Focus Friend, by Hank Green

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1. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   It’s ok buttt. The app it self it’s cute but I don’t love that it said it blocks apps because it really doesn’t work for me I thought it was that you can only ose the app and like the other apps won’t apear but I click focus and go and watch YouTube shorts in my tv and it’s still counting min so I’m just sitting down or even at school just wating for the LITTLE BEAN TO FINISH HIS SOCKS to decorate more and it’s for focus im addicted to putting little things on there and I SLEEP AND LEVE THE BEAN WORKING AT 9:43!!!

2. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Update is Awful. You claim to promote studying but put a paywall on the timer? Wow. Completely stingy update that goes against the idea of the app. I'm extremely ashamed and disappointed of this app.

3. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Push Notifications?. For an app literally meant to help you focus, I can’t understand why it sends distracting push notifications breaking my focus to remind me to focus. It just seems so contradictory to the whole thing’s purpose. Fine app once disabled, but a very out of touch design decision imo.

4. ★★★★★an update broke a familiar workflow

   Latest update ruined the app. The app is now sending me annoying, predatory notifications begging me to use it every day, despite having them turned off. This setting did not previously exist and it is unacceptable to enable it without user consent and especially to ignore the toggle and send notifications regardless.

5. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Beware, if they don’t like your review they won’t post it. They hate honesty.. I’m not trying to be rude or mean. I’m stating the obvious. I think it’s only fair people should be notified and made aware of this. Unless you’ve been living under a rock, the group I’m about to refer to within this app, has been under intense scrutiny for some time. This critique is directed solely at the developers of the app, not at NJZ or the bunnies at all. I think it’s extremely inappropriate to display something so controversial. Instead, the inclusion of personal preferences shows that it supersedes the initial objective. This app is meant to be a place where people can feel safe and comfortable. To assist individuals with mental health challenges in focusing and improving their time management. When providing support to individuals who are already experiencing difficulties, it is crucial to avoid distractions or potential triggers. By inserting personal preferences, it distracts the user’s focus. This contradicts the expectations for an unbiased and consistent environment in such applications. I hope you will take this seriously and make the right decisions and changes. I think you’re doing a huge disservice to people who don’t have many options to get help.

6. ★★★★★a needed feature is missing

   PLEASE ADD TIMER NOTIFICATIONS!!. I love this app! But, during my 5 min break timer, I go on YouTube to take a break, but I don’t know when my timer ends!! Also when I reach my 2 hours, it doesn’t notify me!! PLEASE ADD TIMERS I BEG OFF YOUUU 😔

7. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Randomly changes which apps are blocked?. I understand paying for the premium version to control which specific apps are blocked, that’s fine. But the app keep changing which apps are blocked on the free version! I used it for months where only social media was blocked (except inexplicably, Snapchat, but that was fine). Then all of a sudden I turn it on today and my messages are blocked! Microsoft Teams is blocked! Email is blocked! I got this app so I could focus on my work and now the app is suddenly blocking my work too. So frustrating. Please just set which apps it blocks and stop changing it.

8. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   No notification when timer ends. It’s cute but there’s no notification about the timers!! If I don’t check my phone (which I’m trying to avoid!!!) I don’t see that the time is up. This doesn’t matter as much for the focus timer, but there’s no Lock Screen display OR sound for the break timer and it’s really easy to get lost in a “5 minute” break that’s off the app. I think it’d be a really nice feature to have optional alarms for end of work or end of break. Because it DOESN’T have those timers I find myself not using it and using traditional pomodoro methods instead. If they ever added alarms to an update I’d be back. My other complaint is there’s no blue furniture?? They hate the color blue?? There are a few pieces (labeled dark) but it’d be nice if there was more color selection.

9. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Sad. I used to love this app, but ever since I got a new phone I can’t get my account back.

10. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Don’t buy the year subscription. Once you decorate the two rooms there’s nothing left to do. I bought the year subscription and fully decorated everything in less than a month

11. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Ad lied and not really free. Been using it and thought it was a cool concept and thought i would be able to decorate my bean and room. Until you realize all the cool upgrades, beans and decor are something you have to pay for. Which their ad said that you wouldnt have to pay for anything. If you want to use this glorified timer and app locker go for it but sadly it wasnt what i was looking for.

12. ★★★★★privacy and excessive permissions

    Fix your privacy policy. It’s outdated and misleads people. The current version DOES include SDKs for Firebase and Crashlytics, despite the policy describing that it currently does not.

13. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Slowly getting worse….. Great app for productivity at least at the start…it works food to brick my apps I shouldn’t use when I need to. But not its adding all of the pro features that are clogging it up and trying to just get you to spend money. Its losing its soul very quickly which is sad…. why does greed ruin everything it touches so easily

14. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    In decline. Is this the worst app? No. But with every update, it feels like it’s drifting further and further from what made it good. The amount the app now tries to upsell you honestly bums me out, especially when it’s for a monthly subscription. Every update adds more features that they dont tell you are membership-locked til you load the app, i regret every time i update. Finally adding extended timers just to lock it behind a paywall is so depressing. I get that an app needs money to continue, but a subscription model for this feels so predatory, at the very least make it a one time purchase like it is with the cosmetics. I had hoped that this app wouldn’t fall into these patterns originally, but I guess this is just how every good app turns out nowadays. I’ll just avoid updating anymore.

15. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Great concept locked behind a paywall. I feel like the premise of the app, which is to improve focus by converting time to currency for your little friend to spend on items, is too “real money” focused. You cannot customize your friend without spending real dollars. Many furniture items are also locked behind premium currency that requires real spending. Was the goal of this app to aid the neurodivergent community, or was it to earn money?

