All Things Wrapped

For better or worse, nearly every app now features a "year in review" (wrapped) functionality. Let's explore the most prominent ones and award titles for best-in-class, most-paywalled-wrap, and el-classico-wrap.

Changes Made:

• Rephrased "For good and bad almost all apps have a “year in review” (wrapped) functionality." to "For better or worse, nearly every app now features a "year in review" (wrapped) functionality."

• Changed "Let’s take a look at most prominent ones, and give our awards for best-in-class, most-paywalled-wrap, el-classico-wrap…" to "Let's explore the most prominent ones and award titles for best-in-class, most-paywalled-wrap, and el-classico-wrap."

But first… what makes wrap click

1. User at the center
   The data must be relevant and interesting without crossing the line into "creepy." Give the user insights they didn't realize they had, but do not shock them.

2. Make it POP!
   It needs to be aesthetically striking. One look at a shared screenshot should immediately tell people exactly which app it came from.

3. Quality over Quantity
   Never throw a Wrapped together at the last minute using a clunky webview. Bugs and broken swipe gestures are the fastest way to ruin the user experience.

4. Easy share
   Even if 90% of users just take a screenshot, provide a "Save Image" or "Share" button for that perfect high-res look.

5. Short and Sweet
   Keep it concise. Nobody wants to click through 20 pages of generic statistics about all users on your platform.

6. Topping it
   Advanced animations and interactions are great "sprinkles," but they won’t save a Wrapped that's built on boring metrics.

7. Data is… everything
   Remember to test if all users have required data, or handle such cases. Check if screens looks good for heavy users with thousands of data points. They are the key audience after all.

Bonus - remember to add analytics also to the wrapped functionality, seeing which metrics are most shared or screenshotted - will allow you to improve it for the next year, or consider if such metric should be visible all-year-round?

The OG, "El Classico" Wrap

Spotify.

This goes without saying. A company that brought us “Wrapped” in 2016, still stays at the forefront of wrapping things. Building features on top of wrapped itself and making comparisons of years in review between friends easier than ever. Seeing Spotify Wrapped is like hearing the first Christmas song in a shopping mall: you know exactly what’s coming, and you better prepare for the inevitable hailstorm of Instagram Stories from your friends.

Pay-To-See Wrap

Strava.

I like Strava, but I don’t "monthly subscription" like them. Restricting your year-end stats to Premium accounts is a bold business move. It’s likely designed to nudge "fence-sitters" into paying, and they probably get away with it because their hardcore power users are already subscribed. For the rest of us? Our fitness achievements stay a mystery.

🐛-Wrap

Koleo.

Koleo is a lifesaver for buying train tickets in Poland - mostly because the low bar from official operators. However, their "Wrapped" feels like a last-minute project. It is a buggy webview crammed into the app. Some of their users received the push notification only to find a blank screen and broken dreams.

Seagull-Wrap

Bolt.

I’m not sure but this wrapped is 90% about “Sigmund Seagull” and 10% about you and your accomplishments. If you are a fan of seagulls…I bet you already can’t wait for 2026 edition. For everyone else, it was a bit of a "wait, what?" moment.

¿hablas Wrapped?

Duolingo.

Duolingo is 99% gamification and 1% Owl-induced Stockholm Syndrome, so they couldn’t possibly skip the year-in-review trend. Their Wrapped is a masterclass in execution: simple, data-rich, and visually spot-on. It’s the perfect way to feel guilty about that 200-day streak you dropped in July.

Tarif-Wrapped

Uber.

Uber’s Wrapped is exclusively for US customers. Whether it was a lack of resources, weird data decisions, some technical issues, or the iron fist of Europe’s GDPR laws - the rest of the world is left in the dark, about their travel habits.

AI-Assisted-Wrap

Cursor.

If you work in tech, this was the most shared Wrapped of 2024. As an AI-assisted code editor, seeing how many thousands of lines of code you didn't actually write yourself is the ultimate modern-day productivity flex. In my case, this is good reminder that “Year in review” doesn’t work well with data viz, if you have 3 days to work with. However community seems enjoying it immensely, and it has generated significant buzz on social media - extending well beyond the tech core and onto LinkedIn and X.

"I Didn't Know I Needed This" Wrap

OpenRouter.ai & Lidl

OpenRouter (the pay-as-you-go LLM proxy) delivered a surprisingly clean summary of AI usage that I wasn't expecting but thoroughly enjoyed.

Screenshots from Lidl Polska FB post.

Lidl - We are already past the point where seeing a breakdown of your most-bought grocery items is terrifying - after all, this is a loyalty program. Showing part of this data to the user is quite interesting. However, looking at the mixed bag of user reviews and stability issues (in my case, a crash on app start), prioritizing stability over features could help the app a bit more.

Spotlight-Wrap

Raycast.

Raycast is the superior replacement for macOS Spotlight, and their Wrapped reflects that. With a clean, Apple-esque aesthetic that looks like a hardware keynote slide, it earns its place in the spotlight.

Ok-ish-Wrap

Suunto.

Suunto is a perfect example of how to utilize existing functionality and data visualization effectively. It’s on point and avoids fancy animations in favor of reusing established data elements. It feels like a very smart, efficient use of limited development resources to give users exactly what they want without over-engineering it.

Too-personal Wrap

Whoop.

This one is PACKED to the brim with personal data. I actually had a hard time finding a generic enough screenshot to share that didn't reveal my entire life story. Very few apps can get a free pass for having such a complicated, long, and deeply personal "Year in Review," but since Whoop’s entire goal is to coach you based on your biometrics, it hits the mark perfectly.

Podium

1. Spotify - Still the gold standard. They deliver a polished experience with clever new features and slick animations without ever losing sight of the key data users actually care about.

2. Whoop - They perfectly seized the opportunity to coach the user, summarizing a year's worth of complex health data into a two-minute glance.

3. Cursor - The new kid on the block. It’s throwing unexpected punches at the sleeping competition, proving that even a developer utility tool can fight for the hearts and minds of its customers - while racking up likes and shares on social media.

This list will be extended as new wraps are unwrapped. Waiting for you Reddit Recap.