How Do You Find What Users Hate About Similar Apps?

What if I told you that your biggest advantage over the competition is hiding in plain sight? Actually, it's sitting right there in app store reviews, social media complaints, and support tickets—just waiting for someone smart enough to pay attention. Most developers spend months building what they think users want, but here's the thing: users are already telling us exactly what they hate about existing apps. We just need to know where to look and how to listen.

I've been building apps for years now, and one pattern keeps showing up again and again. The most successful apps I've worked on weren't born from revolutionary ideas—they came from fixing what other apps got wrong. Sure, you could spend months conducting expensive market research, but why bother when frustrated users are practically shouting their pain points at anyone who'll listen? The trick is knowing how to dig through all that noise and find the real insights.

The best opportunities aren't found in what competitors do well—they're hidden in what makes their users want to throw their phones at the wall

User feedback analysis isn't just about reading one-star reviews (though we'll definitely cover that). It's about understanding the deeper patterns in user behaviour, the recurring complaints that keep popping up across different platforms, and the subtle frustrations that people mention in passing. When you start looking at competitor weaknesses through this lens, you'll spot opportunities that most developers completely miss. And honestly? That's exactly where you want to be—solving problems that everyone else is ignoring.

Mining App Store Reviews for Golden Insights

Right, let's talk about the absolute goldmine that most app developers completely ignore—app store reviews. I mean, it's honestly mad how many people skip this step when they're researching competitors. These reviews are basically users shouting exactly what they hate about apps, and we're not listening? That's like having the answers to the test and choosing not to look.

When I'm analysing competitor apps, I don't just skim the five-star reviews (though those can be useful too). I go straight for the one and two-star reviews because that's where people really let loose. They're frustrated, they're honest, and they'll tell you exactly what broke their experience. You'll find complaints about crashes, confusing navigation, missing features, poor customer service—basically a roadmap of what not to do.

But here's the thing, you need to read between the lines sometimes. When someone says "this app is rubbish," that doesn't help much. But when they say "the app crashes every time I try to upload a photo on my Android phone," now you've got something actionable. Look for specific pain points, not general complaints.

What to Focus On When Reading Reviews

• Technical issues that keep appearing across multiple reviews
• Feature requests that users mention repeatedly
• Workflow problems where users get stuck or confused
• Pricing complaints and subscription frustrations
• Customer service and support issues
• Platform-specific problems (iOS vs Android differences)

I usually sort reviews by "most recent" first because app problems change over time. What frustrated users six months ago might already be fixed. Focus on the last three months of reviews to get the most current picture of what's bothering people right now.

Social Media Listening for Real User Complaints

Right, so you've been through the app store reviews and you're getting a good feel for what's winding people up about your competitors apps. But here's the thing—not everyone leaves a review when they're frustrated. Actually, most people don't bother. They just delete the app and move on with their lives. But they do complain about it on social media, and that's where the real gold is hiding.

Twitter, Facebook, Reddit, TikTok—these platforms are where people go to have a proper moan about apps that have let them down. And honestly? They're much more honest about it than they are in formal reviews. People hold back less when they're tweeting their frustrations or venting in a Facebook group. You'll find complaints about everything from dodgy user interfaces to apps that drain battery life like there's no tomorrow.

Set up Google Alerts for your main competitors' app names plus words like "problem," "issue," "hate," or "broken." You'll get daily emails whenever someone complains about them online.

Where to Look for Social Complaints

Start with the obvious places but don't stop there. Sure, search Twitter for your competitor's app name plus words like "crashed" or "annoying." But also check Reddit—there are subreddits for practically every app category where users discuss their experiences openly. LinkedIn can be brilliant too, especially for business apps where professionals share their workplace frustrations.

Facebook groups related to your app's industry are goldmines. People ask for recommendations and explain exactly why they've stopped using certain apps. The comments sections on tech blogs reviewing your competitors? Absolutely worth reading through.

• Twitter searches with competitor names plus negative keywords
• Reddit discussions in relevant subreddits
• Facebook groups for your target audience
• LinkedIn posts about industry tools
• YouTube comments on competitor demo videos
• TikTok videos reviewing or criticising apps

What You're Actually Looking For

Don't just collect complaints for the sake of it. Look for patterns in what people are saying. If five different people on three different platforms mention that an app's search function is rubbish, that's not coincidence—that's a genuine pain point you can solve better. Pay attention to the emotional language people use; when someone says an app "makes me want to throw my phone," they're telling you about a serious user experience problem that affects real people's daily lives.

Understanding how to create engaging video content for TikTok and Instagram can help you track complaints across these visual platforms where users often share their frustrations through video reviews and rants.

