10 Apps That Use The Challenges Feature

This post is part of a series on how gamification mechanics are used effectively in various types of consumer apps. You may find these gamification examples helpful if you are looking to incorporate gamification into your product strategy.

The Challenges Feature and Its Role in Gamification

In gamification, "Challenges" are specific, goal-oriented tasks or objectives presented to users. They are interesting because they provide a clear path for progression, offering a sense of accomplishment upon completion. Apps use challenges to improve engagement by motivating users to explore features, master skills, and consistently return to the platform. This ultimately enhances user retention and adds value by providing structured learning, personalized experiences, and a feeling of progress. Now, without further ado, here are 10 apps that use the challenges mechanic to delight and retain users.

10 Apps That Use The Challenges Feature

Duolingo

Duolingo is a language-learning platform that uses gamification to motivate users to learn new languages through points, levels, and streaks.

Duolingo's Challenges are a key tool for boosting user engagement and retention. They provide short-term, focused goals beyond the standard lesson completion. These challenges often involve achieving a certain number of XP, completing specific lessons, or practicing certain skills within a limited timeframe. This creates a sense of urgency and motivates users to interact with the app more frequently. By gamifying the learning process further, Challenges offer a structured path towards progress. They break down the larger goal of language learning into smaller, manageable tasks. This makes the process feel less daunting and more rewarding as users experience frequent wins. Completing Challenges unlocks badges, gems, and league advancements, providing tangible rewards that reinforce positive learning behaviors. Ultimately, Challenges add value by encouraging consistent practice and reinforcing learned material. They push users to explore different aspects of the app, from listening exercises to speaking practice, improving overall fluency. By making learning fun and rewarding through short-term objectives, Duolingo effectively uses Challenges to keep users coming back and actively progressing in their language studies.

Strava

Strava is a social network for athletes that tracks activities and allows users to share progress, join challenges, and compete on leaderboards.

Strava leverages Challenges to boost user engagement and keep people returning to the app. Challenges, which can be based on distance, elevation, or time, provide users with specific goals to strive for. This adds a competitive element, motivating them to use the app more frequently to track their progress and compete with others. The sense of accomplishment gained from completing a Challenge provides a positive reinforcement loop, increasing the likelihood of continued app usage. Furthermore, Challenges add value by connecting users to a broader community. By participating in Challenges, users can see how they stack up against friends, other athletes, or even professionals. Some Challenges are sponsored by brands, offering exclusive rewards or discounts upon completion. This gamified approach not only makes exercise more engaging but also exposes users to new products and opportunities, enhancing their overall experience. Ultimately, Strava's Challenges are a smart strategy for improving retention. By providing clear goals, fostering competition, and offering rewards, Challenges encourage consistent use of the platform, build a sense of community, and keep users motivated to achieve their fitness goals.

Nike Run Club

Nike Run Club tracks runs and provides challenges, badges, and leaderboards to encourage users to achieve their fitness goals and compete with friends.

The Nike Run Club (NRC) app leverages its Challenges feature to boost user engagement and retain runners. Challenges provide a clear goal, such as running a certain distance in a month or participating in a set number of runs. This gives users a tangible objective to work towards, encouraging them to use the app more frequently. Completing challenges provides a sense of accomplishment, further motivating continued use. NRC Challenges also foster a sense of community. Users can join public challenges and see their progress relative to other runners. This creates friendly competition and support, making the app more social and engaging. Sharing progress on social media, a direct option within the app, extends this community feel and promotes the app to potential new users. Ultimately, the Challenges feature adds value by providing motivation, structure, and a social experience that improves the overall running experience. This translates into increased app usage, higher user retention, and a stronger connection between runners and the Nike brand. By offering achievable goals and fostering a sense of community, NRC challenges provide an incentive to keep running with Nike.

Quizlet

Quizlet is a learning tool that allows users to create and study flashcards, with points and badges awarded for mastering different subjects.

Quizlet's Challenges feature aims to make learning more engaging and improve user retention. Instead of passively reviewing flashcards, users actively participate in timed games and activities. This adds a competitive element, motivating them to learn quickly and accurately. By presenting information in diverse and interactive formats, Challenges cater to different learning styles and prevent boredom, encouraging users to return to the app regularly. The Challenges are designed to reinforce learning concepts. By requiring quick recall and application of knowledge, the feature helps users solidify their understanding. Success in these challenges also provides a sense of accomplishment, boosting confidence and further motivating them to continue learning. Ultimately, the Challenges feature adds value to Quizlet by making studying more fun and effective. This leads to increased user satisfaction and a higher likelihood that users will continue using the app for their learning needs, solidifying Quizlet's position as a valuable study tool.

Brilliant

Brilliant.org offers courses in math, science, and computer science through problem-solving. Users earn points and badges as they progress.

Brilliant's Challenges feature is designed to keep users engaged and returning to the app. These challenges offer a structured, goal-oriented way to practice skills and learn new concepts. By completing daily or weekly sets of problems, users experience a sense of accomplishment and track their progress, motivating them to continue learning. The challenges also add value by exposing users to a variety of problem types and difficulty levels within a specific subject. This helps solidify understanding and identify areas for improvement. The competitive aspect, often involving leaderboards and social sharing, fosters a sense of community and pushes users to strive for better results. Ultimately, the Challenges feature transforms learning from a solitary activity into an engaging and rewarding experience. By offering manageable goals, encouraging consistent practice, and providing a sense of progress, Brilliant increases user retention and helps users achieve their learning objectives more effectively.

Fitbit

Fitbit tracks activity levels and offers badges and challenges to motivate users to reach fitness goals.

