Context-based discovery of applications

A technique is described herein for presenting notifications associated with applications in a context-based manner. In one implementation, the technique maintains a data store that provides application annotation information that describes a plurality of anchors. For instance, the application annotation information for an illustrative anchor identifies: a location at which the anchor is virtually placed in an interactive world; an application associated with the anchor; and triggering information that describes a set of one or more triggering conditions to be satisfied to enable presentation of a notification pertaining to the application. In use, the technique presents the notification pertaining to the application in prescribed proximity to the anchor when it is determined that the user's engagement with the interactive world satisfies the anchor's set of triggering conditions. The triggering conditions can specify any combination of spatial factors, temporal factors, user co-presence factors, etc.