Analysing Support Forums and Help Desks

Support forums are where users go when they're genuinely frustrated—and that makes them absolute goldmines for competitor research. I mean, nobody posts in a help forum when they're happy, right? They post when something's broken, confusing, or just plain annoying.

The beauty of support forums is that users don't hold back. They'll tell you exactly what's wrong, how it affects them, and often suggest what they think would fix it. It's like having a direct line to your competitors' most frustrated customers.

Where to Look for Support Data

Start with the obvious places—most apps have official support forums or community boards. But don't stop there. Check Reddit, Stack Overflow (for technical apps), and even Facebook groups dedicated to the app or industry. Users often complain in multiple places when they're really stuck.

Here's what I look for when browsing these forums:

• Recurring complaints that appear across multiple threads
• Feature requests that keep coming up
• Workarounds users have created to solve problems
• Common misunderstandings about how features work
• Integration issues with other apps or services

One thing that always catches my attention is when users say "I wish this app could do X like [another app] does." That's basically a roadmap for what features matter most to real users.

Reading Between the Lines

Sometimes the real insights aren't in what users say, but in how they say it. If people are posting the same question repeatedly, it usually means the app's interface isn't clear enough. If there are long threads explaining basic functions, the onboarding process probably needs work.

Support forums show you where competitors are failing their users most—and that's exactly where your app can succeed. When you understand the difference between in-app support and external help desks, you can identify which approach users prefer and build accordingly.

Conducting User Interviews About Competitor Apps

Right, let's talk about something most people skip—actually talking to users about their experiences with competitor apps. I know, I know, it sounds dead simple but you'd be surprised how many developers just assume they know what users think.

Here's the thing about user interviews; they're not just about asking "what don't you like?" That'll get you nowhere fast. Instead, I focus on getting people to walk me through their actual usage patterns. "Show me the last time you used this app" works much better than "tell me about this app." People often can't articulate what frustrates them, but they can definitely show you where they get stuck.

The Right Questions Get Real Answers

When I'm interviewing users about competitor apps, I ask them to complete specific tasks while I watch. "Can you show me how you'd normally book a table using this app?" or "Walk me through how you transfer money to a friend." That's when the real pain points surface—the awkward pauses, the confused taps, the frustrated sighs.

The most valuable feedback comes not from what users say, but from watching where they hesitate and struggle during real tasks

One trick I've learned is to ask about workarounds. "Is there anything you do differently because the app doesn't work the way you'd expect?" Users develop these little habits to get around broken features, and those workarounds are goldmines for understanding what needs fixing. Sometimes they'll say an app is "fine" but then reveal they always use the mobile website instead of the actual app for certain tasks. That tells you everything you need to know about where your opportunity lies.

Right, here's where things get properly interesting—actually using competitor apps the way your potential users would. I mean, you can read reviews all day long, but there's nothing quite like experiencing the frustration firsthand when an app crashes just as you're trying to complete a purchase.

Download every single competitor app in your space. Not just the big ones, but the smaller players too. Create real accounts with genuine information (not test data that nobody bothers with) and actually try to accomplish the core tasks that users would want to do. Don't rush through it like you're testing your own product either—behave like a normal person who's never seen this app before.

The Real User Experience Test

Use these apps during your daily routine. Try booking that fitness class whilst you're rushing to catch the tube. Attempt to order food when you're genuinely hungry and impatient. The pain points become glaringly obvious when you're not sitting comfortably at your desk with unlimited time and patience.

Pay attention to the small stuff that drives people mad: buttons that are too small for thumbs, forms that clear when you switch apps to check your email, or checkout processes that require seventeen steps. Take screenshots of every confusing screen—these become gold dust when you're designing your own user flows.

Document Everything That Annoys You

Keep a running list on your phone of every moment that makes you think "why the bloody hell would they do it this way?" Those moments of genuine irritation? That's exactly what your future users are experiencing right now. And that's your opportunity to do better.

The apps that make you want to throw your phone against the wall are often the ones with the biggest user bases—which means there's a massive audience of frustrated people just waiting for someone to build something that actually works properly. This hands-on testing approach is one of the most valuable tips for newbie app developers looking to understand what really matters to users.

Spotting Patterns in User Pain Points

Right, so you've done the hard work—you've collected heaps of user feedback from app stores, social media, forums, and interviews. Now comes the part where most people get a bit stuck: making sense of it all. I mean, when you're staring at hundreds of complaints and comments, it can feel overwhelming. But here's the thing—patterns are everywhere if you know how to look for them.

Start by grouping similar complaints together. Users might describe the same problem in completely different ways. One person says "the app crashes when I try to upload photos" whilst another writes "it keeps freezing during image uploads." Same issue, different words. This is where your detective skills come in handy!

