This is a whole lot of nothing. These awards are and always have been a way of showcasing great <i>apps</i> on <i>app platforms</i>. They are not "what's the best thing in the world this year that has an app".<p>ChatGPT is a boring app. It doesn't have a ton of platform integrations, it doesn't show off the capabilities of the platforms, it doesn't push any boundaries on what an app can be. The product might be great, but that's not the point.<p>This is my personal opinion based on years of following Apple's awards, I don't have any inside info in my role about this and this is not my employer's opinion.
This article seems to be conflating a lot of things. Saying that they avoided naming it like it was the given choice is quite the flawed assumption.<p>The ChatGPT app itself was a very thin veneer over an online service. It utilizes almost no facilities of the smartphone client, has no local AI or unique intelligence of the device. Indeed, OpenAI left the field open and before they came out with their own there were a myriad of competing facades that were effectively interchangeable.<p>I don't see why that would earn app of the year. I wouldn't even put it in the general conversation.
It does feel like a bit of a snub — my guess is they did so because they see ChatGPT as a direct competitor, and don’t want to draw attention away from their own current or upcoming generative AI efforts.
Is it technically though?<p>I still struggle to find any use to it in my daily life. It is a cool demo, but no one wants to read AI generated text from other people.
I agree with people saying the app wasn't "all that"... But even it was the greatest thing since the iPhone, I don't see Apple nor Google giving them anything. If MSFT were still in the smart phone game however...
This article feels a bit disingenuous. They have no proof of that, and to be fair the ChatGPT is fairly basic, it has millions of users but that's it.<p>I tend to think those awards are probably not "what is the most popular" but "what is the best showcase for our platform".
I might be in the minority here, but I agree with their decision.<p>If you're judging purely on the app, it's not surprising. The app itself is about as basic as they come.<p>On the Apple side, AllTrails won, and it's deserving of that win. It's made some incredible updates this past year with some topnotch design. Flighty would have been another very deserving win.