Comparison

Pi Alerts vs Backcast

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

Pi Alerts

Receive news, weather, and general alerts via Bluetooth without an internet connection. Connect to a Bridgefy Box to access information on your dashboard, ideal for areas with limited data access.

Highlights
  • Offline alert reception
  • Bluetooth connectivity
  • Bridgefy Box integration
  • Information dashboard
  • Internet-independent
Features
Read full description

The Pi Alerts app lets you connect to a Bridgefy Box and receive all kinds of news, weather, and general alerts without using Internet. Simply turn your Bluetooth on, and when you come into proximity with a Bridgefy Box, information will be shown on your Pi Alerts dashboard, whether you have access to data or not! To learn more about how Bridgefy Boxes can improve public transport, schools, and large events, please visit www.bridgefy.me

About

Backcast

This platform connects users to share visionary ideas and transform them into actionable research themes. Engage in discussions within specialized forums, contribute your insights, or create your own topic to foster collective intelligence and collaboration.

Highlights
  • Explore 'Trees of Interest' forums
  • Engage in discussions and share insights
  • Create and manage your own topic trees
  • Personalized content feed
  • Connect with users for collaboration
  • Develop actionable research themes
Features
Read full description

Join a community of thinkers, dreamers, and performers in Backcast, the pioneering platform designed to turn your visionary wishes, no matter how big or small, into actionable research themes and technological breakthroughs. Your ideas are the sparks that ignite change, and with Backcast, we bring them to life! How to use this app: 1. Explore Trees of Interest: Begin by searching for keywords that align with your interests. This will display 'trees' - our unique forums where specific themes are discussed. In these trees, you can engage in rich conversations about visions, approaches, and technologies with a community of individuals with a common interest. 2. Share Your Thoughts: Join any tree that resonates with your ideas and contribute your thoughts. Your insights and perspectives are valuable in shaping the collective understanding of the theme. 3. Create Your Own Tree: Have a vision for a specific future? Start your own tree and invite others to add their ideas and insights. Your tree is a space for nurturing and growing concepts that can one day become reality. 4. Personalised Feed: Your home screen feed will present you with topics, discussions in trees, and comments based on the tags you've selected. This tailored experience ensures you're always in the loop with discussions that matter most to you. 5. Connect and Collaborate: Found individuals whose technology interests align with your company's goals? Follow them, connect, and start a conversation. Backcast is not just about sharing ideas; it's a gateway to meaningful collaborations and partnerships. 6. Backcast is more than an app – it's a movement towards a future shaped by collective intelligence and shared visions. Join us, share your ideas, and be part of the change you wish to see in the world. Why I am developing this app: I want to be a researcher who develops technology that will impact the world. However, I need to know what will be required in the future to conduct impactful research. Otherwise, I will not be able to formulate sound research themes. If you become a researcher directly from a university, you will have more difficulty grasping the world's needs than someone working in a company. On the other hand, if you work for a company after leaving university, you may worry about falling behind as a researcher during that period. I decided to plan this application to solve this problem and to create a system that makes it easier for university researchers to formulate research themes that will lead to solutions to future issues in the world. I used the backcasting method as a reference. This is a method of thinking about what a particular area (e.g., physical health, environmentally friendly transportation) should look like in the future (e.g., 10 or 20 years from now), what approaches are needed to realise that ideal image, and what technologies will be required to learn those approaches. The "what technology is needed" part is the research theme that will contribute to the world. However, I also learnt that this method of backcasting is complex. If you think only about yourself and those close to you, you will think about the ideal future that affirms what you want to do and be biased. Therefore, I decided to create this application, thinking that it would be a good idea if we could create a mechanism to share our ideas of what we believe the future should look like, the approaches and technologies to reach them, and then widely exchange opinions.

Screenshots

Pi Alerts3 screens
Backcast4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is iOS requirement: Pi Alerts at 10.0 against Backcast's 12.0. On price, rating, ratings volume and update cadence there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 5.0 for Pi Alerts against 5.0 for Backcast. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 1 and 1 respectively.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

Pi Alerts ships an update every 2 months, Backcast every 5 weeks. The most recent releases landed on October 17, 2026 and October 14, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard1 real difference · 8 level
Pi Alerts versus Backcast: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterPi AlertsBackcast
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (1 ratings)5.0 (1 ratings)
Number of ratings11
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsEvery 5 weeks — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS10.0 — better12.0
Further details — not scored
Size6 MB27 MB
Age rating17+4+
DeveloperBridgefy, Inc.Hikari Suwa

Customer experience

Pi Alerts

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Backcast

All ratings1 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

In-app purchases

None

Pi Alerts

No in-app purchases

None

Backcast

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is Pi Alerts free?
Pi Alerts is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Backcast free?
Backcast is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, Pi Alerts or Backcast?
Pi Alerts and Backcast are both rated 5.0 out of 5 on the App Store, from 1 and 1 ratings respectively.
Do Pi Alerts or Backcast have ads?
Neither Pi Alerts nor Backcast shows ads.
Which is updated more often, Pi Alerts or Backcast?
Pi Alerts ships an update every 2 months, and Backcast every 5 weeks. Most recently, Pi Alerts was updated on October 17, 2026 and Backcast on October 14, 2026.

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