Evaluation and ranking of Persian mobile apps for COVID-19

Recently developed mobile apps for controlling COVID-19 have the potential to help fight the pandemic. But assurance regarding the quality of available apps is essential to proving their validity for usage. This study was aimed at evaluating and ranking the apps in Persian developed for COVID-19 in Iran.

122 apps for COVID-19 in the Persian language were founded in the Miket, CafeBazar, ParsHub, and Charkhooneh app markets. Based on inclusion criteria, 13 apps were selected. The apps were evaluated by two independent reviewers and ranked according to a validated evaluation and ranking tool specifically for the Persian apps for information content, usability, design, ethics, security, privacy, and subjective quality. Kendall’s coefficient of concordance was used to calculate the agreement between two raters based on the mean of their scores for each app (p-value<0.05).

Five functional and subjective quality criteria were used. Mask was the app with the highest level of the specific score (mean score: 4.10, subjective quality: 4). The Corona test-Davoudi was the app with the lowest level of the specific score (mean score: 1.85, subjective quality: 1.50), which needs more improvement. The reviewed apps mainly need improvement for data security and privacy, requiring more technical tasks.

There is a need for improvement, particularly in terms of privacy and data security, for Persian COVID-19 apps. Develop a valid guideline that could be effective in improving app quality. In addition, the modern technologies that have already proven successful worldwide should be considered by mobile app developers.