# Beam: Powered by Arc — user reviews > 21 indexed App Store user reviews of Beam by Ultimate Drill Book, rated 1.90/5 from 62 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/beam-powered-by-arc/id6762746253/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/beam-powered-by-arc/id6762746253.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 11 · 4★ 0 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 4 · 1★ 44 ## Newest reviews (4 of 21) ### 1/5 — New Beam, Worse. *2026-08-07* This new app is such a downgrade from the classic beam, it’s garbage compared to the older one. Whenever zoomed in you no longer have the option to save zoom level, drawing is blurrier, hard to scroll to pages(no buttons), no option for vertical sheets, while scrolling sometimes highlights notes and pulls up taskbar blocking the screen, the three-dot menu on sheet music does nothing, no longer able to clear a page instantly, page randomly clears when exiting music, zooming is too sensitive (No way to adjust), NO LIVE MODE (only reason for beam), the app is slower and requires more data, rotating device shifts the music off-center, you randomly have to re-select your part sometimes, and the layout is really confusing compared to the old Beam. The only useful new feature is the lasso select so you can scale drawings after placing them, But it barely matters since you could scale text in the classic Beam anyways. I feel like you could just remodel the classic Beam instead of forcing musicians to use this downgrade. ### 1/5 — Complete downgrade *2026-08-03* The old app had its flaws but at least it worked. This app has too many problems and I can't recommend it. **Developer response:** Hi Bandfan, Very sorry you've run into any issues. Over the past few weeks we've pushed out many improvements and have lots more coming out in the next releases that address performance issues as well as UI/UX improvements. If you continue to notice anything, please reach out to us on the chat on our website or email us at support@joinarc.us ### 1/5 — Unfortunate Downgrade *2026-08-03* Whichever company bought out Beam, you people should be ashamed of yourselves. The new app is so much worse and is a disgrace to the art of marching band itself. Zooming in and out has become so much more of a hassle as a result of how sensitive it has gotten. Along with that, the settings on the songs i have been provided don’t even work, and as a result customizing how you scroll through pages has become loads more annoying. Finally, looking at sheet music no longer keeps your screen on, meaning that i either have to constantly tap on my phone while playing or change the settings of my entire phone to accommodate. In the end, please make your app better. Sincerely, a concerned student. ### 1/5 — Glitchy Error-full App *2026-07-29* I tried using this app and it corrupted many files on my phone. Lost Months of photos of my friends & family thanks to this app. DO NOT DOWNLOAD!! *Apple remove this app before it does the same to others* **Developer response:** Hello Connor. Beam has no interaction or impact on your iOS photos app and cannot delete anything within that application. I'm sorry to hear that somehow photos were lost from your iOS app, but we can assure you that Beam was not the cause. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Way worse than original Beam *2026-08-24* The old Beam was a good app with some issues. This one is mostly issues with an app buried somewhere beneath them. The lowlights I’ve noticed so far… They changed it so that to enter annotation mode, you hold the screen. Doesn’t sound too bad until you’re trying to zoom in or move the music around, and you end up accidentally drawing all over it because you held the screen too long. Also the bottom bar to switch pages as well as the Beam logo button never go away, which robs precious screen space and covers your music which is especially problematic on a phone. There are also features that are missing or broken from the old Beam app. First of all, they removed the feature that let you auto select your part, so now you have to choose your part for every individual piece, which is extremely inconvenient as a marching band student where we have dozens of different things we need to switch between. They also removed dark music mode, which was a huge battery saver with an OLED screen and was a much more elegant solution than having to invert your entire phone through accessibility settings. Finally and maybe worst of all, the save zoom feature is completely broken. The problem is that when you bring up the menu, it shifts the page down quite a bit, so when you then save the zoom level, it ends up saving somewhere off in the corner of your music instead of where you actually wanted it. Overall, this is a horrible and unnecessary “remaster” of the old Beam app. ### 1/5 — Waiting on tech support to address a zooming bug. *2026-08-19* On my third year of using Beam as a director. First two years it was great… with the new app, our screens are going white/blank when zooming in. VERY glitchy. Tech support asked for my PDF’s and has now gone silent. We are a small school and this is an expensive license/app. Please restore my faith in Beam. ### 1/5 — Removed the one good feature *2026-08-18* This new app literally removed the one good feature it had. It no longer keeps your screen on when in Low Power Mode. Arc is an Israeli company it’s the only explanation **Developer response:** Hello, so sorry you've run into this. This was a bug in the latest release that will be fixed in the next update! If you run into anything else, please reach out to us on the chat on our website or support@joinarc.us. ### 1/5 — Major downgrade *2026-08-18* There’s a bar you can’t ever remove at the bottom of the screen, zoom save doesn’t work, live isn’t there despite working fine on the old version. Sucks all around and is a pain to use **Developer response:** Hi! The bar at the bottom of the screen has been addressed in this next release as well as Save Zoom level being active again. Live mode will launch here in the next week or so and we're excited for you to see it! If you run into anything else, please reach out to us on the chat on our website or support@joinarc.us. ### 1/5 — Lost Functionality *2026-08-17* I liked Beam last year, but this new app is so much worse. The UI hides important features like zoom lock behind submenus. You can’t auto download specific parts, only all of the parts which is so much extra space wasted. Worst of all, the app doesn’t have a screen lock disabled, so constantly my screen dims or turns off while I play. As a trombonist it is so difficult to keep