# ARTLENS — user reviews > 30 indexed App Store user reviews of ARTLENS by Cleveland Museum of Art, rated 4.60/5 from 32 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/artlens/id580839935/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/artlens/id580839935.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 24 · 4★ 6 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 1 ## Newest reviews (10 of 30) ### 4/5 — Improve your search function... *2019-01-23, version 3.1.17* Would like to see more search options like: - by artist’s country of origin, with route map - by theme, floral, battles, mountain seems...including route maps to see all works in organized manner... ### 4/5 — Only 1 reason it didn’t get 5 stars. *2018-10-09, version 3.1.16* I’m an art novice so the only reason I didn’t give it 5 stars is because while you’re listening to the videos you can’t put your phone to sleep even though the app can be used in the background. This means you’re holding your phone the entire time. Would be nice to listen with my phone on my pocket. ### 4/5 — Really Good *2013-09-05, version 1.3.1* This is by far the most amazing way I've ever interacted with an art museum. The Cleveland Museum of Art is already fantastic but the ability to look at artwork further in depth through the iPad app puts it over the top. The app still needs some improvement though. There needs to be a better way to browse artwork. It's impossible to search for a piece even when you know what you're looking for as piece aren't organized in any way other than by gallery. In a gallery with over 200 pieces, scrolling a single line of artwork is not an efficient way to find something. ### 4/5 — Very cool *2013-06-05, version 1.2.1* Very interesting and cool app. Definitely enriches the museum experience. Its like having a personal tour guid explaining and pointing things out to you. Unfortunately, it only works for a few objects in each room, usually the most well-known ones. It would be nice if they could expand it to include more objects. Also, they should label the objects that it does work on, so you're not walking around aimlessly with your iPad in the air, playing trial and error. Overall though, its very cool and a great idea. ### 5/5 — Magical! *2013-01-15, version 1.0* My experience today at the Cleveland Museum of Art was nothing short of magical. I used ArtLens on my own and also with a guided tour. Art will never be the same. What a fabulous app! ### 5/5 — Yeah for CMA *2013-01-14, version 1.0* I love this. It's beautiful, it's perfect. Thank you. ### 5/5 — transforms the museum experience *2013-01-10, version 1.0* With this delightful iPad app, the CLE Museum of Art has changed how museums interact with their patrons. Formerly forced to rely solely on the small plaques adjacent to each work of art for details about the artist, the period, or the influences of the time, the Artlens app provides a wealth of information about the artworks, pulling in textual commentary, supplementary videos, informative narrations and suggestions for other pieces to view. Artlens' brilliant execution transforms the museum from a sterile viewing chamber to an interactive, fun and engaging collection of interesting and inspiring artworks that lets each patron learn as much as they want, and suggests other relevant pieces to expand their interest in and knowledge of the CMA collection. ### 5/5 — A really stunning application! 5+ *2013-01-07, version 1.0* A completely new and engaging way to discover the art! An impressive technology in an incredible museum! The recognition technology is incredibly accurate and the location system inside the museum is even better!!! Really stunned! ### 5/5 — Awesome App *2013-01-05, version 1.0* I have used the app in Gallery One on two separate occasions. It is incredible what CMA has done! Artlens really enhances the museum experience. I am looking forward to interactive visits with our grandchildren. ### 5/5 — Great app! *2013-01-05, version 1.0* The Cleveland Art Museum has been doing a lot of remodeling. Now they have an app to help show it off. The app lets you create a self guided tour. You can save the tour so others can use it. In the museum, you are tracked, so you can see on the app where you are, and where to go next. You can also tap the screen to get more information about the art work. It's like having your own private tour guide. Because there is a lot of data to download, install and set it up the first time over wi-fi. As new art work / exhibits are installed at the museum, new data will be downloaded. