Catchup vs Friendly SMS
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Catchup
This app helps you nurture important relationships by setting connection goals and sending gentle reminders to reach out. Track your interactions and add notes to remember details, ensuring your connections stay strong.
- Add friends and family
- Set personal connection goals
- Track conversations and meetings
- Add notes to interactions
- Receive gentle outreach reminders
- Home screen widget for tracking
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Your relationships matter. But in our busy lives, staying in touch isn't always easy. Catchup is a simple, beautiful way to nurture your most important connections through consistent touchpoints. Add the people you care about, set meaningful connection goals, and get gentle reminders to reach out. How it works: 1. Add friends and family you want to stay close with 2. Set your intentions with personal goals for how often you'd like to connect 3. Track conversations, meetings, and meaningful moments with a quick tap 4. Add notes to remember the little details of each interaction 5. Get gentle reminders when it's time to reach out Try Catchup free with 2 contacts. Upgrade to connect with unlimited friends and family and track your relationships through notifications and a home screen widget. Keep your relationships strong, one connection at a time.
Friendly SMS
This app helps you stay in touch with important contacts by setting personalized reminders. It allows you to send pre-written text messages with a single tap, ensuring you never miss a special occasion or a chance to connect.
- Recurring contact reminders
- Birthday reminders
- Pre-filled SMS messages
- Customizable messages
- Manual one-off reminders
- Local notifications
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Friendly helps you stay connected with the people who matter most — without letting life get in the way. Simply import your contacts, set a reminder frequency, and Friendly will nudge you when it's time to reach out. When the reminder fires, just tap to open a pre-filled text message and send it in seconds. Features: - Recurring reminders — daily, weekly, monthly, or yearly - Birthday reminders so you never miss a special day - Pre-filled SMS messages so sending is effortless - Customize your message for each contact - One-off manual reminders whenever you need them - Local notifications — no account or login required Your data stays on your device. No account, no sign-in, no tracking.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Friendly SMS at 5.0 against Catchup's 4.4. Friendly SMS also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 1). Catchup's advantage is ratings volume (82 vs 2) and iOS requirement (16.0 vs 18.0). On price, 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
Both are free to download. Catchup sells 1 one-off in-app purchase. Friendly SMS asks for nothing beyond the download.
Friendly SMS holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Catchup has 82 ratings behind it against 2, so its average is the more settled of the two.
| Parameter | Catchup | Friendly SMS |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (82 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.7% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 82 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | — |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 16.0 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Chris Lee | Gabriel Beer |
Customer experience
Catchup
Friendly SMS
Bugs and requests
Catchup
Reported bugs
8 issues- Cannot add contacts
- Subscription is broken and unusable
- Bug preventing upgrade to Plus
- Names and pictures no longer show
- Pro version features locked temporarily
Show 3 moreShow fewer
- Does not sync between devices
- Tracking information lost on iOS update
- Data not backing up to iCloud
Requested features
24 requests- Alphabetical sorting
- Customizable frequency
- Different types of catch-ups
- Select multiple people for a note
- Add search function
Show 19 moreShow fewer
- Add photos
- Add friend's birthday
- Call or text with WhatsApp integration
- Reminder for every 2-3 days
- Groups of people
- Indicate who was present at a catch-up
- Siri shortcut support
- Widget for one-tap connection
- Button to initiate FaceTime call
- Option to add date of last in-person hang out
- Option to add frequency of in-person hang outs
- Categorize contacts (e.g., home, work)
- Customizable reminder frequency
- Dismiss or record connection from notification
- Snooze next reminder option
- Remind me on a specific date
- Backup to iCloud
- Sync between iPhone and iPad
- Automatically count call/text as check-in
Friendly SMS
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Catchup
- Catchup Plus$9.99
Friendly SMS
No in-app purchases









