Parenting Apps Survey: Not Many Parents Interested in Family Apps

Today, you can find mobile apps for just about any function. You can even use mobile apps to help with different aspects of parenting, from keeping kids entertained to finding healthy food options, according to this list from PBS Parents. So how many parents have found mobile apps to be helpful when it comes to parenting? And what are some of the top brands in this space? We asked 1,000 respondents on September 19-22 about their thoughts on mobile apps and how they might fit into parenting.

Mobile Consumers

In Ask Your Target Market’s latest survey, 77% of respondents said that they currently own a smartphone and/or tablet. 52% of those mobile consumers said they own both devices. 39% just own a smartphone. And 10% just own a tablet.Of those mobile consumers, 17% said they last downloaded new mobile apps within the past day. 26% have gotten new mobile apps in the past week. 22% have within the past month. 14% have within the past three months. 7% last downloaded new apps within the past year. 4% said it’s been more than a year since they last downloaded any new mobile apps. And 9% are not app consumers.

Mobile Apps

Overall, 68% of mobile app consumers said they have social media apps on their devices. 67% have gaming apps. 45% have shopping apps. 42% have entertainment related apps. 36% have news apps. 31% have informational and utility apps. 22% have travel or transportation related mobile apps on their devices. And 8% have other types of mobile apps such as banking, weather and health-related apps.In general, 74% of respondents said that they think mobile apps can be helpful for a variety of different functions. 55% think that mobile apps can make family and home life easier. And 57% think that mobile apps can be great resources for parents.

Parenting Apps

More specifically, just 6% of overall respondents said they currently have more than one mobile app on their devices specifically related to parenting or family. 8% have just one such app. And 86% don’t have any. Of respondents who currently have kids, 7% said they have multiple parenting apps. And 11% have just one. Parenting, Toys R Us, Family One and Family Tree were some of the parenting apps mentioned by respondents, though there weren’t any stand-out apps that were overwhelmingly popular among those respondents.Looking forward, 17% of mobile respondents said they are at least somewhat likely to download mobile apps related to parenting or family within the next year. 22% of current parents said they are at least somewhat likely to download parenting apps in the next year. And of all respondents who already have at least one parenting app, 61% said they are at least somewhat likely to download new parenting apps in the next year.

Key Takeaways

Not many parents currently have apps specifically related to parenting or family. And even of those who do, there wasn’t a clear stand-out favorite parenting app. That could mean that there’s an opening for companies targeting parents or family-oriented consumers to really create something different and stand out in the parenting apps marketplace. But those companies would really have to market their offerings to show new app consumers how their offering could specifically benefit consumers, since not many seem likely to go out of their way to look for new parenting apps in the near future. However, of those who already do use parenting apps, many seem likely to download even more apps. So that could represent an opportunity for parenting apps that want to generate some positive word of mouth marketing to attract even more parents or app consumers.You can view the complete survey results in the widget below and be sure to click “Open Full Report” to take advantage of all the chart and filter options.

Photo Credit: Geeky by Bruno Padilha under CC BY 2.0What do you want to know? If you need some consumer insights on a particular topic, let us know in the comments below and we’ll consider it for an upcoming survey post.Results were collected on September 19-22 via AYTM’s online survey panel.