Welcome back to our monthly breakdown of what's actually driving reach, engagement, and downloads across consumer apps.
Each month, we analyze top-performing apps and creator networks across TikTok and Instagram to surface the formats, hooks, and strategies that are working right now.
We’re also covering 5 major niches that collectively generated more than 1 billion views in the last 30 days.
This will update you on trending formats, viral hooks, and new apps, giving you the tools you need to plan your strategy for the month ahead:
- An overview of what happened in the last 30 days
- Top hooks and formats to test in July
- The hottest breakout accounts and apps
- Access to a full list of hundreds of videos you can explore with our advanced analytics
Let's get into it.
What Happened in the Last 30 Days?
Face-forward UGC is outperforming faceless content, with creators using reactions, emotions, and selfie-to-screen transitions to showcase products.
Short-form videos between 8 and 15 seconds delivered the best results.
Categories like Language Learning, AI Productivity, Religion & Faith, Fitness, Creative AI Tools, and Social Networking remained highly active.
The average engagement rate ranged from 11% to 13%, with top-performing videos often exceeding 15%.
Health, Fitness, & Well-Being
The Health, Fitness & Well Being niche generated more than 213M views from just 252 videos this month.
Interestingly, half of those views came from only 25 videos, showing that a few breakout hits are driving most of the views, as always.
Top accounts in this space saw engagement rates between 10% and 15%, with some reaching as high as 25%.
Top Hooks & Formats to Test
- “HEADLINE:
Dominos crust contains pesticide at highest level recorded”
From: Exposr
Views: 17.5M
Format type: Faceless
Format details: A video showing a food-making process with text on screen, then showing the app use case.
2. “POV: your dih pic got leaked by a gossip magazine in 2003 but no one cared because you looked like this”
From: PSL
Views: 8.5M
Format type: Faceless
Format details: A clip of a celebrity or a popular personality with a hook text overlay.
3. “soft server beer?”
From: PocketScale
Views: 6.7M
Format type: Face
Format details: With a screenshot comment acting as a hook, and the video itself is an image compilation.
Apart from these 3 formats, here’s a list of more than 250 top videos and hooks in this niche:
Biggest Growth Factors
Lookmaxxing content continues to dominate
Apps focused on appearance improvement, confidence, and self-transformation are everywhere right now. They rely on creator networks to maintain constant visibility.
Food scanner apps are having a moment
People have always been curious about what’s actually in their food. Content exposing ingredients, additives, and potential health risks is generating millions of views, making food scanning one of the fastest-growing sub-categories in the niche.
ADHD content remains strong
People strongly connect with content that reflects their daily experiences. ADHD focused videos continue to generate high shares, comments, and conversations, helping these apps grow organically.
Education & Productivity
The Education & Productivity niche generated more than 110M views from 237 viral videos over the last 30 days.
Language learning remains the fastest-growing vertical, accounting for 55% of views in the niche.
Apps focused on studying, note-taking, and skill development are also gaining traction.
Top Hooks & Formats to Test
- “Practice Japanese with Racist I say red You say blue”
From: HelloTalk
Views: 2.6M
Format type: Face
Format details: A 2-minute-long video of a person in a conversation-style format with questions and responses on screen.
2. “Why tf is Russian so hard 😭”
From: Airlearn
Views: 2.59M
Format type: Face
Format details: Sarcastic language learning video, where the creator records herself before showing the app in motion.
3. “How do you say shoes in Italian?” 🇮🇹
From: Pingo AI
Views: 1.9M
Format type: Face
Format details: The creator showcases the app’s learning experience.
Apart from these 3, here’s a list of more than 260 top videos and hooks in this niche:
Biggest Growth Factors
“Why is [language] so hard”
This hook and format is the biggest growth source for the leading apps in the niche.
School might be closed for the season, but StudyTok is not
Some of the top-performing videos came from study-focused apps using extremely short, attention-grabbing formats. At the same time, AI note-taking apps like Coconote are growing quickly by showing how AI can simplify studying and note-taking.
