What Is the State of App Development in 2026?

Question

What is going on in the world of pure IOS/Android app development?How is AI/LLMs affecting app development? what has changed in App Development in the past 2-5 years? What does a career in only app development look like nowadays?Thank you!

mrKola · Accepted Answer

It is bad. Layoffs everywhere. Google is becoming apple. Companies want you to do the job of 6 engineers using ai.The market is saturated for new apps.

drrob · Answer

I'm have a game on both app stores, built in .net Maui. It earns enough to keep a roof over my head.AI is useless when developing with Maui, as it's too new of a development framework for any AI's knowledgebase to have a clue what to do with it.

What Is the State of App Development in 2026?

What is going on in the world of pure IOS/Android app development?
How is AI/LLMs affecting app development? what has changed in App Development in the past 2-5 years? What does a career in only app development look like nowadays?
Thank you!

It is bad. Layoffs everywhere. Google is becoming apple. Companies want you to do the job of 6 engineers using ai.
The market is saturated for new apps.

I'm have a game on both app stores, built in .net Maui. It earns enough to keep a roof over my head.
AI is useless when developing with Maui, as it's too new of a development framework for any AI's knowledgebase to have a clue what to do with it.