Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Interior design and floor plans
Custom wall and ceiling heights
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 36 reviews, in 10 of 61 apps. - Translators
No voice for my language
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 27 reviews, in 11 of 38 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. - Study flashcards
The audio mispronounces words
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 21 reviews, in 9 of 34 apps. - Pregnancy
A proper Apple Watch app
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 25 reviews, in 4 of 46 apps. - Step counter
Gets my distance wrong
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 41 reviews, in 20 of 66 apps. - Focus and productivity
Apps stay blocked after the session ends
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 34 reviews, in 9 of 75 apps. - Intermittent fasting
Can’t enter the portion I actually ate
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 25 reviews, in 7 of 53 apps. - Couples
Notify me when my partner sends something
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 21 reviews, in 10 of 35 apps. - Baby tracking apps
Log by voice with Siri or Alexa
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 33 reviews, in 18 of 61 apps. - Baby tracking apps
Home and lock screen widgets
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 33 reviews, in 16 of 61 apps. - Wallpapers & widgets
New icons just duplicate your apps
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 43 reviews, in 19 of 79 apps. - Journaling and mood
More emotions to choose from
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 55 reviews, in 21 of 95 apps. - AI writing assistants
New emails stop coming in
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 6 of 91 apps. - Pregnancy
Won’t sync with my partner
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 24 reviews, in 8 of 46 apps. - AI Species Identifier (Plant/Bug/Animal)
Following its care advice killed my plants
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 8 of 48 apps. - Step counter
Counts steps I never took
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 20 of 66 apps. - Intermittent fasting
An alert when the fast is over
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 24 reviews, in 12 of 53 apps. - Running
The run pauses itself mid-workout
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 33 reviews, in 15 of 50 apps. - AI writing assistants
The AI forgets what we talked about
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 38 reviews, in 18 of 91 apps. - Night sky and astronomy
The forecast says clear, but it's cloudy
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 28 reviews, in 4 of 53 apps. - Night sky and astronomy
Set my observing location by hand
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 28 reviews, in 15 of 53 apps. - Focus and productivity
Pause the timer
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 32 reviews, in 19 of 75 apps. - Video streaming apps
Video won't go full screen
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 57 reviews, in 19 of 95 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.