Not worth the trouble
If you already have an apple watch this app may be fun for you to be rewarded for exercise. But in my experience paying off the watch through Attain has been a waste of time and money. I find the app to be extremely glitchy and frustrating and there are many poor aspects of the app that have not been fixed the last year or more I have been using the app (i.e. being constantly logged out). Even living a very active lifestyle it’s often hard for me to get enough points to cover the watch each month. If I hit my active goals for the week they’ll increase the number of days per week I have to hit the goal. Mine is often at 6 days/week which is kind of ridiculous. Even if it is not particularly difficult for me to hit the daily goal, rest is also important when living an active lifestyle. I think it’s problematic you cannot set these goals yourself. Basing how many calories I should be burning off of just my sex and weight is not a good standard. I think you should be allowed to set the calorie goal yourself or it should be based on exercise minutes instead. When I first started I wanted to give Aetna the benefit of the doubt since the app was still pretty new, but it has barely (if at all) improved since then. If I had known this app would be so difficult to work with I never would have signed up.
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Love this app, it’s a great motivator
I have been using this app for more than a year now and I just love it. Does the app has issues sometimes? Yes. But they are resolved too. I recently had a major issue with the app where it stopped recording my active energy daily/ weekly goals. I reached out to the support and the team was super helpful they provided me with multiple ways to fix the problem but unfortunately it was a bug. But as soon as the update was released the agent I was communicating with reached out to me and asked to update the app and the issue got resolved and I got points for the previous goals hit too.
I am looking forward to use the app more, hit the goals, participate in the challenges, and see what new things the app comes up with.
Thank you Audra Reeves and Wendy for helping me with the issue!!
I am looking forward to use the app more, hit the goals, participate in the challenges, and see what new things the app comes up with.
Thank you Audra Reeves and Wendy for helping me with the issue!!
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Goals are not realistic.
Update: 2/9/23.
The app also seams glitchy. They say it connects to your watch and can upload info from 30 days in the past if not connected to the app or the phone. What I have found to be reality is if you don’t log into the app on your phone for a few days it logs you out. After this happens any log data you accumulate on your watch will not sync with the app after logging back in. I have multiple days with ether no data or it says the watch was not connected. However I wear my watch daily. The only thing that changes is I’m not looking at the app daily. Maybe a couple times per week. It’s annoying as it cheats you out of those points.
Original review:
I would give this a 5 star because it does get you moving and makes you realize when your not doing much. However the goals are unrealistic. Even days when I do a substantial amount of working out I have trouble making the goal for one day. Then every time you make your weekly goal they go and raise the goal to more days. Makes it difficult to achieve when your constantly loosing. Personally I don’t even look at the daily goal any more. The weekly challenges I do try to accomplish and typically they are achievable with a little extra work. If your using the app to get a free Apple Watch don’t. I would say im fairly active and using it for 3 months have only achieved 10,000 points which is $10.
The app also seams glitchy. They say it connects to your watch and can upload info from 30 days in the past if not connected to the app or the phone. What I have found to be reality is if you don’t log into the app on your phone for a few days it logs you out. After this happens any log data you accumulate on your watch will not sync with the app after logging back in. I have multiple days with ether no data or it says the watch was not connected. However I wear my watch daily. The only thing that changes is I’m not looking at the app daily. Maybe a couple times per week. It’s annoying as it cheats you out of those points.
Original review:
I would give this a 5 star because it does get you moving and makes you realize when your not doing much. However the goals are unrealistic. Even days when I do a substantial amount of working out I have trouble making the goal for one day. Then every time you make your weekly goal they go and raise the goal to more days. Makes it difficult to achieve when your constantly loosing. Personally I don’t even look at the daily goal any more. The weekly challenges I do try to accomplish and typically they are achievable with a little extra work. If your using the app to get a free Apple Watch don’t. I would say im fairly active and using it for 3 months have only achieved 10,000 points which is $10.
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App is NOT friendly for folks with Medical Conditions
This app has not helped me reach goals- it actually makes me feel worse about myself & my “fitness”. When I do not achieve the goals the app has set up for me, I feel disappointed in my lack of fitness achievements, I cannot edit these goals & the app will not allow me Input or edit medical information. When I joined this awful program I did not have rheumatoid arthritis, but now I do & there are some difficult days I cannot burn my assigned 420 calories because I can barely get through my day in the level of pain my body has chosen to give me that particular day. God bless my goals if I experience a flare up!
I’d love to leave this program, but naturally, the page will not load to let me pay off my watch that will no longer update.
Id also love to share this review with attain, but there is no place in the app to write a review.
