The average person has 60 apps installed on their smartphone. And while most of them make our daily lives run a little smoother, some apps can be a minefield of malfunctions, riddled with bugs and glitches that make us want to launch our phone at the nearest wall.
And it’s these glitches that inspired the latest study from Electronics Hub. It looked at the 400 most used apps on the Google Play Store, then analyzed all their reviews to find which apps have the highest mention of bugs and glitches for every 1,000 posted.
Here’s a look at the most and least buggy apps of 2024.
The buggiest apps of 2024
There’s bad news for the design team behind the Go Program Way2Go Card app. The financial support app ranked as the most buggy app of 2024, according to the Electronics Hub researchers. They discovered 325 mentions of bugs and glitches in every 1,000 Google Play reviews.
Dating apps are performing well
Dating apps dominate the top 10 list of the least buggy apps of 2024. They make up almost half the list, with Dating App FlirtMe scoring the lowest of all. For every 1,000 reviews of the app, you’ll only find 8 mentions of bugs. The other dating apps providing a smooth service to romance seekers include Once, Magnet, and Royal Match.
Social media apps
Sendit is the real standout in this category. The Q&A social media app has an impressive 4.8/5 Google Play score, and Electronic Hub research found less than 14 reports of app failure in every 1,000 reviews. “I absolutely love this app,” posted a happy Sendit user. “It’s so smooth and does exactly what it promises.”
The best and worst-performing retail shopping apps
Target is one of the biggest names in the US retail industry. And it still has big problems when it comes to app design. As one of the buggiest shopping apps of 2024, it has almost 150 negative mentions of usability issues for every 1,000 Google Play reviews.
“Poor design,” reads one review. “There have been issues for at least a couple of years with bugs. It often just stops working for no reason.”
A second reviewer put it a little more succinctly: “This app sucks!”
How are food apps performing in 2024
Ordering your favourite Mexican take-out on the Taco Bell app isn’t as easy as it sounds. Or should be. This app is riddled with glitches and bugs that can turn a simple order into a rage-inducing experience, pushing you to the very limits of “hangriness”.
And frustrated customers aren’t afraid to share their feelings in Google Play reviews. Over 25% of every 1,000 customers who leave a review in the Google Play store talk about the bugs and error messages in the Taco Bell app
Dating apps with the most bugs
Grindr is the buggiest dating app of them all, with 156 mentions of glitches for every 1,000 reviews. Feeld, which bills itself as the “modern dating app for open-minded people,” sits in the second spot, with 158 mentions.
Dil Mil, an app catering to South Asian individuals looking to date, is also having some serious performance issues. Its users reported 100 bugs.
Two other niche dating apps feature in this part of the study. They are BLK, a dating and lifestyle app for culture makers in the Black community, and Christian Mingle, designed for those of Christian faith looking for a partner with the same outlook and values.
Bugs and glitches in gaming apps
More than 1 billion people have downloaded Pokémon Go since its 2016 release. But despite its huge popularity, the app’s performance has continued to struggle with bugs. From server crashes to GPS inaccuracies, players regularly encounter frustrating issues when trying to “catch them all.”
“It seems like it’s getting harder to play because of all the bugs and faults,” reads one review. And that’s just one of the 152 negative reviews you’ll find in every 1,000 posted on Google Play.
The productivity apps ruining productivity in 2024
Notion is a freemium productivity note-taking web application. However, there’s nothing very productive about all the glitches and bugs that slow users down when making to-do lists or tracking project timelines.
We can say the same for the Google Docs app. The study found that 120 out of every 1,000 reviews talked about bugs and glitches that make this productivity app feel like an anti-productivity app.
Glitchy finance apps
Reviews for the Experian and Intuit Credit Karma report the fewest number of bugs in the finance apps.
The Navy Credit Union is among the highest scorers. Almost 200 of its Google Play reviewers complain about usability issues caused by bugs and poor design.
