Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- AI Photo Restore & Unblur
Only part of the photo gets processed
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 24 reviews, in 13 of 28 apps. - Recipe & meal-planning apps
Social media recipes won’t import
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 74 reviews, in 19 of 79 apps. - Cycling
Auto-pause misbehaves
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 37 reviews, in 15 of 56 apps. - AI Homework & Math Solver
Says “can’t solve this” instead of answering
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 40 reviews, in 12 of 51 apps. - Wardrobe & outfits
AI pairs clothes that don’t go together
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 31 reviews, in 9 of 46 apps. - Wardrobe & outfits
Hard to know which size to order
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 31 reviews, in 6 of 46 apps. - Fishing
Offline mode for places with no signal
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 35 reviews, in 16 of 41 apps. - Travel planning
Can't pick or change my seat in the app
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 79 reviews, in 14 of 90 apps. - Yoga
The beginner level is too hard
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 61 reviews, in 20 of 66 apps. - Invoices for clients
My invoices on all my devices
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 21 reviews, in 8 of 26 apps. - AI Species Identifier (Plant/Bug/Animal)
Can’t tell chicken, dog or cat breeds
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 53 reviews, in 9 of 48 apps. - Listening to music
Can’t send music to speakers or the TV
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 79 reviews, in 24 of 95 apps. - AI writing assistants
Unwanted AI features are forced on me
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 65 reviews, in 12 of 91 apps. - AI Homework & Math Solver
Waiting hours for a tutor’s answer
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 38 reviews, in 8 of 51 apps. - Couples
Built only for a man and a woman
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 34 reviews, in 10 of 35 apps. - Tarot & Oracle Card Reading
More spread options
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 29 reviews, in 10 of 40 apps. - Menus and shopping lists
Add items via Alexa or Siri
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 38 reviews, in 11 of 54 apps. - Intermittent fasting
Fasting timer on Apple Watch
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 40 reviews, in 26 of 53 apps. - Intermittent fasting
Fasting timer widget
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 40 reviews, in 17 of 53 apps. - Plant care
Reminds you to water when it's not needed
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 42 reviews, in 8 of 64 apps. - Blood pressure
Edit or delete a wrong reading
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 37 reviews, in 12 of 54 apps. - Wallpapers & widgets
The widget turns into a blank box
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 68 reviews, in 21 of 79 apps. - Focus and productivity
Blocking is too easy to get around
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 53 reviews, in 16 of 75 apps. - AI Species Identifier (Plant/Bug/Animal)
Can’t identify a bird by its song
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 50 reviews, in 6 of 48 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.