Prayer App Beats Facebook and TikTok in Apple’s App Store Rankings

A young woman holds a rosary as she prays during a prayer vigil in Miami Beach, Fla., on June 26, 2021. Wilfredo Lee/AP Photo

Hallow, a Catholic prayer and meditation app, recently beat Big Tech companies like Google, Instagram, and Spotify to rank as a top Apple app at the beginning of the Lenten season.

On Ash Wednesday, celebrated this year on Feb. 22, Hallow ranked No. 3 on the Apple app store’s list of top free apps.

“God is doing something pretty incredible,” Hallow founder and CEO Alex Jones told The Daily Wire. “We never thought in a million years that we might have this many people from all around the world gathered together in prayer.”

Launched in 2018 by Jones and fellow University of Notre Dame graduates Alessandro DiSanto and Erich Kerekes, Hallow has users in 150 nations, The Daily Wire reported. The app saw 100 million prayers completed through its service last year and has garnered a rating of 4.9 in the Apple app store.

Hallow launched a “Pray40” Lenten challenge in which users commit to pray on each of the 40 days of Lent, which ends on Easter Sunday.

Privacy Concerns

Like other apps, prayer and meditation apps like Hallow have also raised concerns about how personal data are used. Hallow has a feature where users can share their daily reflections, which sometimes include sensitive personal information.

In January 2022, another Christian app called Pray.com courted controversy after reports showed that it shared certain information about users with companies like Facebook. However, Jones has said that Hallow will not compromise on privacy.

“We have never and will never sell user data. We don’t send data to data brokers,” Jones told Insider in a 2022 interview. “If you were to write in a reflection, it’s hashed both ways and encrypted both ways, so not even someone at Hallow can access it. Only you, when you open your phone.”

According to data from Crunchbase, Hallow has raised $55 million through six funding rounds. Its latest funding round on Nov. 3, 2021, was also its highest, with the company raising $40 million.

In total, Hallow has three lead investors and 18 investors, including Peter Thiel, who is a member of the board of directors at Facebook.

Hallow’s Celeb Presenters

Hallow is free to downloard, but there is a premium version with additional features available for $9.99 per month or $69.99 per year.

Hallow features several celebrities to lead the prayers, including Jim Caviezel, who played Jesus in the movie “The Passion of the Christ”; Jonathan Roumie, who plays Jesus in the streaming series “The Chosen”; and Mark Wahlberg, who played catholic priest Father Stuart Long in the biographical movie, “Father Stu.”

In a recent interview with The Today Show on NBC, Wahlberg recounted his experience with Catholicism and admitted that Hollywood has no love for religion.

“It’s a balance. I don’t want to jam it down anybody’s throat. But I do not deny my faith. That’s an even bigger sin. You know, it’s not popular in my industry. But you know, I cannot deny my faith,” Wahlberg said in the interview.

“It’s important for me to share that with people. But I have friends from all walks of life and all different types of faiths and religions. So, you know it’s important to respect and honor them as well.”