Skill-building content is finding a global audience
Apps focused on drawing, coding, and creative learning are performing well in multiple languages and regions, making this a strong content category.
Dating & Relationships
The Dating & Relationships niche generated around 27M views from 42 viral videos over this month.
Compared to other niches, the total content volume is smaller, but the impact is much bigger.
The highest-performing videos had no app mention at all, proving that emotional storytelling continues to lead the way in this category.
Top Hooks & Formats to Test
- “My cheating husband wants to know why I’m not cooking him dinner after my mom passed away!?😱”
From: Cheater Busters
Views: 2.54M
Format type: Face
Format details: A woman recording herself during a drama-filled conversation, exposing her cheating husband through the app.
2. “In the most selfish way possible, I hope no one admires you the way I do”
From: Couples360
Views: 2M
Format type: Face
Format details: A couple recording a video together, showing the app’s features.
3. “Is it cheating?? pt. 328”
From: Loverzz
Views: 1.88M
Format type: Face
Format details: A couple playing “Is it cheating or not?” Q&A game using the Lovers app.
Apart from these 3, here’s a list of 50+ top videos and hooks in this niche:
Biggest Growth Factors
Relationship affirmation content is leading the niche
Videos centered around love, commitment, and relationship values are getting some of the strongest results. People love content that feels personal, relatable, and emotionally meaningful.
Question-based relationship content keeps performing well
Simple hooks like “questions every couple should ask” still drive strong engagement. These videos encourage viewers to save, share, and send content directly to their partners, helping them spread organically.
Relationship drama remains a viral machine
Some of the biggest videos were created around cheating, personal stories, dating experiences, and relationship drama. These topics go viral like wildfire.
Religion & Faith
The Religion & Faith niche generated over 45M views this month while maintaining an impressive 17.7% average engagement rate, making it the most engaged category we analyzed.
However, the biggest wins aren’t always coming from apps. In many cases, organic faith-based content performs better than sponsored or promoted content.
Top Hooks & Formats to Test
- “No, you lost the chance to apologize to me.”
From: Mason Alford
Views: 4.3M
Format type: Face
Format details: A man calmly sitting and talking, explaining more about the hook.
2. “Guys I am a Christian, but my non-Christian friend asked why God made the tree in Eden if He already knew Adam and Eve would eat from it, and I didn’t know what to say”
Form: Creed
Views: 4.28M
Format type: Face
Format details: A woman recording a brief video with a slightly confused or shocking reaction.
3. “Prioritizing Proclivities”
From: Blessed
Views: 2.6M
Format type: Face
Format details: A man sitting in a car explaining the whole scenario/story.
Apart from these 3, here’s a list of 60+ top videos and hooks in this niche:
Biggest Growth Factors
“Message From God” remains highly effective
Simple prayer-focused videos and direct messages of encouragement have always worked in this niche, and they continue to generate shares and community engagement.
Faith observations and personal reflections work exceptionally well
Creators sharing relatable thoughts about faith, church, or spirituality are consistently generating viral results, especially among younger audiences.
Religious authority builds trust
Content featuring pastors, priests, and faith leaders performs particularly well. Viewers see these creators as credible and trustworthy sources.
Faith creators are blending humor with spirituality
One of the fastest-growing formats combines faith and comedy. Creators are using relatable situations, POV videos, and light humor to make faith content more entertaining.
Social Networking
The Social Networking niche generated over 56M views over the last 30 days.
Organic content regularly achieved engagement rates as high as 15%, with 12% being the average. However, a larger number of these views do come from paid ads with significantly low engagement.
Top Hooks & Formats to Test
- “Your sign to delete snap.”
From: Locket
Views: 4.68M
Format type: Face
Format details: A very short clip of a woman showing her face, then proceeding to showing the app’s main feature.
2. “how to document the best summer of your life”
From: Yope
Views: 1.5M
Format type: Face
Format details: A get-ready-with-me type video, while also showing and explaining how the Yope app works.
3. “The Barbie movie was released before tampons were tested with actual human blood (2023).”
From: Peanut
Views: 1.2M
Format type: Faceless
Format details: A slideshow of movies and celebrity images with interesting facts in each slide.
