Annoying push notifications and other reasons why people uninstall apps
By: Saikrishna Vanneldas
Tags: User Research, Design Thinking, UX, Entrepreneurship, Marketing

Why do people uninstall apps? Appiterate conducted a survey and discovered one reason stands above the rest: annoying push notifications.

image source : https://storyset.com/

Jump over the break to check out the top 8 reasons why people uninstall apps…

8. FORCED SOCIAL LOGINS

Okay, social logins were a good alternative to registration pages. But, somewhere along the line, app makers discovered social logins to be a great way to fish for personal information.

Now, the result is that some apps have social logins as the only way of authentication. This obviously is a double edged sword — some might prefer social logins as they bypass long registration forms. But, posting on walls and forcing users to share/like something to keep the app free does piss off people. The next step for them is an obvious uninstall.

7. PRIVACY CONCERNS

It is not just the NSA. Developers have also been blamed for snooping around for personal information. Add to this the excessive permissions apps ask for. Sometimes more than is what is needed for the app to function. Seriously, it does not take a rocket scientist to figure out that a torch utility app does not need any access to your phone book!

6. INTRUSIVE ADS

Full-screen and video ads on a mobile device is one of the seven sins of mobile app development. Now if only you add a forced delay on it, you surely get your picture on a dart board! More crazy the graphics, the more resources it would hog. All these make an instant deletion the perfect answer to all the mobile user’s troubles.

Ads are necessary for free app developers to sustain their livelihoods. But, you should never forget that well-designed, non-intrusive ads are rarely frowned upon. Test when maximum Click Through Rates (CTR) happen on an app. Is it a certain size, layout, format, on-screen position of an ad? Or is it the text size or a different way in which the ad was worded? All this makes your ad less likely to be the reason of uninstall.

5. BAD UI/UX

You think this is not quite a good reason to delete your app? It is in fact. As many as 42% of people said they remove an app because the user interface (UI) was badly designed or the user experience (UX) was crap. While it is tough for a developer to have rock-star designer skills, it actually does not take that much effort to ensure minimum standards for layout and functionality. Crappy fonts, colors, unreadable icons make a mobile user look for alternatives and subsequently uninstall the app.

Again, it is a good practice to optimize your user interface using real-user data for maximum engagement and conversion numbers.

4. APP TAKES TOO LONG TO LOAD/FREEZES

Mobile users have a very low threshold for apps that freeze at the drop of a hat. Nothing is as repulsive as crashes and error-prone apps. There is rarely a worse user experience than an app that has to be restarted regularly to do its job.

Similarly, apps that use too much device memory slow down other apps as well, prompting the user to hit delete. Add to this the fact that this reason is more likely to be shared via word of mouth than the other 6 reasons listed here. Be it by writing a bad review or by sharing his/her frustration on social networks.

3. COMPLEX REGISTRATION/LOG-IN EXPERIENCE

68% of users said they hit delete because they found the registration process too cumbersome. What’s more dangerous is that a very high majority of these uninstalls would be instant — before the good points of your app are even discovered. Remember, mobile users want to try your app when they download. An exceedingly complex registration process is an obvious hurdle.

User profiles do offer a method to hold user information and send behavioral data back to your servers. But, make sure you do not present a excessively lengthy, badly designed form after you have done the hard job of getting a download.

2. ANNOYING/TOO-MANY NOTIFICATIONS

Notifications, be it well-intentioned or gazillions a day, are annoying. Even if you make it easy for people to turn it off, most are just not bothered to find a tiny check-box after browsing through three menu screens.

The good practice here would be to make the notifications absolutely useful for the user. In-app messaging is a powerful medium of cross selling other apps in your kitty or refer other people in an app. An easy way to better your in-app notifications would be to test when/what/where/to whom is the best to send such a notification.

1. Lack of Competitive Advantage

If your users have a better alternative than you, they will prefer your competitor. Doing the same thing with tens of other apps doesn’t create a blue ocean to your app.

If you are doing so, you have a very big problem. According to a research, nearly 29% of all instances of business app uninstallations occur when users find a better app. You should be aware of the fact that your users have a lot of alternatives to you. You should create a competitive advantage to gain their loyalty and interest.

CONCLUSION

You must make an app that people love to use. If you don’t so, it is impossible to be successful in the market. This is why you should consider the reasons above and take action for each of them to handle.

What are your thoughts on it comment down below?