Finding the right user experience survey questions for mobile apps requires understanding how users interact with your app on their devices. Getting these questions right unlocks the user insights and pain points you need to improve app experience and boost engagement.
Mobile UX is unique—tiny screens, touch inputs, and use-anywhere moments. That’s why a mobile-first approach to survey design matters. Conversational surveys work particularly well on mobile, since replying feels like texting, not work.
Core questions that uncover mobile UX insights
When you want to uncover why users love (or leave) your mobile app, your survey needs to dig deeper than “rate your experience.” Here are the essential question types, with examples that work in a conversational, mobile-friendly format:
Onboarding experience: Onboarding is make-or-break. 47% of users abandon apps with confusing onboarding flows [1]. Ask:
How easy was it to get started the first time you opened the app?
What, if anything, confused you during setup?
Was anything missing from the welcome screens?
Navigation clarity: If users can’t find features, they leave. Examples:
How easy is it to find what you need in the app?
Were you ever lost or unsure where to tap next?
Is any key feature hard to locate?
Performance issues: 58% of users say annoying UI bugs kill the experience [2]:
Have you noticed the app slowing down or crashing?
How smooth does the app feel during regular use?
Which actions (if any) seem to lag or glitch?
Feature discovery:
What’s the last new feature you found and used? How did you discover it?
Are there features you wish you’d found sooner?
Is anything in the app hidden or hard to notice?
Task completion: If core tasks feel slow or clunky, users churn.
How quickly can you complete your main task in the app?
Where do you get stuck, if at all?
Are any steps in your workflow frustrating?
Overall satisfaction:
If you could fix one thing about the app, what would it be?
What do you like most about using this app?
How likely are you to keep using this app next month?
AI follow-up questions make each answer richer. If someone notes a lag, the AI can ask, “Can you tell me which device and OS version you’re using?” This dynamic probing happens in real time—see more about automatic AI follow-up questions to dig for context when it matters most.
Surface-level questions | Deep insight questions |
|---|---|
How would you rate our app? | What happened last time you used the app that made you feel this way? |
Did you experience any issues? | Tell me about a time when something didn’t work as expected—what did you do next? |
Blending these question types ensures you capture honest, actionable feedback—especially when your AI survey builder tailors the conversation to each user’s journey.
Writing mobile-friendly survey questions
Good questions for mobile must be crisp, easy to read, and fast to answer. Users are typically on the move, using one thumb, and easily distracted—so length and format matter more than ever. A few best practices:
Question length: Keep questions under 15 words for mobile readability. Long or complex wording gets skipped, misunderstood, or ignored.
Answer options: Limit multiple-choice options to 4–5 max. Fewer taps means more completions—especially for in-app and chat-based surveys.
Visual hierarchy: Use clear spacing and consistent formatting—short sentences, line breaks, and bold for keywords—so users aren’t staring at a wall of text on a tiny screen.
Ask users: “How easy was it to complete your main task in the app?” (Limit to 4 answer choices, tap-friendly)
Prompt for survey creation: “Generate 7 onboarding questions for a chat-based mobile app survey. Each should fit on screen in under 15 words.”
Example for device-specific probing: “If user mentions a bug, ask automatically: What device and OS version are you using?”
Want to skip the writing? Use an AI survey generator for mobile apps to draft concise, mobile-ready questions on demand.
When to ask: Timing your mobile UX surveys
Context is everything. A question at just the right moment leads to better response rates and sharper insights. For mobile, the best timing strategies include:
After onboarding: Users are fresh—ask about first impressions and confusion points.
Post-purchase or after completing a key action: Capture feedback on immediate satisfaction or friction.
After using a new feature: “What did you think of the new search tool?” while it’s still top of mind.
On app open, with a slight delay: Don’t pounce at launch—wait 5–10 seconds, then invite feedback.
After an error or crash: “We noticed something didn’t work—can you tell us what happened?”
Before users churn: If someone becomes inactive, proactively reach out: “Anything we could have improved before you stopped using the app?”
In-product surveys can use behavioral triggers (like completing a transaction or failing a login) to automatically time the right question—see more about behavioral targeting with in-product conversational surveys.
Bonus: A chat-like, conversational format halves survey fatigue because one question flows naturally into the next, rather than dumping a rigid multi-page form on a tiny screen. Studies show that in-app survey response rates are significantly higher, up to 13%, compared to 1% for old-school email surveys [3]. If triggered at the perfect moment, that rate can jump to 50% [3].
Device-specific questions and localization
Mobile users aren’t a monolith. Device model, OS version, and geographic location shape what they see and how well your app works. Experiences often differ wildly between iOS and Android, or between phones and tablets, so always consider:
Device/OS variation:
Which device are you using our app on? (e.g. iPhone 13, Samsung S22, iPad)
Which operating system version is installed?
Does the app behave any differently on your tablet vs. your phone?
Localization benefits: Users respond better to surveys in their own language—response rates and candidness rise. Automatic language detection means users see the survey in the language set in their app, no effort required. For example:
“What, if anything, is confusing?” (prompted in Spanish, Mandarin, or French automatically)
“Describe a time the app felt slow” (translated wording, casual tone in each language’s style)
For Japanese respondents, use indirect stems: “Would you say the navigation is clear and easy to use?”
Specific's localization features make this seamless, auto-serving surveys in every user’s app language—no translation busywork needed. When you add dynamic follow-up, the survey feels like a real, local conversation.
Advanced techniques for deeper mobile insights
If you want to move past “what’s broken” and uncover why users feel the way they do, try these advanced strategies:
Journey mapping questions: Ask users to describe their full path through a key task. Example:
“Walk me through how you sent a message from start to finish.”
“What steps did you take to schedule an event in our app?”
Comparison questions: Invite users to compare your app with others, which highlights differentiators and weaknesses.
“How does our app compare to others you use for the same purpose?”
“Is there anything you like more about competing apps?”
Scenario-based questions: Present realistic situations to uncover how users approach tasks.
“Imagine you’re in a rush—can you still complete your task in the app?”
“What do you do if a feature doesn’t work as expected?”
Emotion-focused questions: Mobile use is emotional—frustration leads to abandonment.
“How did you feel using the app the last time something went wrong?”
“What’s the most satisfying part of using our app?”
Journey mapping: By asking users to map out their steps—finish to start—you spot friction and delight points you’d otherwise miss. Instead of “Is it easy to checkout?” try, “Tell me each step you took the last time you bought something.”
Comparison questions: Peer benchmarks trigger new ideas and show where your UX stands in users’ minds. The trick is to get specific without introducing bias (“Think about your favorite app for this task—what makes it stand out?”).
AI-powered survey analysis tools like Specific’s AI survey response analysis can find themes and patterns across all these nuanced responses—so you get beneath the surface and see what’s really happening at scale. Conversational surveys typically capture 3-4x the detail of traditional forms because follow-up is automatic, never generic.
Turn mobile UX insights into action
Conversational surveys make it easy to capture the moments that matter in mobile UX. With AI-powered analysis, those stories turn into clear, actionable priorities. Let's create your own survey—mobile users will thank you for the chat, not another form.