Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Food delivery apps
Items missing from my order
Pain 8 out of 10, strong. 302 reviews, in 64 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
Ordered, but the food never came
Pain 8 out of 10, strong. 268 reviews, in 63 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
Cancel an order right in the app
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 135 reviews, in 51 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
Food arrives cold
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 126 reviews, in 36 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
I get the wrong order
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 106 reviews, in 47 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
Special requests for my order
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 105 reviews, in 39 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
Meal kit ingredients arrive spoiled
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 82 reviews, in 16 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
My order goes to the wrong location
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 82 reviews, in 23 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
Order left in the wrong place
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 77 reviews, in 35 of 94 apps. - Food delivery apps
The wait is far longer than promised
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 54 reviews, in 26 of 94 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.