The Fitbit app utilizes Challenges to boost user engagement and keep people using the platform. These challenges, ranging from step goals to distance races, introduce a competitive element, motivating users to move more and track their activity regularly. The app facilitates social interaction by allowing users to invite friends and family to participate, fostering a sense of community and shared accomplishment. This social aspect adds accountability and encouragement, pushing users to remain active and consistent with their fitness routines. Furthermore, Challenges provide tangible rewards and recognition within the Fitbit ecosystem. Users earn badges and achievements for completing challenges, offering a sense of progress and accomplishment. These virtual accolades tap into users' desire for recognition and validation, reinforcing positive behavior. The app also provides progress updates and leaderboards, allowing users to track their performance relative to others, further fueling their competitive spirit and driving engagement. Ultimately, Fitbit's Challenges feature enhances user retention by making fitness more enjoyable and interactive. The combination of competition, social connection, and tangible rewards creates a compelling experience that keeps users coming back. By consistently participating in challenges, users integrate Fitbit into their daily lives, leading to increased long-term usage and a greater perceived value of the platform as a whole.

Habitica

Habitica is a habit-tracking app that turns real-life tasks into a role-playing game, where users earn rewards and level up by completing habits and tasks.

Habitica's Challenges feature is a core component of its gamified productivity system, designed to boost user engagement and retention. Challenges provide a structured path for users to adopt new habits or break old ones, offering a predefined set of tasks and goals centered around a specific theme. This pre-built framework eliminates the initial friction of creating individual tasks, streamlining the process of habit formation. Users can join public challenges created by the community, or create their own private challenges tailored to personal needs. The value of Challenges lies in their communal aspect and clear objectives. Participants benefit from shared accountability, encouragement, and the collective experience of working towards a common goal. Progress is tracked visibly, creating a sense of momentum and accomplishment. The challenges often incorporate rewards within the Habitica game, like experience points, gold, and equipment, which further incentivizes participation and drives continued use of the app. Ultimately, Challenges contribute to retention by providing a dynamic and evolving experience within Habitica. Users constantly find new challenges to tackle, preventing the routine of daily habit tracking from becoming stale. This ongoing flow of new goals, combined with the social support and rewarding mechanics, ensures users remain actively engaged with the app and continue to benefit from its productivity-enhancing features.

SuperBetter

SuperBetter increases your resilience, strengthens relationships, finds meaning, and achieves ambitious goals. Unlock your heroic potential and overcome real-life challenges.

SuperBetter uses the "Challenges" feature to keep users engaged and coming back to the app. These Challenges present users with small, manageable tasks designed to build resilience and improve mental well-being. By framing everyday actions as game-like quests, SuperBetter gamifies self-improvement, making it more appealing and less daunting. Completion of Challenges leads to rewards and progress within the app, further incentivizing consistent use. This approach benefits users by making positive change achievable. Breaking down larger goals into smaller Challenges makes them less overwhelming. Successfully completing these tasks creates a sense of accomplishment and reinforces positive behavior. Furthermore, the variety of Challenges offered caters to diverse user needs and preferences. Users can choose Challenges that align with their specific goals, whether it's reducing stress, improving sleep, or increasing productivity. This personalization enhances the app's value and makes it more relevant to each individual's journey. The consistent stream of fresh Challenges keeps the experience dynamic, combatting boredom and promoting long-term retention.

DoorDash

DoorDash is a delivery service. They allow users to receive points and other achievements by ordering food often.

DoorDash uses Challenges in its app to motivate Dashers and encourage them to complete more deliveries. These Challenges offer extra pay for completing a set number of deliveries within a specific timeframe. By providing short-term earning goals, DoorDash incentivizes Dashers to work during periods of high demand or low driver availability, smoothing out delivery times for customers. This system benefits both DoorDash and the Dashers. DoorDash improves its service reliability by having more drivers available when needed. Dashers can earn more money by strategically choosing to work during Challenge periods, effectively boosting their hourly rate. It creates a gamified experience, making Dashing more engaging and less monotonous. Ultimately, Challenges increase Dasher retention. By offering opportunities to earn more, Dashers are less likely to switch to competing delivery platforms. The feature also adds value to the Dasher experience, transforming a routine task into a potentially more profitable and rewarding activity.

Tynker

Tynker teaches kids to code through fun, interactive games and projects. It covers a range of programming concepts.

Tynker's Challenges act as a cornerstone of their engagement and retention strategy. These guided tutorials present users with specific coding tasks designed to build skills incrementally. By breaking down complex coding concepts into manageable steps and providing clear objectives, Challenges make learning accessible and less intimidating, particularly for beginners. This structured approach provides a sense of accomplishment as users progress, motivating them to continue learning. The challenges also add value by introducing new programming concepts and tools within a relevant context. They expose users to a diverse range of coding skills, from simple sequencing to more advanced topics like variables and loops. This progressive learning path ensures that users are constantly expanding their skillset, improving their confidence, and building towards more complex projects. Ultimately, Tynker uses Challenges to create a positive feedback loop. Successfully completing a challenge boosts a user's confidence, encourages further exploration, and reinforces their coding knowledge. This continuous cycle of learning, achieving, and progressing keeps users engaged and returning to the platform, increasing their retention and maximizing the value they derive from the app.

Conclusion

These are just a few examples of how challenges can be used as a gamification mechanic to improve consumer apps and platforms. We hope you found these examples inspiring and that they help you think about how you can incorporate gamification into your own product strategy.

If you're looking to build gamification into your app or platform, we encourage you to check out Trophy, a set of APIs and tools that make it easy.