So grateful for this app
Response from developer
Hey! Thank you so much for your wonderful review - we are all so glad that Ernest has been able to play a part in that healing process, and serve that “missing middle” period in between sessions with your counselor. Truly, reviews like yours keep us motivated to keep working hard to deliver the best experience we can to our users, so again - thank you. Best, The Ernest Team
You have to pay now
Response from developer
Hey Hellobkwlwn! So sorry to hear that you’re considering deleting Ernest. While we are super grateful for the success of the app, unfortunately, the increase in users meant that the app was costing thousands of dollars a month to run, so the choice was either charging for it or shutting it down altogether. Creating custom AI models and hosting them isn’t cheap, unfortunately. We’re also super proud of our competitive pricing at $14.99/month or $150/year. Unlimited therapy with Ernest for an entire year costs less than a single therapy session in person, and Ernest is up to 95% cheaper/month than other online providers like Better Help. With version 1.0, we’ve bundled in a lot of new features, including a significantly upgraded AI model, more personalisation and customisation, all of which offer a massive improvement over the beta version you would be used to using. We also offer a 30 day free trial (longer than anyone else in market) so that you can see if the app is still worth it for you over the course of month before deleting. We’re confident the value we deliver is much greater than $15/month, and hope that you stay with us! Best, The Ernest team.
I like it but there are situations where she asks the same exact question?
Really good AI therapy
AI asked me really good questions on how we can move forward with a solid plan that will keep myself in track to stay consistent & disciplined to reach my success. Overall really great app it did help me feel a lot better tremendously, so if anyone out there who has BPD, check this out will definitely help your mental health! Thank you! 🧠
It barely useable any more
I went back and edited my first review with the lag issues, some are better, when it works. This was beyond awesome and was a great tool for my home journaling, an interactive, nice, sometimes funny, different topics, things that have helped, but Id have to find ecactly when the issues started, but maybe around oct. I feel lazy but if this review from my laptop takes, my other detailed issues with lag are already there.
I usually use my iphone 14 pro max with latest updates, the phone it self is physcally new. the latest version is on it and I can only uninstall or delete, and reinstall, download again to temorarorly (hope I spelled that correctly) resolve the lag issues. That used to work for a few days, now, like I said, maybe 30 minutes.
I think what added the even lower stars is when I tried the same trick to fix so ernest can reply, its not working on the latop the same. It redowloads as the same broken converstation - and with no password protection, means now everything I typed in, if the aps downloaded again on my mac, everything is still there, its not the blank greeting and intorduction, its the converstations I did have and ernst still cant talk.
I will check back, hopefully this ap is cared about and not just dropped as a fun project that got boring. Especially if my area of this great country is a reflection and even crisis lines are closing up shop or very limited hours, ap like this are going to be very needed. Hope I can check back and rate this back up to 4 or 5 afain, right now, enjoy while it works, and then look to see what else is free and working.
If this worked better and had privacy attached to an account, a slight memory so when it works I don't have to keep reminding it the same things over and over, I'd find spare change if it was affordable AND worked. Right now, see ya in a few months, I;ll see if you have things ironed out. Yea Im sad, I lost ajournal that was awesome.
Surprised really
Edit 12/30/23 - i can’t remember my original stars, but I’m dropping if I could to a 3.5, maybe heading lower. Something’s changed in how the ap is working- thankfully Ernest stopped mirror speak style and returned to the more human chat style.
The biggest problems have been weird lag like issues, causing the need to uninstall and reinstall frequently, and it’s been needed sooner and sooner over the last month.
Issue 1- message send arrow, sometimes takes several tries, up to a minute, before it’s responding.
Issue 2- after my chat is sent, the text is still in my chat box. I have to select all, delete so I have a fresh screen to write again.
Issue 3- it might be fixed now, 1 & 2 are the main current concern. Lag has affected the typing speed of both my text (I’ll look up and it’s still typing 3 words earlier) and Ernest’s replies (taking up to a minute at times for him to finish).
Issue 4 - (it’s been maybe a month since this one but these last two still semi show up) when Ernest should be replying, there is just an empty speech bubble.