tapping the screen to keep my phone on. I hope these issues are fixed soon, or this app will making this season miserable **Developer response:** Hi Ethan, so sorry you've run into this. Auto Download and Default Parts will be coming soon and the screen sleep bug has been addressed and will be available in the next release. If you run into anything else, please reach out to us on the chat on our website or support@joinarc.us. ### 1/5 — This nee version of beam is a joke *2026-08-16* I'm actually appalled on how horribly executed this "upgraded" version of beam is. It feels like it was not made by musicians or anyone with marching band and music reading knowledge. The people who bought this app out and others associated should genuinely be ashamed. **Developer response:** Hi nesmiz, So sorry you've run into any issues. Over the next 2-3 weeks you should notice significant improvements on both UI/UX as well as performance upgrades. If you run into anything else, please reach out to us on the chat on our website or support@joinarc.us. ### 1/5 — Useless *2026-08-14* You have to have an IPad or Mac book and it will still suck then. If I quit marching band after 5 years it’s bc this is the only way to accesses my music ### 1/5 — This is just bad *2026-08-13* It was literally fine before the Arc stuff and now it barely works **Developer response:** Hi DudeMan, So sorry you've run into any issues. Over the next 2-3 weeks you should notice significant improvements on both UI/UX as well as performance upgrades. If you run into anything else, please reach out to us on the chat on our website or support@joinarc.us. ### 1/5 — Terrible *2026-08-13* Hard to navigate and control and can’t save zoom which sucks. **Developer response:** So sorry you've run into any issues. You'll notice that the latest version has the Save Zoom Level feature that you're speaking of! If you run into anything else, please reach out to us on the chat on our website or support@joinarc.us. ### 1/5 — Various issues that make this app unrecognizable and unusable compared to the old app *2026-08-11* I am returning as a third year member in a band that has used Beam for my first two years. I was confused to find that all of the “old” Beam had been ported over to a new fangled app. Furthermore, it’s sad to see that this new app clearly had very little to no input from the actual musicians who used the original Beam app. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it! The old Beam was streamlined, utilitarian, and just what it needed to be. This app attempts to replicate that but misses the mark. A few critical issues that make this app inconvenient to use. - All of the parts I had downloaded on the previous Beam app are lost, I have to redownload each one. - There is a “download all parts” button in settings. Helpful, but not at the same time. I am a musician who plays one instrument in my band, I just need to download my parts, not all of them. Don’t want to use up storage space for no reason. - The save zoom feature does not work. It claims to save my viewed area and zoom. It saves the zoom but scrolls back to the top of the music when I close and reopen. - The giant black bar on the bottom of the music for navigating pages is clunky and distracting. It’s much worse than the side buttons on the previous version of Beam and it makes it harder to read my music. - Making the menus pop up when I’m in a piece of music is confusingly difficult. It seems I have to tap multiple times for the menu to appear. - When I’m navigating songs within a setlist, the menu sometimes won’t even pop up. I have to close the app and reopen to exit the setlist. - The collections menu invites me to “click the + button” to create a new collection. There is no plus button. - Live mode claims to be “coming in a future update.” This is a crucial feature of the app that should be added ASAP! - Settings has a typo. “Your Organazation.” How rushed was the release of this app? These are just a few items I noticed from quickly tapping around the app. These issues must be addressed promptly or my band season will be severely hindered by a clunky app. New Beam, get back to the roots of the old Beam app before it’s too late. **Developer response:** Hi bsauce, Thanks for sharing your feedback. Most of these issues you mention have been addressed in either the latest build or an upcoming release like Live Mode. Once you're on the new version, if there's anything else you run into, please chat in on the website or email us at support@joinarc.us and we'll dive in right away to address anything we can! ## Most praised reviews (7 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — I liked it a lot *2026-08-15* I personally liked this update and everyone else is Lwk a hater ### 5/5 — amazub *2026-08-11* wow ### 3/5 — PLEASE bring back inverted page colors and custom zooming! *2026-08-05* Those were features that I used extensively on the original app, and I don’t see them here. It made my life a whole lot easier; I don’t want to have to zoom every single time I open the music or flip a page! ### 3/5 — Part Selection *2026-08-04* I haven’t had the chance to use this new version of Beam much but it frustrates me that I cannot pick a universal part for my music and therefore need to click each piece and individually download my part or switch it from the full score. If I am missing something please make me aware of it. ### 2/5 — REALLY buggy *2026-08-17* The app is okay for the most part and gets the job done but every time I try to write personal notes in my music to keep note of, the lines get very delayed and even go sharp and jagged in a way. Another thing is that every time I undo a line it pops back up briefly and then goes away again so I’m confused. My stylus works on every app I can write on with ease except for this one. **Developer response:** Hi, Very sorry that you're running into this. Could you reach out to us at support@joinarc.us and let us know what ensemble you're part of so we can look into this issue with you? ### 2/5 — Hmm *2026-08-10* Not great. Tried it with a band and it seemed rough. Also maybe add a generated playback for music on beam to help us figure out what it sounds like and learn faster. ### 2/5 — Live mode *2026-08-07* I find it very frustrating that live mode is not able to be used yet. Maybe I’m missing something but every time I try to create a live mode it says this feature isn’t available yet. It’s extremely annoying as I am a leader in a fairly large marching band. This version is just not working great and I miss the old version that actually worked. --- *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 2026-08-26.*