A Review on the Mobile Applications Developed for COVID-19: An Exploratory Analysis

Abstract

The objective of this research is to explore the existing mobile applications developed for the COVID-19 pandemic. To obtain this research objective, firstly the related applications were selected through the systematic search technique in the popular application stores. Secondly, data related to the app objectives, functionalities provided by the app, user ratings, and user reviews were extracted. Thirdly, the extracted data were analyzed through the affinity diagram, noticing-collecting-thinking, and descriptive analysis. As outcomes, the review provides a state-of-the-art view of mobile apps developed for COVID-19 by revealing nine functionalities or features. It revealed ten factors related to information systems design characteristics that can guide future app design. The review outcome highlights the need for new development and further refinement of the existing applications considering not only the revealed objectives and their associated functionalities, but also revealed design characteristics such as reliability, performance, usefulness, supportive, security, privacy, flexibility, responsiveness, ease of use, and cultural sensitivity.

A Review of Mobile Applications Available in the App and Google Play Stores Used During the COVID-19 Outbreak

“…16 Another study identified the COVID-19 applications developed in UK, India, Brazil, Canada, France, Bangladesh, UK, Australia, Spain, Greece, and Vietnam. 17 In a similar way, Singh et al observed the COVID-19 applications utilized in China, Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Iran, Russia, Spain, the United States, and Turkey. 18 Besides, Rawan et al inspected the use of mobile phone applications for contact tracing during the COVID-19 pandemic in the following 15 countries: Australia, Bahrain, China, Czech Republic, Ghana, Hungary, Iceland, India, Israel, Malaysia, New Zealand, Norway, Saudi Arabia and Singapore.…”

“…12 Consequently, various countries have developed mobile health applications to improve the delivery of healthcare services to contain the spread of the novel coronavirus during the COVID-19 pandemic. [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] It is pertinent to point out that in general several of these studies are related to the present investigation. For example, one study indicated that more than 2 million of participants used a free smartphone-based app to report potential symptoms of COVID-19 in the United Kingdom and the USA.…”

“…Although there are studies focused on the analysis of the features and functionalities, their evaluations are restricted to the general features of the apps such as usability and ease of use, but did not include COVID-19 specific functionalities and features. 17,18 In general, there is a limited research evaluating the mobile applications used for the COVID-19 outbreak. 15,17 submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com…”

“…17,18 In general, there is a limited research evaluating the mobile applications used for the COVID-19 outbreak. 15,17 submit your manuscript | www.dovepress.com…”

Novel Coronavirus Cough Database: NoCoCoDa

“…Some areas of big data research include sourcing data from social media [12] and YouTube videos [13]. More recently, researchers have focused on using big data information to evaluate trends in the current COVID-19 pandemic [12], [14], [15].…”