•Mobile health applications can address health disparities in prenatal care.•Medicaid-insured pregnant people frequently use mobile health applications for health-related tasks.•Further research is needed to understand how to decrease barriers to using mobile health applications in prenatal care. Mobile health applications can address health disparities in prenatal care due to adverse social determinants of health. We assessed the uptake and use of, preferences for, and barriers to mobile health applications among Medicaid-insured pregnant and postpartum individuals enrolled in prenatal care from March to May 2021. Medicaid-insured pregnant and postpartum individuals frequently used (56 %) and were potentially interested in using (90 %) mobile health applications for health-related tasks and had reliable internet access to do so (94 %). Over two fifths (44 %) reported barriers to using mobile health applications. Further research is needed to understand whether using mobile health applications to address social needs in the peripartum period can affect prenatal care utilization and decrease health disparities.