Insurers strived to improve mobile app claims experiences for policyholders in 2025, streamlining virtual inspections, claims reporting and notifications with the goal of retaining customers who have often found the process frustrating.
Insurers made fewer overall updates last year compared to prior years, when their mobile apps lagged further behind other industries like online banking and shopping. But the updates they did make were significant—especially in claims—reflecting the industrywide focus on retention and growth in a profitable market, according to user experience consulting firm Corporate Insight’s annual report on insurers’ mobile apps.
The changes indicate carrier recognition that earlier herky-jerky digital claims experiences hurt retention. Positive claims experiences are a driver of policyholder satisfaction, according to J.D. Power surveys, but carriers struggled to meet expectations in the app. They have often allowed policyholders to start their claims journey on apps, or websites, before shuffling them through redundant phone calls and emails to complete the process. (AIR 12/8/25)
After last year’s updates, almost all of the 18 carriers in the report now offer an improved digital process for providing first notice of loss (FNOL) on apps. Many now offer free automatic crash detection to all drivers, and virtual inspections are becoming increasingly prevalent.
“The apps are reaching this baseline of functionality,” said Nikki Gary, Corporate Insight senior research associate. “But now it seems like insurers are making improvements to show off different services or different bells and whistles within these kinds of more niche features.”
Overall, the 18 carriers tracked by Corporate Insight made 75 app updates in 2025. The average of 4.2 updates per carrier was down from 5.5 in 2024 and 6.75 in 2023. Though the total number of updates fell, “carriers published an unprecedented number of high-significance updates in 2025,” according to the report.
About 39% of changes in 2025 were categorized as “high significance,” up from 32% in 2024, 15% in 2023 and 12% in 2022. Claims was the most popular update category, accounting for 23% of all changes, up from 16% the year before. Several insurers also added multi-factor authentication to their apps to comply with New York Department of Financial Services requirements.
State Farm made 17 updates, by far the most of any insurer, and retained its crown as the best-rated mobile experience by Corporate Insight. Allstate made the second-most updates, with 11, and was rated third best, tied with Liberty Mutual. Chubb and Farmers made no improvements to their apps, and both offerings were ranked as middle-of-the-road. The Hartford was the lone insurer to completely revamp the design of its app – which had lagged far behind competitors – from top to bottom. In addition to aesthetic upgrades, the new app improved the ability to find key functions like documents, claim filing flows, billing and account information. Erie Insurance made one update and had the worst-rated mobile experience.
Corporate Insight recruits a panel of policyholders to provide access inside insurer apps, log updates and provide feedback on the user experience. It pairs panelist research with consumer surveys for statistical insights.
After years of “inching toward greatness,” as one panelist told Corporate Insight, the leading carrier apps have now reached a reasonable level of parity, at least compared with each other, according to Justin Suter, director of market engagement at Corporate Insight.
Insurers are “generally meeting expectations now, but if you put them up against other businesses that really dwarf their digital budgets, they’re still going to trail,” he said. “But I don’t necessarily think that insurers need to meet that level of expectation.”
Suter said panelists have reacted negatively to some insuretech apps that appear too modern. “We’ve seen some people, specifically with Lemonade, be a little bit hesitant, like, ‘oh, this feels a little bit too slick for an insurance company.’”
Insurers lack the inherent opportunities that drive people to open apps for banking or for securities trading on a daily basis. Insurers have struggled to encourage regular engagement among policyholders who often don’t think about insurance and rarely have reasons to download or open their apps unless they enroll in a telematics program or have a claim.
Allstate, notably, leveraged the massive amount of driving data collected by Arity, its telematics subsidiary, to introduce more reasons to use its app last year.
“Allstate seems to be at the forefront of adding these ‘value-add’ tools,” Gary said. “They have a parking spot locator; they have a weather risk tool. And they’ve also been rolling out a lot of different traffic notifications, especially around the holidays.”
The focus on mobile claims in 2025 led several features to quickly proliferate and become standard across carrier apps.
All 18 carriers now offer FNOL abilities in the app, including Hippo, which added the feature for the first time in 2025, according to Corporate Insight. Nine carriers improved claim filing flows: American Family, Amica, Geico, Lemonade, Liberty Mutual, Nationwide, State Farm and USAA. Gary pointed to Nationwide as a notable example – it revamped the experience and added a “Save and Exit” feature, which was previously not available. It has the second-highest rated mobile user experience. Auto Owners and Erie only allow auto glass claims to be filed through their apps.
Nine carriers now offer virtual inspections or photo uploads within the app: Chubb, Hippo (new in 2025), Lemonade, Liberty Mutual (improved in 2025), Nationwide (new in 2025), Progressive, State Farm (new in 2025), Travelers (improved in 2025) and USAA (improved in 2025).
Five carriers now offer crash detection in the main app for all users: Allstate (improved in 2025), Lemonade, Liberty Mutual (new in 2025), Progressive, and State Farm – which improved the feature and expanded it to all users in 2025. Six carriers offer crash detection via separate telematics apps: Auto Club of Southern California (launched in 2025), American Family, Amica, Geico, USAA and Travelers.
Some carriers also improved roadside assistance features by offering live status trackers to see where a tow truck is en route to a scene. Positive roadside assistance experiences are another proven satisfaction and retention booster. (AIR 12/8/25)
Geico added a “Live Activities” tracker in June that shows the progress of a roadside service call on iPhone lock screens or in a tile on the app home screen. USAA added an interactive map for roadside calls.
Carriers also sought to fix a big issue that J.D. Power reported was hurting claims experience: a lack of claims updates. Nationwide added push notifications for claims in September; State Farm added the ability to send push notifications to policyholders if a claim is filed involving their vehicle; and Liberty Mutual added proactive notifications for policyholders if their home damage photos don’t upload properly.
“That’s a really important update,” Suter said, explaining that panelists have expressed frustration that they don’t know if photos were received, where they went, or if they were useful. Communication from insurers explaining the repair process is useful for resetting consumer expectations around the claims turnaround time.
“More messaging along the way can definitely help with some of the friction points for the consumer,” Suter added. Policyholders think, “I upload the pictures and I should get my car repaired in a week, right? Which is obviously unrealistic, but still an expectation that a number of people had.”