Building for Tomorrow, Today

This week we’re starting a return to our official name, Association for Competitive Technology (ACT), and moving away from the unofficial moniker “the App Association” that we’ve used as shorthand to describe our membership and our work.

The world is experiencing a transformative surge in technological innovation from artificial intelligence to internet of things to quantum computing. And our members have always been on the leading edge of innovation, recognizing and building for the next great field of competition. As the field of competition continues to shift and expand, with renewed acceleration, ACT, as our members’ representative in the policy capitals of the world, will always follow their lead.

ACT’s mission began almost 30 years ago in 1998. During a moment of crisis, a group of small tech businesses joined their voices to object to some of the proposed remedies in the U.S. and European antitrust suits against Microsoft that threatened to tear apart the technology stack they had spent years leveraging to build successful businesses.

ACT’s success in influencing the outcome of that case proved that both 1) startups and small tech companies’ practical experience is needed in policy making and 2) our members’ collective voice carries influential weight.

In 2008, when our members were calling out mobile as the next great shift and expansion in software development, we began calling ourselves “the App Association.” Back then the growing adoption of smartphones was remaking the software landscape and transitioning us to a fully digital world, “the App Association” was an effective shorthand to explain what our members did.

While mobile software development will continue to be a major priority, our members are competing across the full field of emerging technologies, and we need a name and reputation that represents the breadth and depth of expertise that our members bring.

You may have already seen our new logo in our government and court filings and letters. Over the coming months we’ll be fully transitioning to Association for Competitive Technology across our social media channels and ultimately rolling out a newly designed website.

We are excited to start this next chapter in our work, and we hope you are too.

To get started here are the five global member priority areas for 2026:

You can read more about these policy priorities in our 2026 Global Member Priorities letter, signed by more than 100 startups and small tech companies from thirty-six countries around the world.

Or visit our Global App Economy Conference 2026 portal where we share more information from our annual member gatherings in the European Union, United Kingdom, and United States where our members speak directly with policymakers about what startups and small tech companies need to grow and create jobs.