I always look for what I call "frequency clusters"—problems that keep popping up again and again. If five people mention slow loading times, that's noteworthy. If fifty people do? That's a bloody goldmine of opportunity right there. These recurring themes tell you exactly what users find most frustrating about your competitors apps.

Common Pattern Categories

• Performance issues (crashes, slow loading, battery drain)
• User interface problems (confusing navigation, poor design)
• Missing features (users asking "why can't I do X?")
• Account and login troubles
• Customer support complaints
• Pricing and subscription issues

Don't ignore the emotional language either. Words like "frustrating," "annoying," or "hate" are red flags that signal deep user pain points. These emotional responses often reveal the most significant opportunities for your app to do better.

Create a simple spreadsheet with columns for "Problem Type," "Frequency," and "User Impact Level." This helps you prioritise which competitor weaknesses to tackle first in your own app development.

Understanding these patterns is crucial for customer-vital mobile app development, as it helps you focus on what users actually need rather than what you think they want.

Right, so you've done all the detective work—you know exactly what users hate about your competitors apps. But here's where most people mess up; they think just knowing the problems is enough. It isnt. The real skill lies in turning those weaknesses into your biggest competitive advantages.

When I'm working with clients, I always tell them to think of competitor weaknesses as free market research. Someone else has spent thousands testing features that don't work, and users have kindly told you exactly what's broken. Why would you ignore that gift?

From Problems to Solutions

Let's say users constantly complain that a popular fitness app takes forever to sync their workout data. That's not just a problem—that's your opportunity to build the fastest syncing feature in your category. Make it a selling point. "Instant sync, no waiting around" becomes part of your marketing message.

I've seen this work brilliantly with payment apps where users moaned about complicated verification processes. One of my clients built a streamlined onboarding that took 30 seconds instead of 5 minutes, and that became their main differentiator.

The key is being specific about how you'll fix what others break. Don't just say "we're better"—show exactly how you're better. If users hate confusing navigation, design yours to be dead simple. If they complain about poor customer support, make yours exceptional.

Making Weaknesses Your Marketing Gold

Here's something most developers miss: competitor weaknesses should drive both your product features and your marketing strategy. Every pain point you solve becomes a reason for users to choose you over the established players.

Document every weakness you've found and map each one to a specific feature or approach in your app. That's how you build something that genuinely serves users better than what's already out there. When creating content for social media, knowing which hashtags to use to promote your mobile app can help you reach frustrated users looking for alternatives.

Building Features That Fix What Others Break

Right, so you've done all this research—you've analysed reviews, listened to complaints, and identified the exact pain points that are driving users mad with your competitors' apps. Now comes the fun part: actually building something that fixes these problems. But here's where most people get it wrong; they think fixing a competitor's weakness means doing the exact opposite of what they're doing.

That's not always the answer. Sometimes its about taking their broken feature and making it work properly, not throwing it out completely. I've seen apps fail because they removed useful features instead of improving them. Users don't want you to get rid of everything—they want you to make it better.

Start with the Biggest Pain Points

You know what I do? I make a list of the top three complaints users have about competitor apps and build solutions around those first. If everyone's moaning about slow loading times, I focus on performance from day one. If they're frustrated with confusing navigation, I spend extra time on user experience design. It's really that simple.

The best apps aren't the ones with the most features—they're the ones where every feature actually works the way users expect it to

Don't try to fix everything at once though. Pick your battles. I've worked on projects where we tried to solve every single complaint we found in our research, and the app ended up being a mess. Focus on what matters most to your target users, nail those features properly, and then expand from there. Quality over quantity always wins in mobile apps.

When designing solutions, consider implementing modern app development techniques that address common user interface and experience problems that competitors consistently get wrong.

Right, so we've covered a lot of ground here—from digging through app store reviews to actually using competitor apps yourself. And honestly? This stuff works. I mean, really works. The clients who put in the effort to understand what users hate about existing apps are the ones who end up building something people actually want to use.

Here's what I've learned after years of building apps: your competitors have already done half the market research for you. They've spent their money, made their mistakes, and frustrated their users in ways you can learn from. You just need to know where to look and how to listen.

The trick isn't just finding these pain points—any developer can spot a one-star review complaining about crashes. The real skill is in connecting the dots, spotting the patterns that keep showing up across different platforms and apps. When you see the same complaint popping up in app reviews, social media posts, and support forums, that's when you know you've found gold.

But here's the thing that catches most people out: don't try to fix everything at once. Pick two or three major pain points that your competitors consistently get wrong, and nail those in your app. Users will notice the difference straight away, and that's how you build a reputation for actually caring about the user experience.

The mobile app market is tough, no question about it. But when you build something that solves real problems—problems that users are already complaining about elsewhere—you're giving yourself the best possible chance of success. And frankly, that's what good app development is all about.