Comparison

InTune vs Synesthesia

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

Head to head
About

InTune

Enhance your musical ear for tuning and intonation with this app. It utilizes academic research to help you track progress, compete, and master pitch discrimination. Offers a variety of instrument sounds to aid your practice.

Highlights
  • Improve musical intonation
  • 25 years of academic research
  • Track progress
  • Compete on Game Center
  • Add instrument sounds
  • Pitch discrimination training
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

Improve your ear for tuning and intonation with this beautiful app. • Improve your musical intonation — one of the most important skills a musician can have. • Leverage 25 years of academic research on how to train intonation. • Track your progress and compete on Game Center. • Add on beautiful instrument sounds, including piano, guitar, violin, cello, clarinet, banjo, flute, French horn, trombone, and trumpet. WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING “A brilliantly simple game of precision hearing…ingenious. It will absolutely help you develop a more discerning ear.” — Voice Council Magazine “Very easy to use…a fun and useful addition to your practice toolbox.” — Horn World “There are a number of ear training apps available for the iPhone, but InTune has actual science to back it up.” — discchord “I have your app on my phone and love it!!!” — David P. Schurger, orchestra director, Indiana “Excellent...it’s made a remarkable difference this past year in my ability to rehearse complex 20th and 21st century music!” — Paul Piazza, conductor/composer, LA THE SCIENCE BEHIND THE APP InTune began as a way for researchers to test pitch discrimination, the ability to differentiate pitches that are close together. But then researchers discovered that musicians improved the more often they played – 3x faster than those who didn’t. Download for free and see if InTune works for you! HELP US IMPROVE! We’re always improving InTune and love hearing from users. Please send your comments and requests to support@halfnotelabs.com.

About

Synesthesia

Experience music through a spectrum of colors, mimicking the sensory phenomenon of synesthesia. Use it as a dynamic mood light, a calming night light, or to visualize the pitches of songs and instruments.

Highlights
  • Music visualization
  • Mood lighting
  • Night light functionality
  • Pitch to color mapping
  • Microphone access for real-time audio
Features
Read full description

Synesthesia makes listening to music a colorful experience and is a wonderful mood light and soft night light when you want to calm down. Do you want to see colors when playing certain tones like people with synesthesia / chromestesia do? The app "Synesthesia - See the music in colors" enables you to experience music in color as well. Whether you use it to train you perfect pitch, to help you remember melodies or just for entertainment as a light organ while listening to your favorite songs - Synesthesia helps you to see the current pitch in colors. To experience the colors simply allow the app to access the microphone on the first start and then play your instrument or a song, sing, ... or just enjoy many color changing patterns even without music as a mood light or night light. Please note: People with synesthesia may experiences different colors for the same pitch. The app therefore uses it's own color scale (each musical note C displays a red color for example). Some of our users use the app as an replacement for their old light organs ... so that should work very well ;-) If you like music apps be sure to check out our other apps as well -> Piano Champion, Guitar Champion, Drum Champion, Voice Back .... and many more to come

Screenshots

InTune4 screens
Synesthesia4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is review sentiment: InTune at 83% against Synesthesia's 38%. InTune also leads on rating (4.7 vs 2.3) and ratings volume (551 vs 16). Synesthesia's advantage is price (Free vs $0.99) and in-app purchases (none vs 14). On ads and device support 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

Synesthesia is free to download; InTune costs $0.99 up front. InTune sells 13 one-off in-app purchases. Synesthesia asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

InTune holds the better App Store score, 4.7 against 2.3. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: InTune has 551 ratings behind it against 16, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 83% of InTune's written reviews are positive against 38% of Synesthesia's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

InTune ships an update every 3 months, Synesthesia monthly. The most recent releases landed on September 28, 2026 and June 1, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard9 real differences · 2 level
InTune versus Synesthesia: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterInTuneSynesthesia
Price$0.99Free — better
Rating4.7 (551 ratings) — better2.3 (16 ratings)
Positive reviews83.1% of reviews — better37.5% of reviews
Number of ratings551 — better16
Update frequencyEvery 3 monthsMonthly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree — better
Best chart rank#31 — better—
DevicesiPhone, iPodiPhone, iPad, iPod — better
Requires iOS13.08.0 — better
Further details — not scored
Size86 MB31 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperHalf Note LabsChristian Auzinger

Customer experience

InTune

All ratings551 ratings
Positive92.9%
Neutral3.1%
Negative4.0%
Written reviews136 reviews
Positive83.1%
Neutral8.1%
Negative8.8%

Synesthesia

All ratings16 ratings
Positive25.0%
Neutral12.5%
Negative62.5%
Written reviews8 reviews
Positive37.5%
Neutral0.0%
Negative62.5%

Bugs and requests

InTune

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • App freezes mid-round
  • Oboe timbre is inconsistent
  • Timpani sounds are poor quality
  • Flute sound is low quality
  • Compatibility issues with iPhone 13

Requested features

5 requests
  • Ability to replay the tones
  • Option to start from any level
  • Ability to choose different intervals
  • Option to turn off 3-strike mode
  • Ability to save personal best scores

Synesthesia

Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.

In-app purchases

13 purchases

InTune

One-time13
  • InTune French Horn Add-on$0.99
  • InTune Tuba Add-on$0.99
  • InTune Viola Add-on$0.99
Show 10 more
  • Timpani$0.99
  • InTune Clarinet Add-on$0.99
  • InTune Piano Add-on$0.99
  • InTune Double Bass Add-on$0.99
  • InTune Violin Add-on$0.99
  • InTune Cello Add-on$0.99
  • Guitar$0.99
  • Trumpet$0.99
  • Trombone$0.99
  • Flute$0.99
None

Synesthesia

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is InTune free?
InTune costs $0.99, and also offers in-app purchases.
Is Synesthesia free?
Synesthesia is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, InTune or Synesthesia?
InTune is rated higher. InTune averages 4.7 out of 5 from 551 ratings, while Synesthesia averages 2.3 from 16 ratings.
Do InTune or Synesthesia have ads?
Neither InTune nor Synesthesia shows ads.
Which is updated more often, InTune or Synesthesia?
InTune ships an update every 3 months, and Synesthesia monthly. Most recently, InTune was updated on September 28, 2026 and Synesthesia on June 1, 2026.

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