Fext vs Focus by ConciergePad

Fext is a texting app for iPhone and iPad. Send one message to many people; each person receives it as a private one-on-one SMS. Simple, fast, organized, and personal — like Messages, but built to scale. Simple texting at its finest. Built for real-world outreach • Send text messages that read like individual conversations • Run clean, direct group texts without noisy threads • Create flexible groups and reuse templates • Attach photos, video, or audio when needed Why people choose it They want a group messaging app that behaves like Messages, not a group chat. They want easy texting with a personal feel. They want the speed of SMS, without reply-all clutter. They want to reach people fast and keep communication clear and direct. If you’re looking for a group text app that can send clean group texts and stay simple, Fext was built for that. Group text. Personal delivery.  You will need a subscription in order to get access to app's features. Each subscription will be automatically renewed unless auto-renew is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current payment period. Your iTunes account will be automatically charged at the same price for renewal within the 24-hour period prior to the end of the current payment period unless you change your subscription preferences in your iTunes Account Settings. When a subscription is canceled, access to the app’s features will expire at the end of the current payment period. Questions: contact@pericarp.io Terms of Use: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/

Focus helps your family stick to the focus schedule you've agreed on together. During those times, distracting apps simply take a break on the student's iPhone, so homework, reading, dinner, or a good night's sleep get the attention they deserve. Everything else about the phone keeps working. Phone calls and Messages always stay available, so you can reach each other any time, and emergency features are never affected. Focus is built on Screen Time technology by Apple. That means no workarounds and no third-party tricks: iOS itself lets apps take a break during focus time, and iOS asks for permission before anything starts. On a student's device that's part of Family Sharing, a parent approves that permission, which is the setup we recommend. If your family doesn't use Family Sharing, Focus asks for standard Screen Time permission instead. Setting up takes a few minutes. Sign in with your ConciergePad family account to link the device to your family's focus schedule, approve Screen Time when iOS asks, then choose the apps that should always stay available. Anything you put on that list, from a calculator to a music app to a ride-share app, keeps working during focus time. Everything else takes a break. You can change the always-available list whenever you like from the Focus home screen. The schedule itself is something your family sets together in your ConciergePad account, and it can be as simple as weekday mornings or as specific as a different window for each day. The Focus home screen always shows what's happening in plain language: "Focus time is on until 3:00 PM," "Next focus time: tomorrow at 8:00 AM," or "Ready to go" while you're waiting for the first schedule to arrive. A Sync Now button pulls the latest settings on demand, and Focus keeps working with the last schedule it saw even when the device is offline. Life doesn't always follow a schedule, and Focus is designed for that. If a student opens an app that's taking a break, the screen explains that it's focus time, reminds them that calls and Messages always work, and offers a button to ask for an early unlock. That request goes straight to the family's ConciergePad account. A parent can pause the whole schedule at any time, for a doctor's appointment, a snow day, or simply because you've decided to. The device picks the pause up on its next sync, or right away when the student taps to ask for an unlock, and focus time resumes automatically when the parent turns it back on. Focus stays honest about its own status. If Screen Time permission is switched off or a session expires, the home screen says so and shows exactly what to do next, and the family account is notified so nobody is left guessing. If your family's plan includes a place-based schedule, Focus uses region monitoring only, never continuous location tracking, and it never touches location at all unless your plan asks for it. Focus requires a ConciergePad family account and an iPhone running iOS 16 or later. Screen Time features need a physical device signed in with an Apple Account. Managed together with your family. Phone calls and Messages always stay available.