What percent of mobile apps have a settings screen?
- By Ali Abouelatta
- n = 809
- Published
- Updated
- 2 min read
- ux-patterns · mobile · design · web · saas
Short answer
71.4% of tracked apps (578 of 809) have a captured settings screen — the most universal non-home screen in the corpus source[1]. Even so, it is not literally everywhere: ~29% of tracked apps have no captured settings screen. Settings is the closest thing to a default expected screen, but its absence in nearly 1 in 3 apps shows many products push configuration into a profile or account surface instead.
578 of ~800 tracked apps (71.4%) have a settings screen — the most universal non-home screen — Lazyweb Research, July 2026.
Bar chart · %
% — The finding
One block is about 2.6%
- Settings
- 71.4%
- Profile / account
- 58.0%
- Search
- 55.6%
- Empty state
- 45.7%
The finding
578 of 809 apps (71.4%) show a settings screen, the single most common non-home surface tracked source[1]. For context against neighboring surfaces number[2]:
| Screen | Apps | % |
|---|---|---|
| Settings | 578 | 71.4% |
| Profile / account | 469 | 58.0% |
| Search | 450 | 55.6% |
| Empty state | 370 | 45.7% |
How to apply it
A settings screen is the safest 'yes, everyone has this' pattern in the corpus — if you are debating whether to ship one, the answer is almost always yes source[1]. The ~29% without a captured settings screen are often lightweight or feed-first apps that fold preferences into a profile/account page, so a combined profile+settings surface is a legitimate alternative rather than an omission.
Caveats
Lower bound — reflects only settings screens Lazyweb captured source[1]. Many apps merge settings into profile; the 71.4% counts screens tagged as settings specifically, so combined profile-settings surfaces may under-report here and show up in the 58.0% profile figure instead.
Real in-market screens
Screens from real, in-market apps, tracked by Lazyweb Research.
United1206 × 2622opens the full image 
Iscanner1206 × 2622opens the full image 
Cnbc1206 × 2622opens the full image 
Hulu1206 × 2622opens the full image
The numbers
| # | Stat | Computed from |
|---|---|---|
| [1] | 71.4% (578 of 809) | prevalence_settings_screen: 578/809 |
| [2] | Profile 58.0% (469), Search 55.6% (450), Empty state 45.7% (370) | prevalence_profile_screen, prevalence_search_screen, prevalence_empty_state |
Methodology
Universe: 809 apps with >=1 captured screen. Method: COUNT(DISTINCT company_name) where any tag matches '%settings%'. July 2026. Caveat: captured screens only.
Sources
- [1]
Lazyweb Research analysis of 809 mobile apps (809 mobile apps with >=1 captured screen; 751 with tag data; median 41 screens/app), July 2026
Prevalence = COUNT(DISTINCT company_name) over LLM synonym tags; denominator is 809 tracked apps (reported conservatively over all apps-with-screens, not the 62,376-row companies table). Lower bound: only reflects screens Lazyweb captured (median 41/app).
Source: Lazyweb Research — proprietary analysis of real, in-market app screens. Cite as Lazyweb Research, 2026-07-07.