16. ★★★★★slow performance and long loading times

    Disappointing. Was hoping this app would encourage less phone use. It did not. No display of my progress unless on the app’s screen. And countdown continued when my phone was active. Might have been a bug but in my opinion; great concept, subpar performance.

17. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    No instant gratification.. Okay as someone with ADHD I struggle with this apps reward system. The concept is cute. But the socks, you knit accumulate very slowly, while the rewards cost far too much. After days of use, I only have 36 socks and can’t buy really anything yet. Without small frequent rewards it’s hard to stay motivated. ADHD friendly tools really need quicker wins and more attainable milestones to keep users engaged. Focus Friend < Focus Mate

18. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Interesting update. After newest update, app does not actually block most apps. It blocks games, but that’s it. Social media apps work just fine. It’s just now a timer that provides e-socks. Fix, perhaps?

19. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Cute but I can still use my phone. This is a super cute idea of an app but it doesn’t keep me from using my phone. Like right now, I currently have it running and it hasn’t paused the timer or notified me that I’m on my phone or anything. Just still knitting and I end up ADHDing away in my phone…🥲

20. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    I am confused. I love Hank Green. The aesthetic of this app is very nice. I honestly feel stupid for even typing this, because I must be missing something— it’s like the app just doesn’t work on my phone. I tell my bean to start knitting, but he doesn’t stop when I open another app. I can swipe up for the Home Screen, check my texts, even watch a YouTube video. He just keeps knitting. I really want to love and use this app, but it just doesn’t work; the bean keeps knitting even when I open social media. Am I missing something?

21. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Disappointing. All decorations used to cost 75-300 of the in game currency. Now, everything is 300-600. I thought it was weird to have a cash grab when the “cash” is digital socks, but then I remembered that you can spend real money on them. Congratulations, Hank Bean, you discovered the oldest, most dishonest way of monetizing your app - make progress 100x slower without paying. Next update decorations will cost 5000 each and the amount you earn for free will be cut in half. The Green brothers are awesome, and for the most part, the very best of us, but this is disappointing. You can’t claim your making an app for the good of humanity, and then try to squeeze out every last penny that you can. John and Hank - you’re better than this. Please remember that.

22. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Cute app but doesn’t help you focus. So this app very well-made. It’s cute and doesn’t look like some cheap app. The reason it only gets 2 stars though is because you can easily have your bean make socks while you’re on your phone. Let me tell you what I mean. So when you go into this app for the first time, you meet your bean. You get to name it and stuff, which is cute. Once you’re done being introduced, a button that says “FOCUS” appears. You click on that button, and it has you choose how much time you want to focus for. That’s all perfect. The problem is, when you start a focus timer and exit out of the app, you can go onto any app you have and your bean won’t know! He’ll just keep knitting! Yes, there is a “deep focus” mode, but that just blocks apps entirely. So Hank Green, PLEASE make it so that you can still go into your apps, but your bean will know. Please create some kind of system where if you go onto another app with the focus timer on, your bean will stop seeing and be sad. PLEASE. IM BEGGING YOU. This app is so cute, and it would be worth five stars if it actually helped you focus. (This problem might just be with my phone, but PLEASE REPLY TO THIS RATING)

23. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Not enough. Once you buy everything then what? It needs to have more, after buying the premium you can buy everything within a few days and then what?! It’s an awesome app just doesn’t have enough. Make it to where I can decorate an entire house, add more rooms.

24. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Good app but bad changes. The app was great upon release and effectively blocked out all distraction on my phone without having to pay. Now when i try to use the app certain apps such as Youtube and Snapchat are not blocked unless I pay extra to choose what apps to block. This is far worse than how it was previously, which blocked all apps except essential ones like phone and messages for free.

25. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Good but not Practical. Overall a good app, but blocks a lot of apps that I need to use while being productive (e.g. Passwords)

26. ★★★★★a needed feature is missing

    More options. This app is super cute! I just wish there were more options and that it took a shorter amount of time to do things. Saving 1000 currency to open a room is a long slog. Smaller achievements help people stay more motivated. Also, this is a big one, I wish there were more background noise/music options. The same music over and over gets old. I love the song! Just want more options. Especially for different tasks. Some need peace and quiet. Some need motivational music. Etc.

27. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    My best study hack, but suddenly it was removed.. I rave about this app to all of my friends-I even convinced the kid I nanny and her friends to use it. But about a month ago, the timer that appears on my home screen stopped appearing. I’ve toggled every setting, but still, it will not show up. I am assuming this is a bug, but it’s lasted so long and I haven’t reached for the app since. I really hope there will be an update soon.

28. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    So good for relaxing. This game is so good I have started to stop going on my phone so much 😊🫰🏾

29. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Good but could be better. The app is really fun, but I really hate how the farther I am the less socks I will get without buying the pass also I really hate how you can only do it for two hours it’s honestly making me a bit upset because of how good the app is.

30. ★★★★★timers stop in the background or when the phone locks

    Eh. So far, it’s okay. My main gripe is that either you “focus” or “deep focus.” When you’re just doing a timer for regular focus, there really isn’t anything keeping you off of your phone. You’re not blocked out of any apps, the timer doesn’t stop counting down when you’re on your phone- you just can’t do anything else in the Focus Friend app. Then, when you’re using “deep focus” it locks you out of literally all your apps, and you can’t control which apps are blocked unless you pay money to upgrade. If you don’t need to be on your phone for literally anything in order to achieve what you want to achieve, then this is fine. But many people have work to do on their phones, or at least want to listen music while doing homework or cleaning the garage or whatever else. Because of this, I used it for the first day or two and then kind of abandoned it. I’m trying it again now, but I’m not terribly optimistic that this app will be the key to limiting my phone as a distraction.