Mobile apps are the digital backbone of our modern lifestyle and are now deeply integrated into our personal and professional lives, offering unprecedented convenience and efficiency. As we continue to rely on them, mobile apps have become an indispensable part of our daily routines, and user expectations have evolved to match the significance of their role.
This survey offers a deep dive into the intricate landscape of user preferences and behaviors within the mobile app ecosystem. This survey aims to not only explore the nuanced ways in which users interact with mobile applications and services but also uncover their expectations regarding app performance, AI functionality, and data privacy and security.
By shedding light on critical trends in usage habits and expectations, the survey reveals the profound impact of app performance on user behavior, highlighting the potential consequences of subpar experiences from retention and revenue to reviews and loyalty.
Executive Summary: Winning in a Mobile World
- Prioritize performance: Mobile app stability and performance have the highest impact on user satisfaction, spending, and loyalty by far. Invest in optimizing app stability, speed, and responsiveness to meet user expectations, maximizing your retention and revenue.
- Regular updates: The only thing worse than performance issues is performance issues that are not fixed in a timely manner. Maintain a consistent update schedule to fix bugs, introduce new features, and keep users engaged.
- Embrace AI thoughtfully: The AI buzz is real, but users are still wary of how it’s used. Integrate AI features where they add clear value and take concrete steps to address user concerns with privacy and accuracy.
- Strengthen data protection: Most mobile app users are willing to share their data with you to help improve their app experience as long as you’re transparent about its use. Be abundantly transparent about what you do with user data, implement robust security measures, and provide clear, user-friendly privacy controls.
About the Report
Our survey collected data from more than 1000 mobile app users across the US, ensuring a representative sample and allowing us to present a holistic view of user expectations and behaviors in the mobile app ecosystem. It encompassed a wide range of mobile app users, ensuring a diverse sample that accurately reflects the demographics of the broader population.
Capturing a broad spectrum of perspectives to identify common trends and pinpoint areas for improvement, this survey presents a reliable view of user expectations, preferences, and behaviors.
Mobile Moments: Living in a Mobile-First World
Mobile Monopoly: Dominating Screen Time
Mobile apps command the lion’s share of our digital attention, presenting a golden opportunity for mobile teams. Almost 80% of consumers spend half of their time or more on mobile over desktop, with almost 40% devoting three-quarters of their screen time to mobile.
Users spend significant portions of their time on mobile apps, with over 35% spending 3 hours or more on their favorite apps. In fact, more than 30% of mobile users spend so much of their time on mobile apps that their friends and family have complained about it.
Beyond social media: Leaders in app usage
Industry reports that examine mobile app use by category consistently find the majority of time spent on social and entertainment apps. However, when looking at the categories by frequency of use, we get a different picture.
Social Media still maintains a significant lead, but Entertainment/Gaming is comfortably surpassed by both Shopping and Banking/Finance. Dating apps trail behind significantly to continue their struggle, with the overwhelming majority of users ranking them as the least used.
Although most apps cannot hope to match social and entertainment in terms of time spent, they still have plenty of opportunities to engage their users. This makes it imperative for mobile teams to make the most of every user interaction by optimizing their app’s user experience and eliminating any friction.
From couch to cart: Mobile shopping habits
The rise of mobile shopping continues with no end in sight, capturing the majority of e-commerce sales and dominating other channels. The convenience of mobile shopping is one of the biggest factors behind its growing popularity, with the overwhelming majority of consumers using mobile e-commerce apps while doing other activities or on the go.
More than 70% of users divide their attention between mobile shopping and watching TV, which is by far the most common scenario, followed by a tie between shopping at work, while commuting, or in the bathroom, at 22%. Notably, less than 5% of users dedicate some of their downtime to mobile shopping.
Interestingly, women are significantly more likely to do their mobile shopping while watching TV (77% vs. 66%), and less likely to do so while at work (19% vs. 26%), during family gatherings (16% vs. 20%), or on a date (8% vs. 15%).57% of consumers completed more than half of their Black Friday and holiday shopping through mobile apps, with more than 30% doing all or almost all of their shopping through mobile apps.
Like most mobile apps, shopping apps usually have to compete with many distractions and must fight for user attention, making a smooth and seamless experience a crucial component to keep users actively engaged and capture a share of their digital spending.
