ArticlePloS one2022
COVID-19 contact tracing app reviews reveal concerns and motivations around adoption.
Article in PloS one, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 5 papers.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
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Who cites it
5 citing papers in PubMed, 10 citations in OpenAlex.
- Characteristics Influencing Support for the National Health Service COVID-19 App in England and Wales: Findings From a Longitudinal Survey.Journal of medical Internet research · 2026Article
- "Do not inject our babies": a social listening analysis of public opinion about authorizing pediatric COVID-19 vaccines.Health affairs scholar · 2024Article
- Article
- Investigating Social Media to Evaluate Emergency Medicine Physicians' Emotional Well-being During COVID-19.JAMA network open · 2023Article
- Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundGoogle and Apple's Exposure Notifications System (ENS) was developed early in the COVID-19 pandemic to complement existing contact tracing efforts while protecting user privacy. An analysis by the Associated Press released in December 2020 estimated approximately 1 in 14 people had downloaded apps in states one was available. In this study, we assessed the motivation and experience of individuals who downloaded ENS apps from the Google Play and Apple App Stores.
methodsWe collected review text, star rating, and date of rating for all the reviews on ENS apps in the Google Play and Apple App stores. We extracted the relative frequency of single words and phrases from reviews and created an open vocabulary language, with themes categorized by the research team, to study the salient themes around reviews with high (3-5 stars), neutral (3 stars), and negative (1-2 stars) ratings using logistic regression.
resultsOf 7622 reviews obtained from 26 states between 04/07/2020 to 03/31/2021, 6364 were from Google Play Store, and 1258 were from Apple App Store. We obtained reviews for a total of 38 apps, with 25 apps from the Google Play Store and 13 apps from the Apple Play Store. 78% of the reviews are either 1 star or 5 stars. Positive reviews were driven by ease of use, support for the state government in creating the app, and encouragement for others to download, as well as engage in other COVID-19 precautions. Negative and neutral reviews focused on issues with app functionality (i.e., installation and tracking errors).
conclusionsUptake was the largest barrier to success for ENS apps, but states can use insight from app store reviews to better position themselves if they choose to develop further public health apps.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.