Comparison

UTSW Huddle vs Heartbeat Chat

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

Head to head
About

UTSW Huddle

Stay informed and connected with your team. Access important announcements, contacts, and news to strategize and achieve your goals. Features include video and push notifications for seamless communication.

Highlights
  • Leadership announcements
  • Contact directory
  • Referral tools
  • Healthcare news
  • Video features
  • Push notifications
Features
Read full description

UTSW Huddle helps you and your teams stay informed, connected, and aligned. Score the latest information, tools, and news you can use to do your job best, strategize "plays," and achieve your goals. UTSW Huddle includes: • Important announcements from leadership • Easy to access contacts • Provider and patient referral tools • Healthcare, research, and education news • Video features • Push notifications

About

Heartbeat Chat

Build and manage your online communities with a versatile platform. Engage members through chat, voice, and video, and create a knowledge base for lasting discussions. Integrate with other tools to automate actions and track growth.

Highlights
  • Customizable channels for chat and posts
  • Voice rooms for real-time conversations
  • Presence indicators for a shared room feel
  • Knowledge base creation from discussions
  • Integration with Zoom, Google Calendar, Salesforce, etc.
  • Automated community match-ups and intros
  • Permission management and payment processing
Features
Read full description

Heartbeat is the home for all your online communities. Create a space where you and your community can have fun through chats, threads, voice, and video. Heartbeat works great for online schools, accelerators, incubators, paid communities, innovations hubs, support groups, and so much more! Whether its a massive, established community, or you're just getting started, Heartbeat makes it easy to build lasting, genuine relationships. LAUNCH AN INVITE-ONLY COMMUNITY SPACE: - Customize channels to use posts or chats and design a space just for you and your community to have deep discussions about how the world is changing or just to share the best restaurants in Atlanta. - Voice rooms help you take your conversations to the next level — jump into a voice room with 1 click - Presence indicators floating around the app show you where other people are, and make it feel like you're in the same room CREATE A LASTING LIBRARY OF KNOWLEDGE - Turn insightful posts into long-lasting knowledge base articles & grow your community off the great conversations that happen - Organize information vital to your community members & create a space they can always reference for the best information - Manage access through powerful permissioning tools native to Hearbeat SCALE YOUR COMMUNITY LIKE A BOSS - Use deep integrations with Zoom, Google Calendar, Salesforce, Hubspot, Airtable, and more to automate community actions & track deep analytics over time to see how your community is growing - Automate in-community match-ups and conversations through customizable, weekly Heartbeat intros - Create moderators, special access permissions, manage payments, oversee projects & more within your customizable community space

Screenshots

UTSW Huddle3 screens
Heartbeat Chat4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is rating: UTSW Huddle at 5.0 against Heartbeat Chat's 4.0. UTSW Huddle also leads on update cadence (fortnightly vs every 5 weeks). Heartbeat Chat's advantage is ratings volume (135 vs 4) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 17.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model 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

UTSW Huddle holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.0. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Heartbeat Chat has 135 ratings behind it against 4, so its average is the more settled of the two.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

UTSW Huddle ships an update fortnightly, Heartbeat Chat every 5 weeks. Both last shipped on October 29, 2026.

Scorecard4 real differences · 6 level
UTSW Huddle versus Heartbeat Chat: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterUTSW HuddleHeartbeat Chat
PriceFreeFree
Rating5.0 (4 ratings) — better4.0 (135 ratings)
Positive reviews—40.9% of reviews
Number of ratings4135 — better
Update frequencyFortnightly — betterEvery 5 weeks
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFreeFree
DevicesiPhone, iPadiPhone, iPod
Requires iOS17.015.1 — better
Further details — not scored
Size83 MB78 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperUT Southwestern Medical CenterHeartbeat Chat, Inc

Customer experience

UTSW Huddle

All ratings4 ratings
Positive100.0%
Neutral0.0%
Negative0.0%

Heartbeat Chat

All ratings135 ratings
Positive70.4%
Neutral5.9%
Negative23.7%
Written reviews66 reviews
Positive40.9%
Neutral12.1%
Negative47.0%

Bugs and requests

UTSW Huddle

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

Heartbeat Chat

Reported bugs

40 issues
  • Audio playback stops when phone locks
  • Users struggle with logging in
  • App is not optimized for iPad, especially in landscape view
  • Invasion of privacy concerns regarding photo access
  • Notifications are inconsistent and important messages are missed
Show 35 more
  • Auto-subscriptions and difficulty with cancellation
  • App performance is non-existent, leading to slow loading and unresponsiveness
  • Content overlaps
  • Tiny frame on iPad, displaying a mobile view
  • Forced photo upload during sign-up
  • Email already in use error after providing email
  • Courses are inaccessible
  • Slow response from support
  • App fails to update
  • Unable to access community
  • Unable to cancel subscription
  • Charged without consent
  • App not working on iPhone
  • App freezes frequently
  • White screen issues upon opening the app
  • App does not function correctly
  • Messages not sending when the send button is tapped
  • App doesn't work on tablets
  • Phantom notifications causing frustration
  • App crashes frequently
  • Jank and unstable performance
  • App shows it has posted but it never publishes
  • Notifications and Activity pages have major glitches and don't refresh
  • Unable to pull down the Activity page to refresh
  • App started messing up immediately, unable to access anything
  • App asks for information, then shows an error that it cannot find the channel
  • App loads but nothing is tappable or responsive
  • App is constantly freezing
  • App crashes after iOS update
  • App shows communication but refuses to show what it is
  • App shows a white screen and is unusable
  • App shows a white screen and is garbage
  • App shows it has posted but it never published the comment
  • Notifications are funky and make zero sense
  • App doesn't work correctly on iPhone

Requested features

17 requests
  • Allow audio to play while phone locks
  • Improve iPad optimization, especially in landscape view
  • Fix the app icon to not resemble a dating app
  • Allow users to change their RSVP to an event after confirming
  • Enable users to join public threads via the app
Show 12 more
  • Improve image embedding, especially on mobile
  • Reduce excessive white space
  • Fix notification logic
  • Improve image insertion functionality
  • Add permalinks to the app
  • Allow location changes within the app
  • Fix phantom notifications
  • Enable profile editing
  • Fix the login process for users
  • Make the app work on tablets
  • Improve backend setup on mobile
  • Allow deletion of communities on mobile

In-app purchases

None

UTSW Huddle

No in-app purchases

None

Heartbeat Chat

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is UTSW Huddle free?
UTSW Huddle is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Heartbeat Chat free?
Heartbeat Chat is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, UTSW Huddle or Heartbeat Chat?
UTSW Huddle is rated higher. UTSW Huddle averages 5.0 out of 5 from 4 ratings, while Heartbeat Chat averages 4.0 from 135 ratings.
Do UTSW Huddle or Heartbeat Chat have ads?
Neither UTSW Huddle nor Heartbeat Chat shows ads.
Which is updated more often, UTSW Huddle or Heartbeat Chat?
UTSW Huddle ships an update fortnightly, and Heartbeat Chat every 5 weeks. Most recently, UTSW Huddle was updated on October 29, 2026 and Heartbeat Chat on October 29, 2026.

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