Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Meditation and mindfulness
An Apple Watch app
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 91 reviews, in 35 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
Meditations that work offline
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 53 reviews, in 29 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
My streak resets for no reason
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 44 reviews, in 19 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
Pick a different narrator voice
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 44 reviews, in 21 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
Logging sessions to Apple Health
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 23 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
Audio stops when the screen locks
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 19 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
The guide never stops talking
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 36 reviews, in 22 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
Back-to-back tracks until I’m asleep
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 32 reviews, in 15 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
A home-screen widget
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 17 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
A sleep timer that turns the sound off
Pain 1 out of 10, mild. 24 reviews, in 15 of 100 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.