Useful apps tend to embed themselves deeply into people's work lives and stay installed on their devices for the long term. As a result it can be hard to get a definitive list of the best apps at any one time.
To try to remedy this, app quality company Applause has produced a report that ranks 130 business apps based on what people feel about them. Categories of apps ranked include communication, organization, work productivity, security and weather.
To qualify for the report, apps needed to have a minimum of 1,000 reviews combined in the Android and iOS app stores. Ranking is based on a sentiment score of 0-100 as determined by Applause's analytics platform for attributes including usability, security, privacy, interoperability and more.
The average score of all 130 apps was 61 out of 100 (the average score of apps across all categories is 67). Organization apps were the highest ranked at an average score of 68/100. Communication and security apps received average scores of 55 and 53, respectively.
In the communication category, Slack (64.5) scored ahead of Google Hangouts (47), HipChat (42.5) and Skype for Business (22). In organization, Box (64.5) scored ahead of Google Drive (61), Dropbox (60) and Microsoft OneDrive (58). Of security apps, Norton Mobile Security (79) scored ahead of Kaspersky Internet Security (77) and Avast Mobile Security (75).
Ten apps earned above average scores based on more than 100,000 reviews. These include ColorNote (93), Duolingo (88.5), CamScanner (85) and Evernote (78). The report's authors note that, "Consumers value apps with elegant user interfaces and simple navigation, accurate information, relevant notifications, quick launch times, fast performance and engaging and fun experiences".
At the other end of the scale the worst scores were received by enterprise mobile management apps such as Good, Mobile Iron and AirWatch, all of which ranked at the bottom with scores under 20.
You can find out more about how Applause measures app sentiment and access the full report on the company's website.
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