Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- 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. - AI Species Identifier (Plant/Bug/Animal)
The species I need isn’t in the database
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 30 reviews, in 14 of 48 apps. - Period tracker
Doesn’t work for irregular cycles
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 45 reviews, in 21 of 75 apps. - Calories and nutrition
Count net carbs, not total carbs
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 51 reviews, in 21 of 95 apps. - Yoga
Mark the classes I’ve already done
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 33 reviews, in 9 of 66 apps. - AI Species Identifier (Plant/Bug/Animal)
Let me fix a wrong identification
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 29 reviews, in 8 of 48 apps. - Baby tracking apps
Log together with a partner
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 30 reviews, in 14 of 61 apps. - Wallpapers & widgets
Some images aren’t kid-friendly
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 12 of 79 apps. - Wallpapers & widgets
The widget doesn’t update on screen
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 15 of 79 apps. - Baby tracking apps
No way to pause the timer
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 29 reviews, in 10 of 61 apps. - Travel planning
The fare jumps when I go to book
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 41 reviews, in 13 of 90 apps. - Running
Play Spotify inside the app
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 30 reviews, in 10 of 50 apps. - Workouts and fitness
Control my workout from Apple Watch
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 57 reviews, in 24 of 91 apps. - Password managers
Sort passwords alphabetically
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 36 reviews, in 20 of 95 apps. - Document scanners
Emailed scans never arrive
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 38 reviews, in 22 of 52 apps. - Document scanners
Sort scans into folders
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 38 reviews, in 14 of 52 apps. - Weather
Shows the weather for the wrong place
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 40 reviews, in 21 of 92 apps. - Faith, Prayer & Bible
Verses missing from the Bible text
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 60 reviews, in 22 of 88 apps. - Personal finance
A home-screen budget widget
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 52 reviews, in 27 of 99 apps. - Travel planning
My paid booking falls through
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 40 reviews, in 15 of 90 apps. - Food delivery apps
The wait is far longer than promised
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 54 reviews, in 26 of 94 apps. - Notes and knowledge base
A notes widget for the home screen
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 44 reviews, in 13 of 91 apps. - Password managers
Approve sign-ins from Apple Watch
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 35 reviews, in 13 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.