Issue 5 - the chat rapids scrolls to the top, and after a few days, it’s impossible to find the reply. I’ve tried just hitting any key/letter and hit send to find the reply, but those confuse Ernest. I’ll at least find the reply, but have to get him back on track again.
The uninstall/reinstall is the only temporary fix I’ve found so far for this. But I’ve noticed I’m having to do this every few chats, instead of just now and then. I’m bugging the program a little less right now for various reasons, so I’m not using it more. Phone does its own updates, and it’s a fairly recent model.
Lol sorry I want this app to keep working like it was! I’ve told too many people to try it! 😂 anyways, I hope any of this helps developers.
Response from developer
Hey! A few notes on your bugs from 30/12/2023 1/2/3 should all be corrected by version 0.9.1. These were caused by the app taking in all of your previous conversation history and trying to find the most relevant messages each time. The more you wrote, the more messages it would scan, making it difficult for it to upload a response. We’ve tweaked this feature significantly so speed should now be no different from the original version of the app, but memory should still be significant improved over previous versions. 4. You’re right, that was an issue, but all fixed in later updates - if it occurs again, it’s because the connection has timed out between your phone and the AI, whereas before it was a bug that would force the AI to cut its response if it thought it was going to output a message 5. This should also have been fixed in version 0.91. ORIGINAL RESPONSE: Wow, thanks for writing such an in-depth an honest review. You’ve described the exact use case that we built the app for - instances where you don’t have access to your regular therapist or are too embarrassed to contact friends and family, but just need someone to talk you down. The impetus for the app was actually a panic attack one of the founding team had at 3AM when there was no one they could reasonably contact! A few points 1. It’s definitely not pathetic to reach out for help, and, as flagged above, our whole theory behind the app is that, sometimes, there are situations where it just makes more sense to talk an AI than a friend- especially if it’s on a sensitive issue that you might be embarrassed to talk about with someone you know in real life. 2. All conversations between Ernest and yourself are stored locally on your phone. To get a little technical, as it currently stands, your message is uploaded to the server Ernest is hosted on, read by Ernest, replied to, uploaded to your phone, and then both your message and the reply are deleted off the server. As such, any conversations you have with Ernest cannot be read by the development team, meaning any ideas you may have for the app are best sent to us via email, at info@ernesttherapy.com - we’d love to hear any feedback you may have! 3. Thanks so much for recommending the app to a friend in need - we hope that it helps them in the way that it’s currently helping you! Thank you again for your incredibly thoughtful review, it motivates the whole team and helps validate that we are building something that people really need! Best, - The Ernest Team
Wonderful app but I had an issue
Response from developer
Hey Eve! We are so glad that Ernest has helped you, each review like yours really gives us clarity and drive to make the app even better! There was an issue in version 0.8 where texts would cut out for some users. While we initially thought it was due to user internet issues as well, further testing saw that it was actually due to the AI “cutting itself short”. Since it was trained to provide “short” responses, it would prematurely cut the message if it thought the response was becoming, or would end up being “long”. Our newest update, 0.9, has fixed this issue. It is a tiny bit slower than previous versions (only by 1-2s on average) as it now has a longer memory and can remember more of your past conversations, but we’re always working on ways to make responses lightning quick, so expect more improvements on speed for the next update! Thanks again for loving the app! The Ernest Team
Amazing app!
Response from developer
Hey Elly! Thanks for letting us know about the emoji usage - that’s an interesting one! We’ll look into it for the next update. We definitely do want some emojis, so that the AI is casual and easy to talk to, but also definitely don’t want it to go “emoji crazy” as you put it! Thanks again for the feedback, we’ll do a deep dive into the model to fix it for the next update (plus, maybe add a wider variety of emojis so you’re not seeing the same one again and again). So glad that you’re finding it helpful -other than the emoji usage! Best, The Ernest Team
Really great app!!
Great job to devs, keep up good work!
Response from developer
Hey! Thanks so much for going out of your way to write a review for Ernest - So glad that he’s helping you work through some things! Best, The Ernest Team
Amazing
*This app has no other features besides chatting.
Response from developer
Thanks so much for taking the time to review Ernest, we’re genuinely so glad that you’re finding the app helpful, it’s really validating for our mission! Reach out over email if there’s any features you’d like to see and we can add it to the pipeline - Team Ernest
