In Apple’s App Store, we can find amazing applications that help us with work, studies, health, photography, creativity and much more. They even give out awards for the best apps of the year (these were the winners in 2024). And yet, we can still come across some real gems of absurdity. Among its more than 1.96 million available apps, the App Store is home to true nonsense. Ridiculous applications that, however strange or useless, are still there. Some even have thousands of downloads. There aren’t many, but they do exist.
The most absurd apps on the Apple Store: humor, nonsense and silliness
Among the most absurd apps in the history of the iPhone, there are some that truly defy all logic. Not because they’re poorly made, but because they simply serve no purpose at all. One example is I Am Rich, an app that consisted of a simple red gem on the screen and was sold for 999.99 dollars. That’s all. A shiny stone and no functionality whatsoever. Apple removed it shortly after launch, but it stayed up long enough for eight people to actually buy it.
There’s a whole category of apps that exist purely to make us laugh. Like iBeer, a classic app from the early iPhone days that turned the screen into a glass of beer and simulated drinking it by tilting the phone. It was a hit back in the day.
And if we keep digging, we find more examples that seem straight out of a joke:
- Is It Dark Outside? tells us whether the sun has set, in case we don’t feel like looking out the window.
- Screaming Goat makes a goat scream every time we tap the screen.
- Plopp – Bubble Wrap simulates bubble wrap so we can pop it with our finger or Apple Pencil.
- Ghost Radar Classic™ supposedly detects nearby ghosts, using random words that can make us a bit nervous.
There are also apps that let us add scratches, dents or broken glass to a photo of a car, others that simulate lighters, electric shavers, fart machines with various sounds, and even massage simulators. There’s something genuinely funny about the fact that, in the middle of all this AI, productivity and professionalism, there’s still room for these ridiculous ideas. Absurdities that make us think, “Who actually took the time to create this?” and that, at the very least, can give us a good laugh.
Many of them appeared back in the days of the iPhone 3G and 3GS, when everything was new and we still didn’t really know what an app was for. And the best part is, some of them still get updates. Because even if they don’t do anything truly useful, someone is keeping them alive.
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