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Zero Tolerance: Sky-High User Expectations
With mobile apps playing an essential role in our lives and taking up a significant part of our days, user expectations have dramatically increased. Mobile users demand a near-flawless experience and are not willing to tolerate poor app performance.
Stability or bust: You crash, you burn
App stability is foundational to an acceptable user experience. Mobile apps that regularly crash or freeze are highly disruptive to their users, easily reaching the point of being unusable.
82% of respondents say that stability is an extremely important or very important factor when choosing a mobile app, and less than 5% view it as slightly important or not important. This explains why the tolerance for app crashes is extremely low, with 63% of users ready to uninstall your app after three crashes or fewer.
Stability is simply a deal breaker for mobile app users, especially when offered a choice of the many competing apps that do the same thing.
The Speed Imperative: Performance on a Countdown
Mobile app performance is another foundational pillar of an acceptable user experience. Slow, unresponsive apps burden users with a high cognitive load, making it difficult for them to retain their focus and frustrating them into ending their session.
Barely trailing stability, 81% of respondents said that performance is an extremely important or very important factor when choosing a mobile app, and less than 5% view it as slightly important or not important. 61% of mobile users are not willing to wait more than five seconds for your app to launch or process key functions before they uninstall it, with 20% expecting it to be done in less than two seconds.
Not only do mobile users demand excellent performance, but they also expect you to regularly add new features and steadily improve your app, with 72% considering that extremely important or very important.
In a world of ever-shorter attention spans, your app has a narrow window of opportunity to deliver value and keep users engaged. To have a chance in today’s fast-paced world, your app needs to make the most out of every second.
Beyond Frustration: The Real-World Consequences
Poor stability and performance are much more than just a pet peeve. They have a significant emotional and tangible impact, stressing your users and provoking frustration and anger so much that 67% of mobile users find them frustrating enough to start cursing at the app.
Stability and performance are the most frustrating issues facing mobile app users, ranking far ahead of poor UI and lack of features. If they are a pain to use, it doesn’t matter how many features your app has. Both stability and performance are equally important to your users, with 52% finding them equally frustrating and the rest split between them.
Emotions —positive and negative— famously have a huge influence on the decisions we make. Mobile teams must avoid putting their users in a negative emotional state at all costs or suffer the consequences.
It’s not just irrational emotion. Stability and performance can be a hindrance to your users, causing a tangible impact on their professional and personal lives.
47% of users say their work productivity suffered because of poor app performance, and 57% saw it impact their personal plans. Moreover, 41% of mobile users ended up paying more for a service because of poor app performance.
These tangible effects, coupled with the emotional impact, explain why mobile users have steadily raised their bar for app performance. Successful mobile teams understand this and prioritize their app’s performance accordingly.
The Bottom Line: Performance Pays
Most mobile app users are unwilling to let performance issues slide, swiftly taking actions that significantly impact your app's success. This includes uninstalling your app and actively discouraging others from giving it a go.
However, they are also prepared to spend more on your app, stay loyal, and recommend it to others if you offer a reliably smooth performance.
Retention roulette: gambling with revenue
With an abundance of alternatives available in app stores, the easiest way for users to deal with performance issues is to ditch your app for a competitor’s. In fact, 45% of users never bother to contact customer support before uninstalling your app, and 37% only do so occasionally. Moreover, many users just stop using the app without even bothering to uninstall it, with 60% of users having more than 6 apps that they rarely or never use.
Performance issues make 81% of your users very likely or somewhat likely to switch to a competitor. Even at peak times, 72% of mobile app users say that performance issues very significantly or somewhat significantly influence the likelihood of continuing to use your app.
Mobile app users also give a high priority to the user interface, with visual and navigational issues causing 73% to frequently or occasionally stop using an app. However, two-thirds of mobile app users are willing to give your app a second chance when it’s updated and fixed, but only after a long time or if they hear about it. However, men seem to be more forgiving and are more willing to give your app a second chance (70%) than women (64%).
Retaining customers is much easier than regaining them. Mobile teams need to do everything in their power to eliminate performance issues, the number one reason behind user churn.
The performance premium: monetizing quality
Performance expectations may be exacting, but mobile users are willing to spend more of their money to have them met. This comes as no surprise, considering the impact it has on their daily lives.
59% of mobile app users have switched to a more expensive app because it offers a more reliable experience. As for how much, 22% would be willing to pay up to 5% more, and 19% would be willing to pay up to 10%. 6% are even willing to pay more than 20% extra for the peace of mind offered by a smooth app experience.
