Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- AI assistants
The bot talks for my character
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 9 of 58 apps. - Running
Send runs to Strava
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 24 reviews, in 11 of 50 apps. - White Noise & Sleep Soundscapes
The in-app alarm doesn’t go off
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 31 reviews, in 11 of 82 apps. - Focus and productivity
The timer on the lock screen
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 23 reviews, in 14 of 75 apps. - Password managers
Keep vault photos in my own order
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 28 reviews, in 13 of 95 apps. - Crypto & investing apps
Portfolio widget for the home screen
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 35 reviews, in 15 of 93 apps. - AI image generation
Videos longer than a few seconds
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 30 reviews, in 19 of 99 apps. - Period tracker
Blocked by age, though I have periods
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 32 reviews, in 9 of 75 apps. - Guitar: tuner and learning
Songs vanish while I’m learning them
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 22 reviews, in 7 of 61 apps. - Guitar: tuner and learning
The app shows the wrong chords
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 22 reviews, in 9 of 61 apps. - Password managers
No working extension for my browser
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 27 reviews, in 10 of 95 apps. - Notes and knowledge base
Shapes and straight lines in handwritten notes
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 33 reviews, in 13 of 91 apps. - Focus and productivity
Websites still open in the browser
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 21 reviews, in 11 of 75 apps. - AI assistants
The bot suddenly switches languages
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 27 reviews, in 10 of 58 apps. - Running
The plan ramps up too fast
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 21 reviews, in 12 of 50 apps. - Messaging apps
An AI bot I can’t get rid of
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 33 reviews, in 8 of 96 apps. - White Noise & Sleep Soundscapes
Mix several sounds at once
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 27 reviews, in 13 of 82 apps. - Document scanners
Can’t edit the existing text in a PDF
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 26 reviews, in 7 of 52 apps. - Personal finance
Transactions land in the wrong categories
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 36 reviews, in 10 of 99 apps. - Sleep trackers and alarms
Play sleep sounds on a smart speaker
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 35 reviews, in 20 of 94 apps. - Messaging apps
Incoming calls don’t ring through
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 32 reviews, in 18 of 96 apps. - Shopping & ecommerce apps
Show only items in my size
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 39 reviews, in 16 of 95 apps. - AI writing assistants
Search can’t find the email I need
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 23 reviews, in 7 of 91 apps. - AI writing assistants
Spam lands in my inbox
Pain 2 out of 10, mild. 23 reviews, in 5 of 91 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.