Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Photo editors
My favorite filters vanished after an update
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 165 reviews, in 32 of 100 apps. - Photo editors
Effects aren’t made for darker skin
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 104 reviews, in 31 of 100 apps. - Photo editors
Search through hundreds of effects
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 79 reviews, in 29 of 100 apps. - Photo editors
Edited photos look like someone else
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 78 reviews, in 27 of 100 apps. - Photo editors
Erased objects leave a blurry smudge
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 68 reviews, in 15 of 100 apps. - Photo editors
Retouched faces look fake
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 54 reviews, in 28 of 100 apps. - Photo editors
Photos lose quality when saved
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 46 reviews, in 31 of 100 apps. - Photo editors
The app can’t find the face in my photo
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 46 reviews, in 18 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.