Abstract

As access to healthcare to depression remains unavailable or insufficient to a significant part of the population dealing with depression, mobile apps dealing with depression have been spreading and generalizing. In this paper, we investigate depression apps based on data available on the Google Play Store. We find apps addressing several functions in depression apps: education, assessment, tracking, connection, treatment and recreation. While education is the most developed feature (39% of apps), treatment is the most desired feature (68% of app installations). Higher app ratings correlate with higher installs. Apps assessing depression are particularly poorly rated by users, possibly because of the medical nature of a diagnosis. These findings point to a segmentation of the depression app market with massive demand, differing expectations from users by function and discrepancy between developers’ efforts and users’ needs.

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User Installs and Rating of Depression Apps by Functionality

As access to healthcare to depression remains unavailable or insufficient to a significant part of the population dealing with depression, mobile apps dealing with depression have been spreading and generalizing. In this paper, we investigate depression apps based on data available on the Google Play Store. We find apps addressing several functions in depression apps: education, assessment, tracking, connection, treatment and recreation. While education is the most developed feature (39% of apps), treatment is the most desired feature (68% of app installations). Higher app ratings correlate with higher installs. Apps assessing depression are particularly poorly rated by users, possibly because of the medical nature of a diagnosis. These findings point to a segmentation of the depression app market with massive demand, differing expectations from users by function and discrepancy between developers’ efforts and users’ needs.