Your next install starts as a question to ChatGPT.
The store algorithms and the assistants are two gatekeepers with different rules. Metadata discipline wins the first; citable reputation wins the second; Share of Recommendation measures both.
The App Store and Play Store still route roughly two-thirds of app installs through search and browse. Metadata, screenshots, ratings — the fundamentals still print. But somewhere north of that, a fast-growing slice of first-time app discovery now begins with a prompt: which app should I use to do X?
Two gates, different rules
The store algorithms want metadata discipline, listing-page CRO, and rating-recovery hygiene. The assistants want a citable trail across the open web — reviews on the sources they trained on, category-page presence, structured feature attribution the model can quote back verbatim.
Most ASO practices run only the first gate. That leaves the second on the table, which is a strategic error in 2026 and an operational one in 2027.