the shift to searching by photo (25B+ Lens searches a month)
  • Few AI apps here yet
  • Every problem is its own search, so each page can bring in Google traffic
  • The maintenance tracker gives people a reason to come back
02Strong

A companion app for one narrow health group

Pick one group the big fitness apps ignore and serve it well. For example, people on GLP-1 medication who track protein and side effects, or people doing physical therapy at home.

  • Health & Fitness
  • Subscription
  • Daily habit

First test: the free GLP-1 protein calculator →

Why it fits

  • Searches for "zepbound" rose from 4 to 87 since 2023, more than double "home repair"
  • Record $4.5B in-app spending; people already pay
  • Daily tracking builds the habit AI apps lack
  • Small groups gather in easy-to-find communities
03Fast but small

Hundreds of niche calculator and converter pages

Generate a page for each specific question in one niche. It's the quickest way to get Google traffic, but each visitor is worth little, so it works best as a way to bring people to idea 01 or 02.

  • Utility
  • SEO
  • Ships in days

Why it fits

  • People search these when they need an answer right now
  • Cheap to build on our existing web stack

Speed to first users vs. money per user

Our own estimate, not measured data. Top-right is best.

Speed to first users → Money per user → Best 01 Home fix-it: fast through search, earns from a tracker subscription 01 Home fix-it 02 Health niche: slower to reach people, highest willingness to pay 02 Health niche 03 Utility pages: fastest traffic, lowest value per visitor 03 Utility pages

Skipped on purpose: general chatbots (big players win), short-drama video apps (need a content studio and ad budget), and finance (regulation and trust slow everything down).

Before building

Check demand in one afternoon

  1. Google Trends

    Look up the idea's search terms with the "Rising" filter on. Are they growing?

  2. App Store search

    Type the keywords and note what autocomplete suggests. Read the 1–3 star reviews of the top 3 apps.

  3. Reddit

    Count how often the same question comes up each week in r/HomeImprovement or r/fixit.

  4. Ship one page

    Put up a single working page and see whether people find it and use it before building the app.

Sources

Where the numbers come from

Most figures come from Sensor Tower, Adjust and RevenueCat reports, as quoted by the articles below. Some are blog estimates, so treat them as direction, not proof.