Application monitoring, crucial for efficient system performance, availability, and end-user experience, is seeing a shift from traditional application performance monitoring tools towards observability. Different types of application monitoring include digital experience, database, availability, performance, resource, and security monitoring. Choosing a well-integrated, scalable, automated, and full-stack observability-centric application performance monitoring solution is key. Best practices include clear goal-setting, focusing on relevant metrics, setting up customized alerts, ensuring security and compliance, and leveraging automation.