A new independent, AI-driven app quality awards program based on unitQ AI analysis of 83 million public app store reviews across more than 6,700 apps.
SAN FRANCISCO, May 21, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — unitQ, the leader in AI quality intelligence, today launched the 2026 Epic Awards — a recognition program honoring the products whose users consistently report the best digital experiences. Winners were selected after unitQ’s AI analyzed 83 million public Apple App Store and Google Play reviews across more than 6,700 apps, representing one of the largest analyses of mobile app quality ever conducted from public user feedback.
“Your users decided. The data confirmed.”
The methodology is simple: no nominations, applications, judging panels, or paid submissions. Only public app store reviews across the Apple App Store and Google Play, analyzed at scale by unitQ’s AI.
Industry awards in the customer experience and product quality space have historically relied on vendor submissions, judging panels, or self-reported criteria. The Epic Awards were designed to take a different approach by recognizing companies based entirely on what their users publicly report about their experiences.
Using proprietary AI models trained to identify quality signals and customer sentiment patterns, unitQ’s AI categorized and analyzed 83 million public reviews across more than 100 languages. Every qualifying app then received a unitQ Score from 0 to 100 — a measure of the proportion of users reporting a seamless experience, derived entirely from public reviews. Winners were selected based on the highest scores within each category.
The data makes clear how difficult it is to consistently deliver frictionless digital experiences at scale. The average unitQ Score across all 6,700+ apps analyzed was 60, which corresponds to a “Fair” rating. More than a third of apps scored in the “Poor” range, while only 7% reached the Epic tier. Ultimately, just 40 companies earned an Epic Award.
“Quality isn’t what you say it is. It’s what your users feel, post, share, and pass along to the next person deciding whether to download your app or your competitor’s,” said Christian Wiklund, Co-founder and CEO of unitQ. “We built the Epic Awards because no other recognition program in this space evaluates every qualifying app from public data — regardless of whether they’re a customer. These 40 companies earned this. Their users put them here.”
Methodology
To qualify, an app needed at least 50,000 public reviews across the App Store and Google Play during the 2025 calendar year, sustained customer engagement throughout the year, and a company size of at least 50 employees. The unitQ Score is calculated using unitQ’s proprietary AI, which classifies customer feedback signals across more than 100 languages and assigns each app a 0–100 quality score.
The full winner list, methodology, and category breakdowns are available at epicawards.unitq.com.
About unitQ
unitQ is the AI quality intelligence platform that unifies every customer signal into one system, connects it to the business metrics that drive each company, and tells every team exactly what to prioritize — before KPIs move. Six purpose-built products in one platform give organizations everything they need to detect issues early, quantify business impact, benchmark competitors, evaluate support quality, and act on customer signals across every channel. Companies behind products millions of consumers use every day, including Pinterest, Adobe, and PayPal, trust unitQ to close the gap between what customers experience and what companies know about it. Learn more at unitq.com.
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