Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Focus and productivity
An Apple Watch app
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 74 reviews, in 28 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
Blocking is too easy to get around
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 53 reviews, in 16 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
Can’t hear the timer when it ends
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 43 reviews, in 16 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
A home-screen widget
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 42 reviews, in 20 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
Apps stay blocked after the session ends
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 34 reviews, in 9 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
Pause the timer
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 32 reviews, in 19 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
A desktop app
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 28 reviews, in 16 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
Don’t block the apps I need
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 25 reviews, in 12 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
The timer on the lock screen
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 23 reviews, in 14 of 75 apps. - Focus and productivity
Websites still open in the browser
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 21 reviews, in 11 of 75 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.