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Grr *2023-01-20* Horrible absolutely horrible they don’t have the Mona Lisa ### 1/5 — Cleveland Museum of Art - app *2019-07-25, version 3.1.21* I spent two days submersed in the fabulous collection at the Cleveland Museum of Art. We came in from out of town to study works in the American wing and contemporary collection. Rather than photographing the paintings and side notes I opted to use the museums app ART LENS. Spent alot of time looking and marking up the paintings in their LIKE 💜 folder. Goal was to look back at the app and do further research at home. Guess what...the darn app only works inside the museum! It only loads to 60% at home. So now I am back from vacation with no research notes or photos. The Cleveland Museum of Art experience was out standing. But my goal was to come back to the art studio to do research. I am left so disappointed that the app failed. ### 1/5 — New version is horrible *2016-05-25, version 3.0.3* The Cleveland Museum of Art recently rolled out a new version of this app and it is absolutely awful. It won't load entire galleries anymore and crashes if you try. It's slow, clunky and downright awful. I find it to be far harder and clumsier than the really outstanding old version. There's an old saying: "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." There was absolutely nothing wrong with the old version, but it's my considered opinion that this monstrosity is a real clunker. Those considering downloading it: don't bother. It will prove to be a complete waste of your time and it will drive you nuts trying to use it. Wait until a new, improved version comes out. If ever. Or just hope that they get the message and give us back the old one that was so much better. This one STINKS! ### 1/5 — 648MB app - takes up more space than Photos app *2015-12-26, version 2.1.9* The app itself is 40.3MB. On initial launch, you'll have to download another 607MB of content. It is stored locally on your device instead of pulled on-demand from a server. For an occasional use app, this is a complete waste of space. ### 1/5 — Memory Hog *2014-01-11, version 2.0* Would be nice if this did not take 20+ minutes to download. ### 2/5 — Grateful but... *2013-01-21, version 1.0* I love this concept but find myself waiting for each video to buffer. It's to the point where I can not view without interruption. Each and every video of the tour is halted again and again. Each beautiful object is dropped from my hypnotic gaze due to technical flaws in the format. I love the Cleveland Museum of Art. I am grateful for the developers of this app but wish for a more fluid and intuitive experience. Please know I will be patient but understand what a perfect app can provide. I am sorry to say this one needs some work. ### 3/5 — Good intentions app but needs a lot of fine tuning. *2022-07-23, version 3.1.40* While informative, it’s only at times. A lot of the “scan” items need updating as they don’t register in the app. Some that say there is audio to listen to, but there is no audio. Felt it was choppy and got frustrating to use when trying to learn. Also annoying a lot of you save while there isn’t saved properly when home. ### 3/5 — Potentially Useful but flawed *2014-04-09, version 2.0.1* PROS: Exceptionally thorough background on CMA exhibits. Lots of experts giving new dimension to many pieces we've seen over the years. Very ambitious app. CONS: MUCH more than 10 minutes of downloading images, etc. after first launch. Annoyingly long downloads of additional content even afterward. Worked OK in iOS 7.0 but crashes in 7.1 while in the tour section. Deleting app and reinstalling didn't help. ### 4/5 — super creative! minor concern *2023-11-08, version 3.1.46* unless i am not using it correctly, there seems to be a lot of artworks that arent displayed on the app. besides that, i love this. i hope every museum in the world adapts to this ### 4/5 — Disk space hog *2020-04-04, version 3.1.25* Cool app but after installation and minimal usage it starts to take more and more disk space. I finally uninstalled it when I was trying to free up space and saw that this app was one of the top offenders taking up too much space ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Very useful *2017-08-12, version 3.1.2* This is a wonderful app to have while visiting the Cleveland Natural Museum of Art. Provides a guide, tours and you can save your favorite art. I use this app every time I am here. ### 5/5 — Great guide through the museum *2014-03-29, version 2.0.1* Great app to create your own tour for the Cleveland Museum of Art. Makes the trip interactive and makes the museum easy to navigate. ### 5/5 — Took a while to download, but well worth it *2014-02-15, version 2.0* I'm a first time visitor to the museum. It won't be my last. This app was fantastic for showing where various art periods were physically located as well as highlighting pieces from the periods. I highly recommend it to enhance your experience. ### 5/5 — Quick Download, Great Addition *2014-01-20, version 2.0* I downloaded in under a minute. Nice update to the previous iPad release. ### 5/5 — Amazing *2013-10-10, version 1.4* This is a superb app that you can use in several ways in Cleveland Museum of Art. Tech ppl there will help as needed. Download app before hand (does take a little