Apart from these 3, here’s a list of 100+ top videos and hooks in this niche:
Biggest Growth Factors
Ultra-short content is working well
The strongest organic performers are almost all between 6 and 15 seconds long. These videos feel authentic, product-focused, and easy to consume, making them ideal for social networking apps.
Branded creator networks are scaling fast
Apps like Yope and Airbuds are building networks of smaller creators who consistently post content around the product.
Breakout Accounts & Apps
Solid Starts
Solid Starts is the clearest big winner in the set: over 1B views, Top 100 in 50 countries, and $1M MRR.
The founder built trust with educational baby-feeding content long before pushing the app, so the audience was already there when conversion content started being posted.
Creed
Creed crossed 300M views and $100K MRR by rotating the emotional trigger behind the content.
Confession, relationship drama, and fear/conspiracy were the main angles used.
WayShot / Pecra
Two breakout photo apps are using the same viral slideshow format, but the results couldn’t be more different.
WayShot built 150M+ views and $100K MRR, while copycat Pecra reached $200K MRR and 300K downloads with 1/5 of the views by using a much more aggressive paywall.
Cantina
Cantina got a fresh wave of traction from a creator who repackaged the app into dramatic relationship content.
One video alone pulled 11.7M views and 10.6K comments, with the immediate repeat also hitting 1.7M.
Max Taller
Max Taller generated 23.9M views by selling the dream of getting taller, even after you’ve lost all hope.
The content leans hard into height anxiety and transformation hooks, then introduces the app as the system that can get results.
Newcomers to Watch
WAKE UP
WAKE UP is a mission-based alarm app that launched around 35 days ago and already broke into the Top 100 for Health & Fitness in 12 countries.
A highly relatable "annoying boyfriend alarm" video reached roughly 5M views by showing how hard the app makes it to turn the alarm off.
Push Up Arena
Push Up Arena turned push-ups into a game mechanic, with an AR-style enemy health bar dropping as you do reps.
That simple visual helped it crack the Top 100 in 50+ countries in just over a month, with two main accounts generating 11M+ views.
Pose Genius
Pose Genius crossed 10K downloads by centering its content on a very specific insecurity: not knowing how to pose in photos.
Two creators drove most of the traction, combining "I don't know how to pose" hooks with app demos that made the value instantly obvious.
Medeo
Medeo, an AI video generator, reached 20K downloads and $20K MRR in ~100 days.
The app is being sold as the shortcut behind easy-money screenshots and passive-income claims.
Clicked
Clicked launched into an audience that was already primed for it.
In month one, it reached 20K downloads and $10K MRR, with a founder-led Instagram post pulling 2.6M views.
Navii AI
Navii AI is still early on search traffic but already building real momentum through creator-led remote-work and job-search pain content, with about 6M views.
Trends to Watch Out For
The POV selfie-to-screen format is still a main performer, while the chaotic AI professor keeps driving growth for education, productivity, and language learning apps.
AI-generated “Text-to-Song” content is also expanding beyond creative tools into broader entertainment and social content.
You should also keep an eye on World Cup-related content, before-and-after transformation videos, relationship question hooks, and social experiment formats.
Free Resources & Next Steps
Every month, we also put out fresh resources designed to save you time, help you stay ahead of the game, and ensure that every piece of content you create has a genuine chance of going viral (and converting).
Dive into our full hooks dataset for ideas that are already winning, explore 50+ faceless formats that are easy to adapt and scale, or check out our How-to TikTok Guide if you're new to the platform.
In case you're struggling with turning views into real results, our TikTok Marketing Funnel walks you step-by-step through increasing conversions and growing your app or brand faster.
Access the full resource collection here.
About the library
the library is a growth-focused research and content platform built for consumer apps.
We analyze what's working in organic distribution across short-form platforms, from viral formats and content strategies to deep-dive playbooks.
Our goal is to expose what's out there and help founders and marketers grow smarter and faster.
For more daily insights, trends, and bite-sized hacks, follow us on X, LinkedIn and YouTube (here and here).