Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Water & hydration
My drink isn’t on the list
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 34 reviews, in 14 of 33 apps. - Plant care
More plants in the catalog
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 74 reviews, in 13 of 64 apps. - Ride-hailing apps
Booked ahead, but no car at pickup time
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 106 reviews, in 22 of 90 apps. - Teleprompter and captions
The prompter ignores the remote
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 51 reviews, in 8 of 41 apps. - AI Photo Restore & Unblur
The AI distorts people’s eyes
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 38 reviews, in 13 of 28 apps. - Resume builders
Save the resume as Word or PDF
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 22 reviews, in 10 of 26 apps. - Sobriety & quitting
A counter widget for the home screen
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 33 reviews, in 11 of 29 apps. - Teleprompter and captions
The prompter screen won't rotate
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 48 reviews, in 17 of 41 apps. - Sobriety & quitting
Choose my own quit date
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 32 reviews, in 13 of 29 apps. - Travel planning
Can't check in for my flight in the app
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 119 reviews, in 16 of 90 apps. - AI writing assistants
The AI keeps giving wrong answers
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 98 reviews, in 26 of 91 apps. - Guitar: tuner and learning
The tuner shows the wrong note
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 82 reviews, in 20 of 61 apps. - Night sky and astronomy
The new comet isn't in the app
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 72 reviews, in 16 of 53 apps. - Couples
The same questions over and over
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 51 reviews, in 14 of 35 apps. - Baby tracking apps
Dark mode for night feeds
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 80 reviews, in 19 of 61 apps. - Cycling
Distance and speed are wrong
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 52 reviews, in 21 of 56 apps. - Menus and shopping lists
Sort my list by store aisle
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 56 reviews, in 16 of 54 apps. - Wardrobe & outfits
The same few pieces in every outfit
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 43 reviews, in 12 of 46 apps. - Listening to music
Doesn’t work in the car with CarPlay
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 113 reviews, in 31 of 95 apps. - Hikes and routes
The trail I want isn't in the app
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 37 reviews, in 12 of 26 apps. - Hikes and routes
Downloaded maps won't open without signal
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 37 reviews, in 11 of 26 apps. - AI image generation
Text in images comes out misspelled
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 104 reviews, in 23 of 99 apps. - Menus and shopping lists
Shopping list on Apple Watch
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 54 reviews, in 15 of 54 apps. - AI Homework & Math Solver
Can’t handle geometry and graphs
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 53 reviews, in 21 of 51 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.