Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Recording and transcribing speech
Recording cuts off partway through
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 111 reviews, in 21 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
The recording has no sound
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 86 reviews, in 24 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
Can't record a call with one tap
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 78 reviews, in 11 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
Transcripts are full of errors
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 68 reviews, in 13 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
Call recording doesn't work in my country
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 72 reviews, in 8 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
The other person can tell they're being recorded
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 46 reviews, in 8 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
Transcription can't handle my language
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 26 reviews, in 7 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
Can't use the keypad on a recorded call
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 24 reviews, in 7 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
Record with an external mic
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 22 reviews, in 7 of 30 apps. - Recording and transcribing speech
Trim unwanted parts of a recording
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 22 reviews, in 12 of 30 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.