time). Go to big interactive board on ground level and program a tour. You need a chip (get from tech ppl) to use iPad mount if you go this route. Or, just download the app and take your iPad with you. You can photograph most places (Picasso section is one exception though) and or scan. You can get info and/or videos on much of the art and more. And you can even custom design your own tour and share it. Tech people at Museum tell me we ain't seen nothing yet. Great way to educate yourself. ### 5/5 — Mind blowing! *2013-05-04, version 1.2.1* Saw this today at CMA - phenomenal! ### 5/5 — Really nice, tons of content... could use an iPhone version *2013-03-21, version 1.2.1* Can't wait to try this on-site. For now, I can at least say the at-home content is impressive! Very high-res images, which you can save as Favorites to come back to. You can navigate the museum map without being there. (One question: I see user-created tours... is it possible to create tours using the app?) Some details on the data loading, so people know what to expect: the app grows to about 355MB (and I'd guess that will slowly increase in future), so that's the space you'll need on your iPad. The downloading of all those images does indeed take a while, so do it before you go to the museum! Launch the app and wait for the download bar to finish. A couple good things about this big image download step: 1) if you quit the app, the download stops, but it resumes where you left off next time you launch it. And 2) you don't have to keep your screen turned on to do the download. I launched the app, turned the screen off, and later everything had downloaded anyway. Request: I'd love to have an iPhone version, since I always have my iPhone with me! ### 5/5 — Engaging With Art *2013-03-03, version 1.2* Tis is a great app even if you don't goto the Cleveland Museum of Art. See the collections, events, and new installations. But show up at the Museum and experience something wholly new and compelling. Start in Gallery One with the interactive wall straight out of Minority Report. Get a plan, load your iPad and head into the museum or following the paths of other visitors before you. Many art pieces have interactive content but the really cool this is the hotspot enabled pieces. All this tech is coo, but the important part is how much you connect with the pieces, the history, the museum, and other patrons. This app, while at the museum, connects you with the experience. You will engage and drive a relationship with the art. It's unforgettable and I can't wait to get back to the Museum. ### 5/5 — Wow! *2013-01-19, version 1.0* When I got my new iPad in November, I was disappointed to find that the CMA did not have an app. (Little did I know, most of the other major American art museums don't have apps either.) So I was excited to learn about ARTLENS last night. I'm obviously still learning how to use ARTLENS, but I am very impressed with it so far. It takes considerably longer to download than any other app I can recall, but that's only at the installation; thereafter, there is no lag. But it's worth the wait! I have been able to find - and save for future reference - photos and descriptions of familiar artworks that I love, many of which have been in storage since the museum's expansion began several years ago. The photography is first rate, and is showcased beautifully on the iPad. I haven't done it yet, but I understand that I will be able to design my own personal tour of the museum with these artworks on ARTLENS, and take additional photos with my iPad. Or, I can follow one of the many tours developed by the museum. For each artwork, there are embedded audio and/or video mini-presentations by the curatorial staff. Along with all of the glorious art, there is also information, available on a daily basis, about special exhibitions, lectures, and guided tours. As a fan of the CMA, I think this will be one of my most used apps. The only criticism that I can offer now is that I hope the developers of ARTLENS will eventually provide the capability to EMAIL photos from the collection, instead of having to use Facebook, but this is trivial and easily doable. Five Stars! ### 5/5 — Thoughtfully immersive *2013-01-18, version 1.0* With this app, the encyclopedia has been taken off the shelf and the CMA allows the visitor to step inside along with their own personal curator as their guide. The seamless blending of Art, History, and Technology combine to make this an excellent rethinking of the traditional format that will immerse the youngest of visitors as well as expand the experience for the more seasoned patrons. This is an excellent app for those that are physically unable to visit the wonders of the CMA due to travel or distance constraints. I would encourage anyone who loves art to download this app. Congratulations to the CMA for this amazing leap forward and a true legacy for our future! --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-07-29.*