For years, Apple and Google held total control over mobile gaming. Developers poured years into creating hits, only to hand over 30% of their revenue. But that monopoly faces a massive threat.
A startup named Jest just secured $7 million in seed funding to bypass app stores completely. Instead, they bring interactive experiences right into your text messages. So you can play with friends without leaving your group chat.
Let’s look at how this platform changes the rules for both players and creators.
Rich Communication Services Replaces Traditional App Stores
Playing games in text threads isn’t a completely new concept. However, the technology powering it finally caught up. It all relies on Rich Communication Services, or RCS for short.
This upgraded messaging standard supports rich media and embedded payments. Plus, Apple finally adopted RCS with iOS 18 in 2024. By May 2025, Google reported that RCS handled over a billion messages daily in the U.S. alone.
Therefore, the timing for a messaging-based game platform makes perfect sense. Jest CEO Deyan Vitanov notes that the messaging inbox remains the stickiest spot on your phone. Indeed, people already spend huge amounts of time there talking to family and friends.
Mobile Gaming Downloads Hit a Brutal Slump
Users simply hate downloading new software these days. In fact, Appfigures reported that mobile game downloads dropped 8.6% to 39.4 billion in 2025. That followed another steep 6.6% decline the previous year.
So Jest removes the installation friction entirely. You just tap a link in your chat, and the game opens instantly in your web browser via Wi-Fi.
This simple approach drives incredible results. Just four months into beta testing by the end of January, players exchanged 300,000 messages and played over a million games. Furthermore, Jest sees three to four times better user retention than traditional mobile apps. Early partners also report massive 30-60% drops in user acquisition costs.
The 90/10 Revenue Split Developers Dream About
The technology sounds fun for users. Yet the financial math is what will truly attract top studios. Jest completely flips the standard marketplace economics.
Instead of taking a 30% cut, Jest gives developers 90% of the earnings. This massive shift in the revenue split offers a lifeline to struggling gaming studios.
Additionally, the platform uses a brilliant network effect for user acquisition. If your game brings a player to Jest, but they spend money in a different studio’s game, you still get paid. Specifically, the monetizing studio keeps 70%, the acquiring studio gets 20%, and Jest takes 10%. Thus, even free-to-play viral hits can generate serious cash when those users play other titles.
Big names are already noticing this shift. Teams behind popular titles like “Episode,” “Puppy Mansion,” and “Kingdom Maker” have signed on. The seed round, led by Innovation Endeavors, will help scale these partnerships. Plus, Jest launched a dedicated Games Fund offering $1 million for flagship titles, $200,000 for mid-stage projects, and $40,000 for experimental concepts.
I think traditional app stores should be nervous. They dominated software distribution for over a decade by controlling the entry points. But when the entry point becomes a simple text message, those walled gardens start to crumble.
If you build software, watch this space closely. Jest is currently live in the U.S. and expands to 14 more countries by the third quarter of 2026. So consider how messaging-based distribution might fit your next project before the rest of the industry catches on.
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