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AR drawing app where you prop your phone over paper and trace the screen. Mainly Android users, ads plus cheap subscription. Pure tracing already has leaders and factory clones; the gap is 'actually teaching you to draw'.
Open Trackable · Android-driven category, the gap is in niches First seen 2026-11-01 · last updated 2026-11-02
- Status
- Open (demand and scale confirmed; pure tracing is getting crowded, niches still open)
- Why now, and how long the window lasts
- Videos of "drawing with your phone" have been on TikTok and Reels for a long time, and the content demos itself. The tech is simple (camera preview plus a semi-transparent layer), and students in emerging markets use Android. VanDraw launched in September, and its October rating growth ran 5–6× its normal pace, so late entrants can still get traction. The window for pure tracing is closing (factory clones are already many); the "teaching" niche is measured in quarters (inference).
- Confidence
- Medium. Demand and scale are high-confidence (ARtie 1.93M installs, top 13 in A&D top grossing across 4 stores); whether small teams can make money is low-confidence (ARtie is the only one that made top grossing). Would be overturned if: VanDraw falls below 10k when 11-28 shows 30 days of install increments; or ARtie drops out of the top 20 in A&D top grossing in au and us.
Evidence
Grouped by store. Each group starts with the charts that can be graphed (real curves, data dates below the chart), then the scanner's original notes and source links.
Google Play4 evidence items · 5 products with curves
ARtie Lab: AR Drawing & Sketch Tenet Apps FZCO
Google Play · Launched 2026-05-28 · 11-07 installs 1,965,488
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
VanDraw VanDraw
Google Play · Launched 2026-09-08 · 11-07 installs 218,203
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
Sketch Steps: AI Loomis Draw Recep Can Akdemir
Google Play · Launched 2026-08-14 · 11-07 installs 464,782
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
ArtHub: Trace & Draw Sketch Pixin Studio
Google Play · Launched 2026-09-07 · 11-07 installs 918,793
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
AR Drawing: Paint & Sketch Art GlaryoAI
Google Play · Launched 2026-05-15 · 11-07 installs 287,995
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
- Google Play (all stores, 11-02): ARtie Lab: AR Drawing & Sketch (com.tenetapps.artielab, Tenet Apps FZCO, UAE, 05-28 launch) 1,934,174 installs, 100,204 ratings (last 3 days +543 to +619 per day), Art & Design top grossing au #8, ca #9, hk #11, us #12, fr #13, de #21 (report ca #10, others match); $9.99–29.99.
- Google Play (all stores, 11-02): VanDraw (com.vandraw, 09-08 launch) 179,374 installs (report 140,444, +38,930 this step), 6,343 ratings (about +560 per day), Education top free ph #15, top free #21,24 in mx; not in top grossing; $4.99–49.99.
- Google Play (all stores, 11-02): Sketch Steps: AI Loomis Draw (com.sketchsteps.app, Turkish indie dev) 424,240 installs, 1,275 ratings, A&D top free ph #28; it uses Loomis construction lines to teach portrait drawing step by step.
- Google Play (all stores, 11-02 checked, not named in the report): other new apps in the same 180 days include ArtHub: Trace & Draw (com.pixin.drawing.art.editor) 883,267 installs, AR Drawing: Paint & Sketch (com.ardrawing.sketch.trace.art.design) 278,832, Anime Drawing - AR Sketch 277,682, AR Draw App: Sketch & Trace 246,547, PrismArt 139,480, Arteasy 103,380, all only on top free. The only one that got into local top grossing is ARtie.
Qualifying list 1 pieces of evidence · 2 products with curves
VanDraw VanDraw Limited
App Store · launched 2026-08-26 · US store rating 624 · charted in 11-08 of 80 stores
Data 2026-11-01 → 2026-11-02 (2 days, 2 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 8 observations). Best rank across each day's category charts
Google Play · Launched 2026-09-25 · 11-07 installs 177,444
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.
Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)
- Qualifiers (11-02): VanDraw is being tracked on both ends. Play 10-30 rating momentum qualified (+502 today, 6× its daily average since launch), 11-02 +563 today, "flat"; App Store (6803028658) +155 over two days, "flat". Art Mate (com.artmate.draw.together.lessons.battle, lenoox) 10-31 qualified with 100k installs, 11-02 rating 353 (+60), "steadily rising".
App Store1 evidence items · 2 products with curves
ARtie Lab: AR Drawing & Sketch Tenet Apps FZCO
App Store · launched 2025-11-11 · US store rating 6,334 · charted in 11-08 of 78 stores
US storeAustraliaItaly
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day
Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.
Sketch Steps: AI Loomis Draw Recep Can Akdemir
App Store · launched 2026-05-12 · US store rating 179 · charted in 11-08 of 66 stores
GY #111
Data day 2026-11-06, only 1 days so far. Lower rank is higher; gaps are days it wasn't charted
Data 2026-10-30 → 2026-11-05 (7 days, 7 observations). Best rank across each day's category charts
- App Store (all stores, 11-02): the same apps have far fewer ratings on iOS: ARtie Lab (6754274246) across 87 stores, about 11,497 ratings combined (Play is 8.7× iOS); VanDraw (6803028658) across 80 stores, 1,333 (4.8×); Sketch Steps (6763632360) 868 (only 1.5×).
Meta Ad Library1 evidence items
- Meta Ad Library (11-02): searches for ar drawing, trace drawing, vandraw matched no advertisers for these apps; the term list doesn't cover them.
Already doing it
ARtie Lab (leader, the only one in top grossing), VanDraw, Sketch Steps, Art Mate, plus factory clones like ArtHub, PrismArt and Arteasy.
The hardest step
Monetization. The Art & Design top grossing chart has only 25 slots in au, 20 in ca, 18 in fr (report numbers): big volume, little money. Differentiation has to be in "teaching" (construction lines, step by step, by subject), not in tracing itself.
Who it's for
1 people, Android developer, ads plus a cheap subscription; split by age or subject (kids, anime, handwriting, tattoo sketches), or use generative AI to turn any photo into step-by-step line art.
Should every product builder know this?
No. But the view that "the ratio of ratings between two platforms for the same product decides which side to build first" (ARtie's Play ratings are 9× its iOS) is worth knowing.
Change log
2026-11-02
Backfill check: ARtie Lab ca A&D top grossing #10 → #9, au #8, us #12, fr #13 unchanged, ratings 99,585 → 100,204; VanDraw installs 140,444 → 179,374, ratings 5,780 → 6,343. Newly found at least 6 factory clones on Play (all only on top free). The report says "iOS ratings are only 1/5–1/9 of Play," which holds for ARtie and VanDraw but not Sketch Steps (1.5×).
2026-11-01
First record (backfill: from "Google Play New Opportunities (Batch 1)" §1.4 and §4.2, data as of 11-01; VanDraw from the 11-02 crossing list).
Original: Scanner opportunity library #028 (updated daily, 06:00); this page was generated on the 2026-11-08 edition.