I highly suggest avoiding this program if you have any sort of autoimmune disease!
I’d love to leave this program, but naturally, the page will not load to let me pay off my watch that will no longer update.
Id also love to share this review with attain, but there is no place in the app to write a review.
I highly suggest avoiding this program if you have any sort of autoimmune disease!
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Unrealistic goals and shady practices
When I first started the program there was no clear
Understanding of the points system and how you earn them. It also set what I felt was a highly unrealistic goal for my daily calories burned. As someone who was working out prior to the watch I would’ve been doing 2 hr peloton rides to hit the goal. Shortly after joining the program there was an update to the points system hitting your daily goal now only earned 10 points as opposed to the 250 it had been earning. There was also a significant change to the points for the weekly goal. I assume the goal was to drive more interaction within the app as the only way to possibly earn enough points to not owe anything is to visit the app daily to amuse the developers by pressing a button. I didn’t sign up for this and was railroaded into the new points system because the only other option was to withdraw with over half the balance remaining on my watch.
Understanding of the points system and how you earn them. It also set what I felt was a highly unrealistic goal for my daily calories burned. As someone who was working out prior to the watch I would’ve been doing 2 hr peloton rides to hit the goal. Shortly after joining the program there was an update to the points system hitting your daily goal now only earned 10 points as opposed to the 250 it had been earning. There was also a significant change to the points for the weekly goal. I assume the goal was to drive more interaction within the app as the only way to possibly earn enough points to not owe anything is to visit the app daily to amuse the developers by pressing a button. I didn’t sign up for this and was railroaded into the new points system because the only other option was to withdraw with over half the balance remaining on my watch.
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Not a Fan
I’ve used this app for about two years now. The first year and a half, I loved it. I’m had zero issues and found myself really enjoying setting goals and being able to track my progress. Now, the app is just an exercise in frustration. One- it never keeps me logged on like it used to so instead of just clicking on the app and all of my information popping up, I have to log on every dang time. I have gone through every setting possible and this is not user error but the app itself. Two- the activity count on my watch and what translate over to the app is off not just a little bit a lot. It used to never have any problems then just a miss or two and now in the past several months there are massive errors of several days a week. Lastly- reaching out to customer service is a joke. Sometimes they answer. Often times they do not and the problems haven’t been remedied they’ve only gotten worse. Such a bummer.
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Bugged checkout experience
[update]
I was having a rough day and I apologize for how harsh I was. I was able to try again later that night and get my order in. Not sure what the issue was - same OS version. Nothing that I know of changed. I will update to four stars until I give the core app experience a try.
I still think your initial UX would improve a lot with a different solution for selecting the watch. For example, I use my digital Apple Card for online purchases, but there’s no way for me to switch over to my wallet app and get my card info for your purchase form because this causes your web app flow to refresh.
[original]
Couldn’t get a new Apple Watch through the app because the forms would reload as you complete them - erasing all inputted data. Even before this complete show stopper, the checkout process would kick me back to the start for something as simple as jumping to a different app and then back. Seems like one of those half-baked solutions where the mobile app is taking you through a web app flow. I would’ve loved to just order my watch from the website (since this is just a web app form that you are seeing through the window of a mobile app), but you are forced to go through the mobile app purchase flow which has an awful user experience. If this tells me anything about how the app experience is going to go, I think I’ll just pay for the watch..
I was having a rough day and I apologize for how harsh I was. I was able to try again later that night and get my order in. Not sure what the issue was - same OS version. Nothing that I know of changed. I will update to four stars until I give the core app experience a try.
I still think your initial UX would improve a lot with a different solution for selecting the watch. For example, I use my digital Apple Card for online purchases, but there’s no way for me to switch over to my wallet app and get my card info for your purchase form because this causes your web app flow to refresh.
[original]
Couldn’t get a new Apple Watch through the app because the forms would reload as you complete them - erasing all inputted data. Even before this complete show stopper, the checkout process would kick me back to the start for something as simple as jumping to a different app and then back. Seems like one of those half-baked solutions where the mobile app is taking you through a web app flow. I would’ve loved to just order my watch from the website (since this is just a web app form that you are seeing through the window of a mobile app), but you are forced to go through the mobile app purchase flow which has an awful user experience. If this tells me anything about how the app experience is going to go, I think I’ll just pay for the watch..
