Influence of COVID-19 Lockdowns on the Usage of a Vision Assistance App Among Global Users With Visual Impairment: Big Data Analytics Study

BACKGROUND: Millions of individuals with visual impairment use vision assistance apps to help with their daily activities. The most widely used vision assistance apps are magnifier apps. It is still largely unknown what the apps are used for. Lack of insight into the visual needs of individuals with visual impairment is a hurdle for the development of more effective assistive technologies. OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate how needs for visual aids may vary with social activities, by observing the changes in the usage of a smartphone magnifier app when many users take breaks from work. METHODS: The number of launches of the SuperVision Magnifier app was determined retrospectively from 2018 to 2020 from among active users worldwide. The fluctuation in app usage was examined by comparing weekday vs weekend periods, Christmas and new year vs nonholiday seasons, and COVID-19 lockdowns vs the easing of restriction during the pandemic. RESULTS: On average, the app was used 262,466 times by 38,237 users each month in 2020 worldwide. There were two major trough points on the timeline of weekly app usage, one aligned with the COVID-19 lockdowns in April 2020 and another aligned with the Christmas and new year week in 2018 and 2019. The app launches declined by 6947 (11% decline; P<.001) during the lockdown and by 5212 (9% decline; P=.001) during the holiday weeks. There was no significant decline during March to May 2019. App usage compensated for seasonal changes was 8.6% less during weekends than during weekdays (P<.001). CONCLUSIONS: The need for vision assistance technology was slightly lower during breaks and lockdowns, probably because the activities at home were different and less visually demanding. Nevertheless, for the entire user population, the needs for visual aids are still substantial.