Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Password managers
Forgot my password, no way to reset it
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 148 reviews, in 50 of 95 apps. - Step counter
Counts fewer steps than I actually walk
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 138 reviews, in 40 of 66 apps. - Language learning
Add the language I need
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 240 reviews, in 45 of 100 apps. - Calendars and tasks
The widget stopped working
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 264 reviews, in 45 of 100 apps. - Shopping & ecommerce apps
Paid for it, but it never arrived
Pain 7 out of 10, strong. 203 reviews, in 49 of 95 apps. - Mind maps
Proper Apple Pencil support
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 22 reviews, in 7 of 10 apps. - Mind maps
Add your own photos in full quality
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 20 reviews, in 5 of 10 apps. - Weight tracker
Sync with Apple Health and Apple Watch
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 67 reviews, in 16 of 27 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
The photo gets worse after enhancement
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 61 reviews, in 16 of 28 apps. - Water & hydration
Log the exact amount I drank
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 50 reviews, in 19 of 33 apps. - Water & hydration
Drink reminders don’t arrive
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 50 reviews, in 13 of 33 apps. - Pregnancy
Stuck with the wrong pregnancy week
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 103 reviews, in 16 of 46 apps. - Car maintenance
Remote start from the app is hit or miss
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 99 reviews, in 5 of 56 apps. - Driving test prep
The app’s answer key is wrong
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 71 reviews, in 26 of 44 apps. - Cycling
Sync with Apple Health
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 84 reviews, in 23 of 56 apps. - AI Species Identifier (Plant/Bug/Animal)
Misdiagnoses my plants
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 122 reviews, in 20 of 48 apps. - AI Companion & Roleplay Chat
The content filter is far too strict
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 70 reviews, in 19 of 43 apps. - Driving test prep
Questions full of typos and bad grammar
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 68 reviews, in 27 of 44 apps. - Video streaming apps
DVR recordings don't work in the app
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 218 reviews, in 14 of 95 apps. - Plant care
Same diagnosis for every plant
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 93 reviews, in 22 of 64 apps. - Invoices for clients
The invoice never reaches the client
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 44 reviews, in 15 of 26 apps. - Fishing
My lake or region isn’t in the app
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 73 reviews, in 18 of 41 apps. - Stock investing
Can't get my money out of the account
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 191 reviews, in 29 of 73 apps. - Ride-hailing apps
Can't find a single driver
Pain 6 out of 10, noticeable. 133 reviews, in 41 of 90 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.