Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- White Noise & Sleep Soundscapes
You can hear voices in the recording
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 35 reviews, in 21 of 82 apps. - Step counter
Add steps manually
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 17 of 66 apps. - Step counter
Treadmill walks don’t count
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 17 of 66 apps. - Crypto & investing apps
Chart indicators and drawing tools
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 40 reviews, in 21 of 93 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
It mistakes any noise for my snoring
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 45 reviews, in 10 of 94 apps. - AI image generation
Videos come out without sound
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 34 reviews, in 15 of 99 apps. - Stock investing
Extended-hours trading and prices
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 41 reviews, in 21 of 73 apps. - Personal finance
Share a budget with my partner
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 45 reviews, in 23 of 99 apps. - Notes and knowledge base
Transcripts are full of errors
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 38 reviews, in 11 of 91 apps. - Document scanners
Faxes don’t get through
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 32 reviews, in 8 of 52 apps. - AI photo
It doesn't keep my distinctive features
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 53 reviews, in 26 of 100 apps. - Meditation and mindfulness
Meditations that work offline
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 53 reviews, in 29 of 100 apps. - Document scanners
Sync with cloud storage
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 18 of 52 apps. - Listening to music
An equalizer to fine-tune the sound
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 34 reviews, in 21 of 95 apps. - Workouts and fitness
The app keeps interrupting my music
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 46 reviews, in 23 of 91 apps. - Habits
Not just daily habits
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 41 reviews, in 21 of 98 apps. - Calories and nutrition
Quickly re-log foods I eat often
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 26 of 95 apps. - Journaling and mood
Journal widget for the home screen
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 19 of 95 apps. - Recipe & meal-planning apps
Calories and macros for every recipe
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 30 reviews, in 16 of 79 apps. - Notes and knowledge base
Undo an accidental deletion
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 36 reviews, in 23 of 91 apps. - Weather
Pollen forecast for allergy sufferers
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 32 reviews, in 19 of 92 apps. - Video streaming apps
Audio is out of sync with the picture
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 41 reviews, in 20 of 95 apps. - Dating
Can’t undo an accidental swipe
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 58 reviews, in 30 of 100 apps. - Personal finance
Split one purchase across categories
Pain 3 out of 10, mild. 41 reviews, in 18 of 99 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.