Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Step counter
Counts fewer steps than I actually walk
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 138 reviews, in 40 of 66 apps. - Step counter
Steps from my watch, not just my phone
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 133 reviews, in 33 of 66 apps. - Step counter
Steps don’t match Apple Health or my watch
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 71 reviews, in 25 of 66 apps. - Step counter
Steps don’t update until I open the app
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 61 reviews, in 24 of 66 apps. - Step counter
Gets my distance wrong
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 41 reviews, in 20 of 66 apps. - Step counter
Counts steps I never took
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 20 of 66 apps. - Step counter
Add steps manually
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 17 of 66 apps. - Step counter
Treadmill walks don’t count
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 17 of 66 apps. - Step counter
A step widget for the phone screen
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 21 reviews, in 12 of 66 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.