Adolescents’ Assessment of Several Step Tracker Mobile Applications Based on Their Previous Level of Physical Activity

<b>Background:</b> Adolescents' use of step tracker mobile applications (apps) could be influenced by their assessment of the mobile app used. <b>Objectives:</b> To analyze differences in the dropout rate, app assessment, and problematic mobile phone use based on prior physical activity levels and the app used. <b>Methods:</b> A study with a quasi-experimental design was carried out with the participation of 240 adolescents, who were further categorized as either active or inactive. The adolescents carried out a 10-week intervention promoted as a part of the physical education curriculum, three days a week, in which they randomly used the Pokémon Go, MapMyWalk, Pacer, or Strava mobile apps after school for cardiorespiratory training. <b>Results:</b> The results showed a higher dropout rate from Pokémon Go in the group of inactive adolescents (<i>p</i> = 0.012). No differences were found in the assessment of apps based on the level of activity of the adolescents, neither overall nor when analyzing this question based on the app used (<i>p</i> > 0.05). As for problematic mobile phone use, only previously inactive adolescents assigned to the Pacer group significantly increased their final score after the intervention (<i>p</i> = 0.044), with no changes being identified in the other groups or apps (<i>p</i> > 0.05). Furthermore, the active adolescents showed a positive relationship between the volume of training and problematic mobile phone use (<i>p</i> = 0.023), specifically with the conflicting use of this device (<i>p</i> = 0.017). <b>Conclusions:</b> The inactive adolescents had a higher dropout rate when using Pokémon Go. There were no differences in app assessment between the active and the inactive participants. However, the active adolescents showed a link between their training volume and problematic mobile phone use.