Family planning app Dot is just as reliable at preventing unwanted pregnancies as other methods of contraception, research suggests.
Experts from Georgetown University Institute for Reproductive Health (IRH) in the US followed women who used the app for a year – or 13 menstrual cycles.
In that time 15 women became pregnant when they used the app incorrectly, like having unprotected sex on a high fertility day.
No pregnancies were recorded among women who used the app correctly.
After women had completed six menstrual cycles using the app, which only 419 did, experts concluded the app had a 3.5 per cent failure rate – comparable to other methods of contraception like the Pill, injections or vaginal rings, they said.
Victoria Jennings, lead author of the study and director of the IRH, said: "Given the growing interest in fertility apps, it was important to provide these early results.
"Our purpose is to provide guidance to women who want to use Dot as well as to health providers and policy makers who are interested in this emerging method of family planning.
"We hope this paper contributes to the on-going discussion about the effectiveness of fertility apps and how their efficacy should be assessed."
The study was published in the journal Contraception.
Dot, which is available on Android and iOS, predicts a woman's chances of pregnancy by tracking how long her monthly cycles are.
Once you've entered information on your period it flags your high and low fertility days.
It's makers, Cycle Technologies, claim it can be used for pregnancy planning, prevention or as a period tracker.
Dot isn't the first contraception app designed to track periods to predict a woman's chance of pregnancy.
Last year the Natural Cycles app was launched as a way to naturally manage a woman's chance of becoming pregnant by using daily temperature readings to track their cycle.
A study, also published in the journal Contraception, said it was "as effective as the Pill" as was the first in the EU to be approved for specifically for contraception.
But it's now under investigation from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) following reports of women becoming pregnant.
The company had described itself as a "highly accurate, certified, contraceptive app that adapts to every woman's unique menstrual cycle" and said it’s a "clinically-tested alternative to birth control methods”, according to the watchdog.
The ASA received three complaints about the social media post, alleging the claims to be misleading; and unsubstantiated.
The watchdog is yet to make a decision about the case.
The app is also being investigated in Sweden after it emerged 37 out of 688 women who used the app had an unwanted pregnancy.
UUK experts have questioned the claims made by the manufacturers, and called for more rigorous research.
The Faculty of Sexual and Reproductive Health of the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (FSRH), sexual health charity FPA and Fertility UK acknowledge fertility apps have the potential to broaden contraception choice.
But they previously warned branding an app a medical device does not guarantee it will effectively prevent pregnancy.
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