Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- AI Photo Restore & Unblur
Faces end up looking like someone else
Pain 8 out of 10, strong. 133 reviews, in 19 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
Enhancing barely changes the photo
Pain 8 out of 10, strong. 133 reviews, in 20 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
The photo gets worse after enhancement
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 61 reviews, in 16 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
Faces come out looking cartoonish
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 46 reviews, in 14 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
The scratches are still there
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 45 reviews, in 10 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
The AI distorts people’s eyes
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 38 reviews, in 13 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
The AI adds things that weren’t there
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 28 reviews, in 15 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
The AI changes people’s race
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 29 reviews, in 12 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
A slider for enhancement strength
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 25 reviews, in 13 of 28 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
Only part of the photo gets processed
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 24 reviews, in 13 of 28 apps.
How we count
The sample is up to 500 recent App Store reviews for each of about 100 popular apps per category. We look for each need across all of the category’s reviews and check a random sample of matches by hand: at least 80% are correct.
“Pain” is a rough score from 1 to 10: half comes from the share of the category’s reviews that mention it, 30% from how many such reviews there are in total, 20% from the share of apps where it comes up. It is not search demand and not market size.
In words: 1–3 mild · 4–6 noticeable · 7–8 strong · 9–10 acute.