Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Ride-hailing apps
The car takes far longer than the ETA
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 47 reviews, in 21 of 90 apps. - Messaging apps
No alerts for new messages
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 68 reviews, in 33 of 96 apps. - Pregnancy
The app doesn’t account for a pregnancy loss
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 30 reviews, in 15 of 46 apps. - Crypto & investing apps
My coins and networks aren’t supported
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 64 reviews, in 36 of 93 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
An Apple Watch app
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 91 reviews, in 35 of 100 apps. - Journaling and mood
Handwrite entries with Apple Pencil
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 68 reviews, in 27 of 95 apps. - Food delivery apps
Order left in the wrong place
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 77 reviews, in 35 of 94 apps. - Listening to music
Reorder songs in a playlist
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 58 reviews, in 15 of 95 apps. - Translators
Show pronunciation in Latin letters
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 31 reviews, in 13 of 38 apps. - AI writing assistants
The AI knows nothing about recent events
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 47 reviews, in 20 of 91 apps. - Video streaming apps
Picture-in-picture mode
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 71 reviews, in 23 of 95 apps. - Calories and nutrition
Count workouts in my calorie budget
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 64 reviews, in 35 of 95 apps. - Shopping & ecommerce apps
Going back from an item loses my place
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 77 reviews, in 18 of 95 apps. - AI photo
Censorship blocks even harmless photos
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 82 reviews, in 22 of 100 apps. - Language learning
The lessons contain mistakes
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 83 reviews, in 44 of 100 apps. - AI photo
More songs and my own music for animations
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 81 reviews, in 16 of 100 apps. - Running
Save runs to Apple Health
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 38 reviews, in 20 of 50 apps. - Period tracker
Sync with Apple Health
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 53 reviews, in 25 of 75 apps. - Journaling and mood
Forgot the passcode, can’t get back in
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 61 reviews, in 22 of 95 apps. - Crypto & investing apps
Stop-loss and limit orders
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 57 reviews, in 25 of 93 apps. - Listening to music
Song lyrics right in the player
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 52 reviews, in 19 of 95 apps. - Crypto & investing apps
Gone from my account, never in my wallet
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 56 reviews, in 33 of 93 apps. - Calories and nutrition
Sync with Apple Health and fitness watches
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 58 reviews, in 37 of 95 apps. - Wallpapers & widgets
Can’t figure out how to set a wallpaper or widget
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 45 reviews, in 32 of 79 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.