These Apps Make You Tear Your Hair Out

Hulu, Snapchat, Spotify, and Postmastes are some of the most frustrating apps, users say.

Looking into the blank abyss of your screens can make you feel bad—you don’t need data to tell you that. Even so, here's some data to illustrate what’s causing us stress on our devices. Digital marketing agency HigherVisibility analyzed reviews on Apple’s App Store to see which apps are the most vexing to users.

HigherVisibility looked at apps in the areas of social media, streaming, communication, and food delivery. Let’s start with social media, since its ill effects on people have recently been in the news. According to the review analysis, Snapchat is the most stressful, followed by Instagram, Reddit, LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and Pinterest. The frustrations of users with each varied, though. Snapchat’s score of 90.3% is mostly because of technical issues, as the company struggles to keep up with its usurper, TikTok. Whereas Instagram users are aware of its ill effects and are quick to point them out in reviews, using words like “addictive” and “damaging.” 

When it comes to streaming, Hulu is causing customers the most stress. It’s not the content, since shows like Only Murders in the Building have recently brought it lots of acclaim. Solving the mystery of the negativity around the app requires only a trip to the App Store, where there are complaints about syncing shows between devices, buffering, crashes, and accessibility issues. Spotify comes in second, with similarly spotty service.

Facebook continues its run of complained-about apps in the communications category with Messenger. “Completely unnecessary and terrible” and “overwhelming and extremely difficult to navigate” are some of the comments that sit alongside lists of bug issues that could keep devs occupied 24/7. 

If you need a snack break to digest all of this, Postmates might not be the app to use. HigherVisibility said 93.52% of reviews showed signs of distress. Uber Eats wasn’t far behind, at 93.08%. But before you blame the drivers, remember that they’re victims of the gig economy that leaves them unrepresented and unprotected. 

You could comb through all the comments on apps you have yourself in the vein of misery loves company (or, rather, some companies), or you could just set some limits on your screen time to reduce your stress.

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