A long way to go for mHealth apps to retain substantial monthly active users, says research

Publishers of mHealth apps have a long way to go before their digital solutions become a daily companion for the target audience, according to the latest mHealth Developer Economics research published by Research2Guidance.

Through this research, it has been revealed that user retention for digital health solutions still poses a challenge, with 62% of mHealth app publishers reporting digital solutions with less than 1,000 monthly active users (MAUs). Additionally, 21% of the digital health market platers reported less than 10,0000 MAUs — defined as a user that has used the app at least once in a month.

Looking at the market in more detail, it was found that 7% of mobile health solutions were reaching substantial market penetration with reportedly more than 50,000 monthly active users. Companies in this group mainly published solutions for running, exercise, diabetes, women’s health or weight loss.

In the report, the ways in which mHealth app publishers can better retain users is evaluated and highlights four categories that can have an impact on driving MAUs. These were outlined as being:

Higher impact & easy implementation— utilising dashboards to re-engage with users and drive personal change

Higher impact & harder implementation— allowing direct interaction with doctors

Lower impact & harder implementation— gamification approaches to apps

Lower impact & easy implementation— social monitoring