A Systematic Evaluation of Mobile Applications for Instant Messaging on iOS Devices

Caro‐Alvaro, Sergio; García-López, Eva; García-Cabot, Antonio; de‐Marcos, Luis; Gutierrez-Martinez, Jose-Maria

doi:10.1155/2017/1294193

Cited by 13 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(66 reference statements)

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“…A similar finding was reported in another app review study (Caro-Alvaro et al, 2017). Furthermore, although 3.3 is a good average, this rating may not correlate with effectiveness and quality; rather, it may be a reflection of usability.…”

Section: Main Findingssupporting

confidence: 86%

A Review of mHealth Gambling Apps in Australia

Brownlow¹

2021

JGI

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Problem gamblers face numerous barriers to intervention and support, such as shame and stigma, need for control, and lack of resources. Fortunately, digital health has paved the way for private, autonomous, and highly accessible interventions for problem gambling. Mobile applications (apps) are a part of the digital health platform; however, few apps are available, and a review has not been undertaken. This study had one simple aim: to review the health apps for problem gambling available in Australia from Google Play and Apple iTunes. Focus was given to, among other elements, cost, update recency, popularity, and functions of the apps. In January 2020, 17 health apps for problem gambling were identified and data were extracted. The investigation showed that the apps are generally free or low cost and are not popular in terms of downloads and ratings. In most cases, months or years had passed since previous updates, and the apps had a small number of functions with little variance in the types provided. However, many of the functions are viewed positively by problem gamblers and professionals involved in problem gambling research and intervention. Overall, although the limited range of health apps for problem gambling available in Australia provides a foundation for intervention, there is room for improvement in the quality and range of in-app functions, which may in turn have positive effects on popularity. Further, a greater number of apps may benefit users by encouraging price competitiveness and regular app updates.RésuméLes joueurs compulsifs font face de nombreux obstacles à l’intervention et au soutien, notamment la honte et la stigmatisation, le besoin de contrôle et le manque de ressources. Heureusement, la santé numérique leur a ouvert la voie aux interventions privées, autonomes et très accessibles. La plateforme de santé numérique comporte des applications mobiles, mais celles-ci sont peu nombreuses et n’ont pas fait l’objet d’analyses. Cette étude avait un objectif simple : examiner les applications du domaine de la santé destinées aux joueurs compulsifs et offertes en Australie à partir de Google Play et d’Apple iTunes. Nous nous sommes concentrés notamment sur le coût, la récence de la mise à jour, la popularité et les fonctions des applications. En janvier 2020, 17 applications du domaine de la santé destinées aux joueurs compulsifs ont été repérées et les données ont été extraites. L’analyse montre que les applications sont généralement gratuites ou à faible coût, et ne sont pas populaires sur le plan des téléchargements et des évaluations. Dans la plupart des cas, elles n’avaient pas été mises à jour depuis des mois ou des années, et offraient un petit nombre de fonctions dont le type variait peu. Toutefois, un grand nombre des fonctions sont considérées de manière positive par les joueurs compulsifs et les professionnels de la recherche et de l’intervention dans le domaine du jeu compulsif. Dans l’ensemble, bien que la gamme restreinte d’applications de santé destinées aux joueurs compulsifs et accessibles en Australie jette les bases de l’intervention, il y a place à l’amélioration de la qualité et des fonctions de ces applications, ce qui pourrait les rendre plus populaires. En outre, l’augmentation du nombre d’applications pourrait être profitable aux utilisateurs en favorisant la concurrence des prix et les mises à jour régulières.

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Section: Main Findingssupporting

confidence: 86%

A Review of mHealth Gambling Apps in Australia

Brownlow¹

2021

JGI

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“…Particularly for apps from the Apple store, this resulted in the exclusion of a large number of apps. Another mobile app review found more than half of the iOS apps tested in their study had no rating [37]. This may limit the range of apps that smokers using iOS are likely to download, but it is unlikely to have impacted the conclusions of our review, as our interest was in popular apps.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Adherence of popular smoking cessation mobile applications to evidence-based guidelines

Rajani

Weth²,

Mastellos

et al. 2019

BMC Public Health

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Background Smoking remains one of the major preventable causes of chronic diseases. Considering the promising evidence on the effectiveness of mobile technology for health behaviour change, along with the increasing adoption of smartphones, this review aims to systematically assess the adherence of popular mobile apps for smoking cessation to evidence-based guidelines. Methods The United Kingdom Android and iOS markets were searched in February 2018 to identify smoking cessation apps. After screening, 125 Android and 15 iOS apps were tested independently by two reviewers for adherence to the National Institute of Care and Excellence (NICE) Smoking Cessation Guidelines for Self-Help Materials and the Five A Guidelines for Smoking Cessation. Pearson chi square tests were run to examine differences between the two operating systems. Results A majority of apps across both operating systems had low adherence (fulfils 1–2 out of 5 guidelines) to the Five A Guidelines (65.7%) and low adherence (fulfils 1–3 out of 9 guidelines) to the NICE Smoking Cessation Guidelines for Self-Help Materials (63.6%). Only 15% of mobile apps provided information about the benefits of nicotine replacement therapy (NRT), and even fewer provided information regarding types of NRT products (7.1%) or how to use them (2.1%). In addition, only a minority of apps arrange follow-up appointments or provide additional support to help smokers quit. Conclusion Similar to previous mobile app reviews dating back to 2014, our findings show that most mobile apps do not follow existing smoking cessation treatment guidelines, indicating little change regarding the availability of evidence-based mobile apps for smoking cessation in the UK market. Smokers seeking to quit, tobacco control policy makers and software developers need to work together to develop apps that are in line with the latest clinical guidelines and strategies to maximise effectiveness. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12889-019-7084-7) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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“…In particular, the methodical evaluation [39] carried out here to detect usability issues was previously tested successfully on two types of apps: diabetes management apps [ 42,43] and spreadsheet apps [41]. Additionally, these authors applied this methodical evaluation on previous studies in IM environments [64,65]. e results of these studies (as well as this study about IM apps) show that it is necessary to apply both KLM and heuristic evaluation methods in order to detect more usability problems than when only one of them is used.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Usability Issues in Instant Messaging Apps on iOS and Android Platforms

Caro‐Alvaro

García-López

García-Cabot

et al. 2018

Mobile Information Systems

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With the rise of mobile devices and the high number of instant messaging applications available in the stores, it is necessary to evaluate the usability of such applications to provide a more satisfying user experience. To this end, this paper presents a methodical usability evaluation of instant messaging applications both in iOS and Android platforms. A predefined evaluation was used, which was created to detect the main usability issues of mobile applications, regardless of the device used and the evaluated applications. Consequently, two methods were used: the keystroke level model and the mobile heuristic evaluation. Also, the results suggest that the main problems of this type of applications are difficulties in performing tasks (some of them were not agile nor easy to complete), lack of element cohesion (some icons and buttons did not follow the style of the operating system, bad translations, and too much information on the screen), problems with the user interface (pop-ups overlapping the status bar, clipped elements, sometimes the interface did not rotate, and, in other cases, the interface changed considerably when the device was rotated), and lack of information about privacy and security features. Finally, based on the results, we propose a set of recommendations that will be helpful for developers of this kind of applications.

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A Systematic Evaluation of Mobile Applications for Instant Messaging on iOS Devices

Cited by 13 publications

References 44 publications

A Review of mHealth Gambling Apps in Australia

A Review of mHealth Gambling Apps in Australia

Adherence of popular smoking cessation mobile applications to evidence-based guidelines

Identifying Usability Issues in Instant Messaging Apps on iOS and Android Platforms

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