After the Supreme Court legalized abortion in the U.S., consumers are replacing their current period tracking apps with safer alternatives. Flo, the leading period tracking app, has a 47% share of the period tracking app market in the US, according to data provided by Apptopia. It is possible that the app lost customers to rival apps while gaining new users from other apps. Similar trends are being seen by other apps.
Many companies that have made public statements in support of strengthened data security and privacy practices are gaining from the trend of app switchers. The current beneficiary of this increased switch activity is a potentially problematic app called Stardust, which had yet to implement its new privacy protections at the time it was making promises to users.
As a result of Stardust's claims, its daily average downloads increased by as much as 6,000% over the weekend. The relative newcomer to the period tracking market promoted itself as a small, women-led team who wanted to provide users with a more secure app. The claims drove the app to the top of the App Store. Being a small team is not an advantage. The version of the app that users downloaded over the weekend had privacy issues, including the sharing of phone numbers with third parties.
Period tracker Stardust surges following Roe reversal, but its privacy claims aren’t airtight
Sensor Tower said the app gained over 400,000 installs this weekend despite the issues.
Clue benefited from consumers looking for alternatives. Clue's app saw a 2,200% increase in installs over the weekend after it made comments in the press that it won't reveal sensitive info to states. Clue reached its highest-ever rank on the App Store on Saturday. A surge of app switchers is believed to have caused the rank change.
There was an increase in installs on Saturday, June 25, as well. The month of June saw a 21% jump in the average daily downloads of Glow's ovulation app and an increase in the average daily installs of Eve. An app called Natural Cycles - Birth Control saw a 53% increase in installs, while another called Period Tracker saw a 17% increase, and the app Femometer saw a 10% increase. The firm found that there were single-digit increases in the apps.
Flo moved up a bit on Saturday as a result of the app switch activity. Sensor Tower said that Flo jumped from No. 199 on June 23 to No. 187 on June 25. As of the time of writing, it has moved up to 180. Flo's average daily installs had been on the decline for several months, and it's likely due to the FTC settlement. Consumers were thinking about data privacy before the Supreme Court ruled.
Flo issued a statement in hopes of stemming the tide of app switchers. It said something.
Flo will do everything in its power to protect the data and privacy of our users. We will be adding a new feature called "Anonymous Mode" that will allow users to remove their personal identity from their Flo account. Our users deserve complete control over their data, and we are here to help them along the way.
Clue emphasized its adherence to strict European data privacy laws on its website. GP App's privacy policy states that it would comply with legal requests and subpoenas. Consumers can choose to use their account without an online account, which will only store data on the user's device. Other companies have also published statements on their websites.
Without a deeper analysis of each company's privacy policy and more sophisticated testing of each app's privacy and security protections, it's hard to recommend that the use of any third-party period tracking app is a 100% safe decision at the moment.
It is possible to use Apple's Health app alone for the time being, where end-to-end encryption of users' Health records is available through iCloud. Data on Apple's first-party apps isn't available so we won't know how many people chose to use them.
Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade: Should you delete your period-tracking app?
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