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I don’t recommend this app
This app offers a program where you get a free apple watch if you meet your daily challenges. It uses the data from your fitness app to record the points. Unfortunately my points aren’t always accurately accounted for and I end up having to pay a fee at the end of the month. I am pretty active so according to my fitness app I perform well above the daily requirements. Its just not recorded on the attain app. I have emailed letters to tech support with no response, and called. Finally got someone when I called but had to pretend I was calling about signing up cause thats the only way to get through to someone. Was told my account would be credited. And it was not. My points still aren’t being recorded correctly. My coworker is experiencing the same issues. The attain app is constantly signing me out as well which is really annoying.
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Great design, some tech issues
This app is really effective and engaging. It gently pushes you to do more and gets you excited about seeing your progress while keeping it interesting with a variety of ways to earn points. It has a nice friendly feel and is easy to use with the Apple Watch. My complaint is that it makes me log in constantly, like almost every day, and often has technical glitches that cause the Healthy Actions to not load. Happens about 5 times a week. If I forget to force a log in or don’t refresh the app, I don’t get notifications and I frequently miss the daily healthy actions points opportunities. Super frustrating, and would earn any other app a max of two stars, so it says a lot about how much I enjoy using it when it works. Still, great design and behavior change support means nothing if your stuff just doesn’t work—please fix this. Thanks!
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I’m probably going to be buying this watch
Update: It did it all through the Attain games. It’s doing it again now. You can’t click on anything. You can’t log out of the app. Honestly, whoever is in charge of this app should be fired. It doesn’t work more often than it does. AND every recent review is complaining about the same problem, yet the developer’s response is always something along the lines of lines of a “it’s a you problem”. I’m telling you, this app hardly works. You will not get any of the Healthy Action points. You definitely aren’t getting any of the new Challenge points. Take any points you can or you’ll owe. It shouldn’t take so much work to make it do what it’s supposed to do.
It’s a great app if you like to watch it spin and spin and spin. So frustrated and over this program. It had the potential to be great.
I loved this app when I first got into the program. But, now, this app works maybe 50% of the time. I try to get into the Daily Actions but I can’t access the points. Either, the screen won’t load or when you tap on the button to say you’ve read it it doesn’t do anything. Im trying to pay off this watch with exercise and healthy actions and im getting really frustrated with this app. This app could also be improved by letting me link to my Strava account. All of my backpacking out of cell range didn’t count this summer.
It’s a great app if you like to watch it spin and spin and spin. So frustrated and over this program. It had the potential to be great.
I loved this app when I first got into the program. But, now, this app works maybe 50% of the time. I try to get into the Daily Actions but I can’t access the points. Either, the screen won’t load or when you tap on the button to say you’ve read it it doesn’t do anything. Im trying to pay off this watch with exercise and healthy actions and im getting really frustrated with this app. This app could also be improved by letting me link to my Strava account. All of my backpacking out of cell range didn’t count this summer.
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Response from developer
Hi Jellybeans93, please give us a call at 833-288-2461 so we can gather additional details on the Healthy Actions issue you described - that isn't something on our engineering team's radar right now, we'd love to learn more. In terms of not being within cell range, as long as you're wearing your Apple Watch to record your activity, you can go up to 90 days in between app visits and still earn all the Activity goal points once you log back into the app (it just might take a few minutes to process all that data). You won't be able to see the Healthy Actions, of course, as those are different each day and require internet access to download those. Hope this helps!
Loathe this app
I was excited about this app in the beginning. I though it would motivate me to be more active. I’m 5’2, the most I’ve weighed is 110. In the beginning this app required me to burn 350 calories 4 days a week, I work nights so the challenge is added that my ‘day’ starts around 1700, the app resents at 0000 each night, so there goes one day of burning calories every week. Then as I was able to burn 350 4 days a week it bumped me up to 5, I barely ever met this goal. So now what was motivating is more discouraging. Now after meeting the 5 days/wk goal for two weeks it’s bumped me up to six days a week. I barely met 5 days a week, now they expect 6? Obviously this now means I have to pay more with each month since, even though I’m more active, it’s criteria keeps increasing, essentially setting people up for failure. I’ll never recommend this program to motivate others. I’m already healthy, my doctor would give me a lecture if I lost any more weight, yet this app thinks I’m still not active enough. Mind you, I’m on my feet for 12 hour shifts 3-4 nights a week, I’m a single mother running a sheep farm on the side, and I put out a massive garden to can each fall. Forgive me Aetna for not meeting your ‘heathy’ criteria.
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Response from developer
Hi Andy6015, sorry to hear that has been your experience with Attain. We are happy to modify your goal to something more in line with your individual health needs and what your doctor would recommend; please give us a call at 833-288-2461 and we'll be happy to discuss that!
