Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Running
A full Apple Watch app
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 131 reviews, in 27 of 50 apps. - Running
Distance tracking is off
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 89 reviews, in 29 of 50 apps. - Running
Treadmill mode
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 67 reviews, in 24 of 50 apps. - Running
The coach’s voice and my music clash
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 47 reviews, in 17 of 50 apps. - Running
Save runs to Apple Health
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 38 reviews, in 20 of 50 apps. - Running
The run pauses itself mid-workout
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 33 reviews, in 15 of 50 apps. - Running
Play Spotify inside the app
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 30 reviews, in 10 of 50 apps. - Running
Send runs to Strava
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 24 reviews, in 11 of 50 apps. - Running
The plan ramps up too fast
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 21 reviews, in 12 of 50 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.