Just play a specific sound and the cat will respond. Recently, an APP called "Cat Language" became popular on Apple's paid list, once reaching the top of the paid list. Behind the app’s popularity is a pet consumer market that has exceeded 100 billion and is still heating up.

"Cat Language" APP becomes popular

How does an APP realize "human-cat interaction"?

"Cat Language" APP is a lightweight interactive application focusing on "human-cat communication". It simulates communication scenarios with real cats through sounds, animations, games, etc.


Blue Whale reporters found that this "Cat Language" APP mainly provides three types of functions.

The first is to play "cat language" sounds, such as calls, coquettishness, warnings, sleep aids and other audios, and attract cats to respond accordingly through sound waves; the second is a built-in interactive mini-game that guides cats to chase and pat virtual animations in front of the screen; the third is a personality test module to evaluate the cat's true personality tendency through user behavior options.

Talking about the original intention of the development, the developer Mr. He told the Blue Whale reporter that through long-term interactions with his own cats, he accumulated a lot of experience in interacting with pets, so he came up with the idea of ​​sharing these experiences through the APP.

It is worth noting that some of the sounds in the APP were recorded by Mr. He’s own cats. He admitted in the interview that the design of the product is more based on his personal practical experience in raising cats.


Reached the top of the Apple Store paid list

Downloads surged 500 times

Blue Whale reporters observed that the "Cat Language" APP was most popular at the end of January. It once topped the paid list of the Apple Store. As of press time, it ranked second on the list and has been popular on the list for more than half a month.


According to Mr. He, he told Blue Whale reporters that during the peak traffic period, the number of downloads of the application in a single day increased nearly a thousand times compared with normal times, and the average increase was more than 500 times.

It is worth noting that this growth is entirely due to organic spread, and the team did not conduct any paid promotion. The initial starting point of spread came from the accidental discovery by social platform users. Later, through blogger sharing and user spontaneous recommendations, it spread fissionally on major social networks, eventually pushing the application to the top of the list.

On social media platforms, a large number of users have shared their actual usage experiences, with common feedback saying that "the function is real and effective." Some users said: "Every time I turn on the sound, my cat at home runs over immediately." At the same time, many users also left messages in the comment area to ask questions, strongly calling on the development team to launch an Android version as soon as possible to meet the needs of a wider range of pet owners.


There are only two people in the team and the development cost is 1,000 yuan.

"At first I didn't think about being commercially oriented"

Blue Whale reporters learned that the "Cat Language" APP is priced at RMB 1. Its version 1.0 will be officially launched in late December 2025, and has completed three version updates so far.

Mr. He said that the development of the application was mainly carried out on weekends and lasted about two months. The team consisted of only two people. The overall development cost is about 1,000 yuan. At present, the application has achieved return on investment and continues to generate revenue.

Mr. He admitted that he did not pay much attention to market trends during the development process, nor did he regard commercialization as the core orientation. "The whole process is more like an accident." He said: "Mainly out of a sharing mentality, I hope to transform my personal experience and feelings of getting along with cats at home into a form that can be used and experienced by more people."


Behind the popularity of "Cat Summoner":

The size of the pet market exceeds 300 billion, and software and hardware companies are accelerating their layout

After the "Dead Mo" APP became popular, more and more lightweight applications targeting niche scenarios emerged on the market. Such applications usually focus on a single need and quickly attract users with simple and straightforward solutions.

It's no accident that the "Cat Language" APP tops the list of app stores. Behind it is a pet consumer market that exceeds 100 billion yuan and is still growing rapidly.

According to data from the "2026 China Pet Industry White Paper (Consumption Report)", in 2025, the number of dog and cat pets in my country's cities and towns will exceed 126 million, and the pet consumption market will reach 312.6 billion yuan, an increase of 4.1% from the previous year.

Among them, the number of pet dogs is 53.43 million, an increase of 850,000 from 2024 (a slight increase of 1.6%); the number of pet cats is 72.89 million, an increase of 1.36 million from 2024 (an increase of 1.9%).

Comparing the data, it can be seen that pet cats currently have a clear advantage in quantity, and the market size is even larger.

Compared with dogs, cats are usually less proactive in interactions and their behaviors are more difficult to understand intuitively. Because of this, many cat owners prefer to use various products and services to enhance the emotional connection with their pets, and are willing to pay accordingly.

The success of the "Cat Language" APP precisely hits this market demand pain point. It has gained widespread attention by helping users communicate with cats in a more relaxed and interesting way by simulating cat sounds and providing interactive games.

In fact, there are many applications with similar functions on the market, such as various pet language translation tools. Many hardware manufacturers are also entering the pet ecosystem business one after another.

In December 2025, Traini, a Silicon Valley pet emotion AI startup, announced the completion of a new round of financing of US$7.5 million (approximately RMB 52.407 million). After the financing is completed, Traini will launch an AI smart collar that can interpret the language of pet dogs and realize translation between human and pet languages.

Domestically, "MOVAPets", the main brand of Lingwei Era, is researching a pet behavior and emotion translator collar that can interpret pet activities, emotions and abnormal states 24/7.

Looking at the current pet market, a large number of segmented needs have not been fully met, and the window period for consumption upgrades still exists. For entrepreneurs, being able to accurately understand the real pain points in pet-raising life and solve them with reliable products or services may be the key to standing out from this blue ocean.