Love it, great content, needs dev improvement
This quickly became an app I use every day… some of the content is really great, and I mean ‘would be a worldwide bestseller given a good publisher and editor’ great. Yes I’ve spent a good amount of money in this app, but I have been reading for several hours a day… the breakdown of actual money I’ve spent is on par with what I’d pay to read the same amount of content in a physical or eBook, and it is WAY less than the outrageous amounts charged by other platforms. This genuinely feels like a platform for people who love to read and authors who want to connect with their readers and it encourages community. If you really don’t want to pay anything you can get a few ad vouchers a day to read a chapter of something (and the ad experience doesn’t break the UX like I’ve experienced with other platforms), but you should also keep in mind that if writing is someone’s livelihood they deserve to get paid for their time, effort, and creativity — especially when they’re good at it.
My low rating is for the app’s development quality, I suspect it’s vibe-coded react native and there are a number of very primitive things about its implementation that make it clear this is not written/maintained by an experienced developer and it isn’t being QA’d for different screen sizes. I don’t really experience crashes (which is great and the thing that keeps me using it apart from good content), though it does reset if you are in the middle of reading a chapter of a book and the author publishes a new chapter. Some of the UX is cumbersome, the in-app notification system is primitive (and no real push notifications) and has too much friction to get to, there are some rendering bugs with comments that require you to reopen the book to resolve, and there is a place or two where you can get stranded because a navigation button is rendered in an inaccessible part of the screen. Other than minor usability bugs that don’t really affect the ability to read books, I do notice a trend with some books having fake 5-star reviews from ‘fans’ who have only read 1-3 chapters… I wish they would set a minimum number of chapters read requirement for reviews and automatically include the furthest chapter read to reduce fake reviews. I also don’t like that they have a modal pop up suggesting content when you open the app, it hinders usability and it feels annoyingly reminiscent of other grifter-y web book apps. Some of the engagement features are pretty well thought out, they just need better presentation in the UI. I was using this for well over a month before I understood how some of the features worked or what they meant because they are not intuitive, and I had to poke around and find the FAQ in the app and on the web to understand how to better engage as a user. Based on some of the spelling and grammar mistakes in some of the books, I suspect they could make some improvements to their author tools as well. There is also no way to edit comments/reviews (you have to delete), I think the character limit for reviews should be extended from 500 chars to something like 800-1000, some text input boxes are not large enough for the text a user is reasonably likely to enter into them, and is also incredibly easy to accidentally close out of a comment/review text box and lose everything you’ve been typing (so a confirmation modal is really needed before closing a text input box if it’s non-empty).
This has a ton of potential, it just needs the kind of improvements that a very experienced developer (or even a mid-level good one) should know to do when building an app like this.
My low rating is for the app’s development quality, I suspect it’s vibe-coded react native and there are a number of very primitive things about its implementation that make it clear this is not written/maintained by an experienced developer and it isn’t being QA’d for different screen sizes. I don’t really experience crashes (which is great and the thing that keeps me using it apart from good content), though it does reset if you are in the middle of reading a chapter of a book and the author publishes a new chapter. Some of the UX is cumbersome, the in-app notification system is primitive (and no real push notifications) and has too much friction to get to, there are some rendering bugs with comments that require you to reopen the book to resolve, and there is a place or two where you can get stranded because a navigation button is rendered in an inaccessible part of the screen. Other than minor usability bugs that don’t really affect the ability to read books, I do notice a trend with some books having fake 5-star reviews from ‘fans’ who have only read 1-3 chapters… I wish they would set a minimum number of chapters read requirement for reviews and automatically include the furthest chapter read to reduce fake reviews. I also don’t like that they have a modal pop up suggesting content when you open the app, it hinders usability and it feels annoyingly reminiscent of other grifter-y web book apps. Some of the engagement features are pretty well thought out, they just need better presentation in the UI. I was using this for well over a month before I understood how some of the features worked or what they meant because they are not intuitive, and I had to poke around and find the FAQ in the app and on the web to understand how to better engage as a user. Based on some of the spelling and grammar mistakes in some of the books, I suspect they could make some improvements to their author tools as well. There is also no way to edit comments/reviews (you have to delete), I think the character limit for reviews should be extended from 500 chars to something like 800-1000, some text input boxes are not large enough for the text a user is reasonably likely to enter into them, and is also incredibly easy to accidentally close out of a comment/review text box and lose everything you’ve been typing (so a confirmation modal is really needed before closing a text input box if it’s non-empty).
This has a ton of potential, it just needs the kind of improvements that a very experienced developer (or even a mid-level good one) should know to do when building an app like this.
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Nnopalope
Not a fan
I’ve been using this app for over a week to read one book from an author I love. As much as I like her, I will be stopping after this book.
I hate that I have to purchase for each chapter. I just want to buy the book and read. Instead of turning pages, it’s scrolling.
This app has turned reading into a chore, which is a bummer because there are so many interesting stories.
I hate that I have to purchase for each chapter. I just want to buy the book and read. Instead of turning pages, it’s scrolling.
This app has turned reading into a chore, which is a bummer because there are so many interesting stories.
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JJmdodge23
Enjoyable reading
If you’re into serialized reading, this is the best app. Well thought out layout, great authors, US based team that treats authors well.
Tthedesolationofsmaug
Crashes way too much
I just downloaded this app to read a book and the minute I purchase some coins and go to the next chapter it crashes and it’s happened like 4 times already. Y’all really need to fix this.
CCrystal.wink
Most expensive reading app ever
This has to be the most expensive reading app I have used. 1) The reader gets one voucher daily from watching an ad BUT you’re lucky if it works without having to uninstall and reinstall several times before it lets you. 2) You also get a voucher after checking in continuously for 10 days straight. If you forget to check in on any day the count starts over. Heaven forbid you forget to check in on day 9 or 10! 3) You also get a chance to win a voucher by popping a balloon but most likely you’ll get worthless experience points.
The only good thing about this app are the novels. The novels are pretty good but be prepared to pay a high price.
The only good thing about this app are the novels. The novels are pretty good but be prepared to pay a high price.
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MMichele-000