This presents a great opportunity for mobile teams to gain a competitive edge and boost their revenues.
The review megaphone: amplifying experiences
Ratings and reviews are arguably the biggest factor in deciding whether users will give your app a try or go for your competitor. Naturally, your app’s stability and performance quickly reflect on its app store reviews.
Half of mobile users always or sometimes leave app reviews to share their experience, and while 26% rarely do so, it’s safe to bet they only do it after a very positive or negative experience.
Bugs and crashes are the number one reason that prompts mobile users to leave a negative review, followed closely by slow performance, leaving a confusing interface, and lack of features in the dust. It’s a similar story on the other side of the spectrum, with fast loading speeds the number one reason behind positive app reviews, followed closely by excellent customer support.
Additionally, 71% of users say stability and performance issues make them less likely to recommend an app, and 52% discourage others from using apps they had issues with through word of mouth. Women seem to care about slow loading speeds more than men when recommending a mobile app (35% vs. 29%), while men value UI design more than women (17% vs. 11%).
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The loyalty loop: performance colors perception
Customer loyalty is hard-earned, and brand perception takes a lot of time and thoughtful effort to build, but poor performance can quickly erode them.
A third of mobile app users say that app performance has a significant impact on their loyalty to the app, and 39% say it has a moderate impact. Only 10% see their loyalty unaffected by performance. Over time, 55% demand a consistently high performance to remain loyal to the app, and 36% will only tolerate occasional issues.
To remain loyal despite the occasional bug or crash, 35% expect the app to be regularly updated with fixes and improvements, 26% require unique features that are not available from your competitors, and 24% demand excellent customer support. Emotional attachment is enough for only 12% of users.
Furthermore, it’s not just your app that falls out of favor. 74% say poor app performance negatively impacts their perception of the brand as a whole. Conversely, 79% say outstanding app performance has a positive impact on their perception of the brand as a whole.
AI Adoption: Balancing Enthusiasm With Privacy
Ever since the launch of ChatGPT 3, AI has undeniably captured people’s imagination, leading to its meteoric rise and proliferation across industries and use cases. The mobile app market is a prime target for AI applications, creating lucrative opportunities for mobile teams that manage to overcome the obstacles to its adoption.
Over one-third of survey respondents say AI features would make them more likely to choose an application over a similar one. This is quite impressive for a new technology, and it is expected to rise steadily as AI matures and becomes more established.
At 44%, Shopping emerged as the number one category people would like to see AI features applied to, followed by Social Media at 34% and Entertainment/Games at 32%. Interestingly, 68% of respondents are more likely to use AI for personal rather than business use.AI privacy and security is the most common concern, shared by 52% of respondents, which could explain why the majority are more likely to use it for personal use.
Accuracy is the second most common concern at 44%, followed by ethics at 39%. 20% of respondents don’t know enough about AI to have specific concerns, and only 9% don’t have any notable concerns.
AI presents a huge opportunity but requires a thoughtful and strategic approach to succeed. Mobile teams should apply AI only where it adds a clear value and take steps to address concerns with privacy and accuracy.
Transparency is Key: Building User Trust
Mobile teams depend on their users sharing their data to improve app experience and performance, but users can be wary about its privacy and security. Understanding and addressing these concerns is crucial to gaining user trust.
Fortunately, users have a high baseline of trust to share their data, with 59% indicating they are very comfortable or somewhat comfortable sharing their data. Only 13% said that they are not at all comfortable giving mobile apps access to their data.
The most common reason users are prepared to share their data is to improve app performance and stability (48%), followed by receiving a more personalized experience (42%). 32% will begrudgingly agree to share their data to gain access to all app features, and 30% will share their data to gain insight into their habits and behavior.
Data security is the number one concern for 47% of respondents, followed by data being sold to third parties (28%) and lack of control over how it is used (24%). 71% of respondents are more likely to share their data with apps that are transparent about how it is used, but 74% are much more cautious if the app has had previous security incidents.
The Path Forward:
Strategies for Mobile App Success
In a fiercely competitive mobile landscape, understanding and acting on user preferences is not just beneficial—it’s essential for success. By aligning development strategies with user expectations, mobile teams can create apps that drive engagement, foster loyalty, and ultimately contribute to business growth and success.