The Impact of App Updates on Usage Frequency and Duration

This study investigates the causal effect of mobile app updates on user engagement, specifically examining how feature introductions versus bug fixes differentially impact usage frequency and duration across app categories. Using a difference-in-differences approach with propensity score matching on a proprietary dataset of individual-level app usage behavior, we analyze user responses to updates in socially-oriented apps (e.g., WeChat, QQ) and self-oriented apps (e.g., Weibo, Zhihu). Our findings reveal that app updates increase both opening frequency and usage time per session across all apps. However, we identify a critical distinction: relative to bug fixes, introducing new features significantly reduces engagement for socially-oriented apps, while no discernible negative effect occurs for self-oriented apps. These results challenge the prevailing assumption that frequent feature updates universally enhance app success. Theoretically, we contextualize IS Success by establishing app-orientation boundary conditions and isolating the distinct behavioral effects of feature introductions versus bug fixes at the individual level. Practically, our findings provide insights into tailoring update strategies to app orientation. For socially oriented apps, developers should prioritize bug fixes or pair feature launches with progressive rollout and in-app onboarding to mitigate short-run engagement losses, whereas self-oriented apps can leverage feature updates more flexibly.