Crashes, buggy, not well thought out
I don't usually leave reviews for apps, but after having used this for over a year I feel like I've seen enough to make an honest judgement. When I first downloaded it I thought maybe they were still working out the kinks because it was so buggy- I would get signed out randomly, or the app wouldn't pair to my watch, or it would retrospectively zero out my daily calorie total two days after the fact - which actually made me miss my weekly goal once, even after I sent feedback within the app to let them know, I was never contacted or given the points back. I agree with other reviewers that the incentive structure is not as good as it could be- if you miss a day early in the week there's no way for you to make it up and it's easy to slack off after that. If there were daily goals where you could still get points even after missing your weekly, it would actually help you out of motivational slumps. I really appreciate what they are TRYING to do with this app I just feel like they made a sort of half-way attempt at it. It's also somehow even buggier NOW than it was a year ago, and it logs me out every single time I close the app, which really deters me from even using it at all. I would stop using it right now if i wasn't still in the process of paying off my watch. I used to be eager to check it every day and now if anything it's just a nuisance. It's a huge missed opportunity in my opinion, as the idea was good but the execution was a C-.
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Working out by someone else’s rules
Overall, this app does what it advertises it to do. Encourage people to become more active by providing a set goal and rewarding them for attaining that goal. The app provides the set goal of meeting the required caloric burn for a set period of time as well as some bonus points if you complete the daily challenge of the week by doing specific activities like breathing exercises, walking more than a certain amount of steps or miles a day. It has changed the way I approach how to be more active on a daily basis over the past year. The only two issues that I think about 1)the logout issue continues to persist forcing me to check daily to avoid being logged out. The developer is correct that if you are logged out, as long as you login again with 90 days, you can recover your activity but it still seems weird that this is needed. 2) the bulk of points are designed and are achieved by meeting the weekly caloric goal by exercising “x” amount of days which steadily increase until it asks you to achieve the goal about 6 days a week. So the app works if you are just trying to meet your calorie burn goal, create more active lifestyle and potentially get a free watch, but in terms of fitness, this app does little to help with actual weight loss.
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Good Incentive/Reinforcement Tool - algorithm needs adjusting.
Love the positive reinforcement of good behaviors - including exercising, food, and mental health. However the more you work out, the more the app expects. If you hit 7 days in a week of working out, it expects 7 the following week. You have to miss the higher goal twice before it drops it back one. Suggestion: cap the number of days per week at 5; award perhaps fewer (but still significant points—1000 or 1500) for hitting 5, then do bonus points if a person does workouts days 6 and/or 7. It occasionally misses a workout day causing me to miss the weekly goal. I tried reporting using the “contact us” and nothing ever happened. There ought to be a simple way to report an error and get it corrected. Also, there doesn’t appear to be a way to “logout”, even though occasionally it asks me to login after an update?
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Only did it bc of the watch..
Honestly this app is terrible. You get booted out several times a week. The weekly goals are ridiculous. For example, I CrossFit 5 days a week. Now with my calorie goal of 420 a day I burn that with one workout, now the stupid thing is this app sees that i workout that much and will move my goal days to 6-7 days a week of workouts.. umm no. It doesn’t account for rest days, and there is absolutely no way I’m working out 7 days a week.. so if you don’t reach the stupid goal you don’t get the points, and then they set this stupid goal for 3 weeks in a row of 6-7 days of workouts. So for 3 freakin weeks I won’t get the 2,000 points for the watch. Then after 3 weeks of me not reaching the goal is moved it back to 4 days a week, and it’s a vicious cycle. I hate it, I hate this app. It’s absolutely worthless. The only thing is that I have a free Apple Watch. That’s is. Otherwise I do NOT recommend. Waste of time and space on your phone. 100% irritating.
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Tedious
So many issues. I tried to work with this app for months. Like other reviewers have mentioned, you can’t adjust the daily calorie goal, and if you’re regularly meeting your weekly goal it will keep upping the days per week that you need to meet your daily goal, until you’re having to meet it 7 days a week. The app also regularly logs you out.
Far more frustrating was that the app would regularly mark a day as “incomplete” even though I had burned far past my daily calorie goal. In the details for that day it would have a workout from that day listed, say, for 200 calories burned - but right above that it would say that I only burned 5 total calories for that day. For months I messaged back and forth with customer service about the issue; they kept adjusting it manually, providing the same troubleshooting recommendations that I had already tried, and failing to fix the issue.
I withdrew from the program and deleted the app. Not nearly worth the headache.
