The pandemic accelerated mobile trends by years, and these changes should stick even as the pandemic wanes. Many people were forced to use apps for food delivery, finance, fitness, and shopping, and they’ve become accustomed to these new behaviors. Even app categories that were hurt during the pandemic, such as travel or dating apps, have been resilient. People have acclimated to new forms of mobile shopping and activities, and they’ll be more willing to try mobile interfaces for other activities going forward.

However, some had nonlinear trajectories, including fitness and dating apps. For instance, fitness apps experienced a huge surge in downloads (30%) in 2020, according to App Annie—but usage didn’t follow a clear upward trend. “We saw huge interest right off the bat [for fitness apps],” said Sydow. “Then we actually saw usage taper quite a bit.

This fifth annual benchmark stacks up 23 US financial institutions against one another, evaluating their mobile app capabilities based on consumer demand for 42 emerging features.

Over the past five years, neobanks have advanced on two fronts: user growth and richness of mobile functionality. But they’re still chasing profitability, launching new financial services offerings and reserving some of their most innovative features for paying customers. This second annual study stacks up the top four UK neobanks against one another, scoring their mobile app capabilities based on consumer demand for 48 emerging features.

Amid the pandemic-driven interest in financial wellness, a credit score feature ensures users stay in their banking app, rather than seek out third-party providers. Thirty-five percent of UK consumers checked their credit score between May and late July 2020, during the first nationwide lockdown, with 4 million doing so for the first time ever, per TransUnion research.

Apple’s careful curation of the App Store experience has been integral to establishing trust. It also allowed users to more easily opt out of location tracking by apps in iOS 13. Now, Apple’s new privacy “nutrition labels” and App Tracking Transparency requirements released in iOS 14.5 set a new standard that all app developers must comply with.

Key Insight: Top-rated financial wellness features are in short supply, despite high demand. Account aggregation can bring a customer’s full financial picture into focus, making the app the destination for financial oversight.

As coronavirus cases continue to rise in parts of the country, consumers are remaining wary of returning to gyms or visiting their physicians in person, with many turning to apps.