Pulse
Concrete pains from app reviews — and how strong they are
- Video streaming apps
Can't watch episodes offline
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 99 reviews, in 32 of 95 apps. - Stock investing
Home Screen widget for my portfolio
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 86 reviews, in 23 of 73 apps. - Habits
Home-screen widget for habits
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 92 reviews, in 35 of 98 apps. - Calories and nutrition
Log portions in grams, spoons or fractions
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 87 reviews, in 37 of 95 apps. - Recipe & meal-planning apps
Print a recipe or the week’s menu
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 67 reviews, in 33 of 79 apps. - Calories and nutrition
Wrong calories and macros in the database
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 86 reviews, in 40 of 95 apps. - Shopping & ecommerce apps
Delivery takes weeks
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 103 reviews, in 42 of 95 apps. - Period tracker
Can’t correct my period dates
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 74 reviews, in 27 of 75 apps. - Stock investing
Prices lag behind the market
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 83 reviews, in 35 of 73 apps. - Wallpapers & widgets
Wallpapers and photos come out blurry
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 66 reviews, in 30 of 79 apps. - Shopping & ecommerce apps
They sent the wrong item or size
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 94 reviews, in 45 of 95 apps. - AI photo
Extra fingers and arms in photos
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 99 reviews, in 33 of 100 apps. - Document scanners
Scans come out blurry
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 59 reviews, in 26 of 52 apps. - Video streaming apps
Can't rewind or fast-forward
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 80 reviews, in 38 of 95 apps. - Dating
The same profiles over and over
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 113 reviews, in 37 of 100 apps. - Calendars and tasks
Reminders don’t go off
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 108 reviews, in 36 of 100 apps. - Dating
Almost no one nearby
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 108 reviews, in 44 of 100 apps. - Faith, Prayer & Bible
My Bible translation isn’t in the app
Pain 5 out of 10, noticeable. 85 reviews, in 38 of 88 apps. - Pet care
The online vet just sends you to a clinic
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 36 reviews, in 3 of 27 apps. - Pet care
The collar battery dies too fast
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 33 reviews, in 4 of 27 apps. - Tarot & Oracle Card Reading
Generic answers that miss the question
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 41 reviews, in 9 of 40 apps. - Water & hydration
Undo a mistaken entry
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 26 reviews, in 10 of 33 apps. - Tarot & Oracle Card Reading
Add reversed cards
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 38 reviews, in 11 of 40 apps. - QR & barcode scanners
Barcode scans don't find the product
Pain 4 out of 10, noticeable. 22 reviews, in 10 of 31 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.