Liftoff has announced the launch of AppRefinery, an intelligence platform designed to provide app developers and marketers with strategic insights into successful consumer apps across more than 20 categories.
AppRefinery brings together artificial intelligence and analysis from experienced mobile specialists to deliver overviews of top consumer apps. The platform uses a proprietary user motivation model to pinpoint features and strategies that drive user engagement, retention, and revenue. This approach enables users to clearly see where growth opportunities exist in the current app marketplace.
According to Liftoff, AppRefinery combines AI-driven curation with expert human analysis. The platform presents annotated screenshots, walkthroughs tailored for first-time users, and detailed breakdowns of engagement mechanics from leading apps. By analysing a wide range of categories - including e-commerce, social, real-money gaming, iGaming, and utility - AppRefinery allows developers and marketers to understand what is trending and where there may be potential for competitive advantage.
Used alongside Liftoff's monetisation and performance marketing tools, AppRefinery aims to help marketing teams convert competitive intelligence into practical user acquisition and retention campaigns. This level of detail and benchmarking is intended to offer teams a more comprehensive view when planning strategies for app growth and improvement.
Industry perspectives
Brendan Fraher, General Manager of Liftoff Intelligence, explained the rationale behind AppRefinery and its relevance in the current market conditions. In his statement, he said:
"In today's competitive app ecosystem, understanding user engagement is not just an advantage—it's a necessity. We've created a platform that equips developers with deep insights into the engagement mechanics that will help them build better apps."
Fraher highlighted that the complexity and competitiveness of the contemporary mobile app landscape require a more detailed understanding of how consumers interact with individual apps. He added that the platform is built to equip professionals with the data and analysis they require to adapt and thrive.
The launch of AppRefinery is particularly significant following the success of GameRefinery, Liftoff's analytics platform for the mobile gaming sector. By extending a similar depth of analysis to the broader consumer app sphere, Liftoff is aiming to support a wider range of developers and marketing specialists with intelligence that was previously focused mainly on games.
From the perspective of app development teams, having access to up-to-date comparative data on feature trends and user experience is increasingly important. Jackson Shuttleworth, Group Product Manager at Duolingo, commented on the value of the new platform for his team:
"Keeping up with competitive trends in both consumer apps and mobile games is crucial for our product team. We've been long-time partners with Liftoff and now, with AppRefinery, we have an even more powerful tool set to drive our strategy forward."
Shuttleworth's comments underscore the demand among app teams for resources that track and interpret trends across industries, supporting a data-driven approach to product strategy and feature development.
Coverage and integration
AppRefinery currently covers over 20 distinct app verticals, with ongoing updates and additions. Liftoff states that the platform's integration with its broader suite of monetisation and marketing solutions allows for actionable insights to be immediately put into practice.
AppRefinery and GameRefinery now operate together as the Liftoff Intelligence suite, providing coverage of more than 100,000 mobile apps and games. The suite aims to deliver a unified system of competitive, behavioural, and feature-level analytics to support business objectives in user acquisition, engagement, and monetisation across a wide swath of the mobile app market.