Far more frustrating was that the app would regularly mark a day as “incomplete” even though I had burned far past my daily calorie goal. In the details for that day it would have a workout from that day listed, say, for 200 calories burned - but right above that it would say that I only burned 5 total calories for that day. For months I messaged back and forth with customer service about the issue; they kept adjusting it manually, providing the same troubleshooting recommendations that I had already tried, and failing to fix the issue.
I withdrew from the program and deleted the app. Not nearly worth the headache.
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Okay App
I have been using this app for at least 2 years. I agree with many others that the 7 day a week activity expectation was too much and a definite motivation killer when you missed a day, especially early in the week and knew no matter what you did the rest of the week you weren’t getting your weekly points. It made it easy to be lazy! With the change to 6 days a week I am definitely happier and most of the time hit 7 anyway. There are still a few things I think they need to look at doing that would make the app better. I would like to see statistics as to how I compare to others in my age group. I would also like to see the app designed for a walking pace that would make adjustments for elevation differences. I find it frustrating to look and see my “trend” showing a 19 and 20 minute mile when I am constantly dealing with the mountains and hills in my area and not walking flat streets. Maybe I should be logging that cardio under hiking instead of an outdoor walk, I don’t know. All in all I think the app does what it’s designed to do which is to keep you looking for ways to improve your health (I personally detest the “breathing” and “flexibility” challenges so being forced to do those weeks activities to get my points becomes a matter of my personal pride and keeps me on task). I also enjoy the periodic reward of a gift card when you have enough points. It’s not a lot but every little bit helps, right?
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Customer Service
I can tell that This program is intended on helping people through their wellness journey. It’s great Intention to motivate people to get up and move.
I love the benefit of getting an Apple Watch in return for the wellness maintenance.
The only downfall I have is when your watch battery dies, or if you forget to wear it, then the points doesn’t get counted. Then you have to jump through hoops to prove to the customer service (very rude and unprofessional) that you completed your goal. Wish there was an easier way to enter your points in if you had a situation where the watch didn’t connect. The reps work according to different standards of customer service than what I am used to and it causes so much frustration that sometimes I will just bypass the wanting to call and get it resolved. The contact is portion of the app doesn’t get monitored. I am still awaiting an email response from a year ago.
I do love the program and it’s Intentions however the management of this app and it’s employees could use a lot of customer service training. I get it that the times are hard but there is no excuse for u professional customer service.
I love the benefit of getting an Apple Watch in return for the wellness maintenance.
The only downfall I have is when your watch battery dies, or if you forget to wear it, then the points doesn’t get counted. Then you have to jump through hoops to prove to the customer service (very rude and unprofessional) that you completed your goal. Wish there was an easier way to enter your points in if you had a situation where the watch didn’t connect. The reps work according to different standards of customer service than what I am used to and it causes so much frustration that sometimes I will just bypass the wanting to call and get it resolved. The contact is portion of the app doesn’t get monitored. I am still awaiting an email response from a year ago.
I do love the program and it’s Intentions however the management of this app and it’s employees could use a lot of customer service training. I get it that the times are hard but there is no excuse for u professional customer service.
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Response from developer
Hi Suzie, so sorry to hear that was your experience with our customer service team--that's definitely not what we strive for. If you're willing, our customer service manager would love to chat with you more about your experience; please shoot an email to feedback@attainbyaetna.com if you're up for it so we know how to get in touch (and please make sure you include that you wrote the "Susie 43" review so we can connect the dots). Thanks and sorry again!
Great Fitness Accountability
I love the way this program is designed and how user friendly the app is. The daily challenges are fun and educational. It’s very easy to track your progress and keeps you accountable in staying active and healthy, with great motivation. However, the app does often log you out or crashes pretty frequently. The other thing I don’t like about the program is the way the weekly goals are determined. The way they determine your average goal for the next week based on the previous week does not make much sense, so it’s been a little hard to get any amount of points worth redeeming for prizes, especially after points are used to pay for the watch. I know that’s not the case for everyone though! It’s very different person to person. Overall I’m fairly pleased with the program.
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Good App & Hope it Gets Even Better
Invited to try app by insurance company and I’m happy I did. After trying other activity trackers and apps, I splurged on an Apple Watch and started Attain. After nearly a year, it’s still keeping me motivated and active. I consider the points and gift cards a bonus, so I can see why some reviewers may be frustrated if they’re trying to earn a watch. Requiring 7-day a week goals to be met is rough and I’m not sure it’s a healthy balance. At some point, life interferes and there should be a grace option to miss daily goals once or twice a week without losing all the weekly points. I’m hopeful that the app will continue to evolve with insights gained from constructive reviews.
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