Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Sleep trackers and alarms
The alarm doesn’t go off and I oversleep
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 174 reviews, in 32 of 94 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
It counts me as asleep when I’m awake
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 85 reviews, in 21 of 94 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
The sound cuts out at night and wakes me
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 48 reviews, in 23 of 94 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
It mistakes any noise for my snoring
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 45 reviews, in 10 of 94 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
Play sleep sounds on a smart speaker
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 35 reviews, in 20 of 94 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
You can hear the loop restart
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 28 reviews, in 13 of 94 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
An Apple Watch app
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 26 reviews, in 15 of 94 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
Fix a wrong sleep record
Pain 1 out of 10, mild. 24 reviews, in 12 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.