Messier vs Altering
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Messier
This app offers science-backed creative exercises designed to enhance problem-solving, overcome creative blocks, and manage stress through artistic expression. Connect with a community, track your progress, and discover new ways to bring fun and novelty into your life.
- Science-backed creativity exercises
- Enhance problem-solving skills
- Overcome creative blocks
- Stress management through art
- Community sharing and inspiration
- Track creativity streaks
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Why Messier? Science-Backed Creativity: Exercises (we call them “Messier Moments”) developed in partnership with leading creativity researchers to maximize the benefits of creativity. Enhance Problem Solving: Transform your problem-solving skills change with engaging prompts focused on divergent thinking, drawing, movement, and writing – all designed to integrate progress into your mindset. Overcome Creative Blocks: Break through barriers with exercises that move you from hesitation to action and from fear to courage. Harness Creativity for Stress Management – Channel anxieties into artistic expression and discover how to effectively regulate your emotions with engaging and innovative creative prompts. Connect & Get Inspired: Share your creative moments with a like-minded community, explore new inspiration, and track the benefits of your creativity streaks. Fun and Experimentation: Inject more fun and novelty into your life with new approaches to creativity.
Altering
Cultivate a daily creative habit to reduce stress, boost well-being, and enhance productivity. Engage in playful exercises designed to foster creative flow without judgment, strengthening your creative abilities and mental resilience. This app offers an active alternative to meditation, focusing on focused creation and idea generation.
- Daily creative exercises
- Develops creative flow
- Reduces stress and anxiety
- Improves well-being
- Boosts productivity
- Active rest alternative
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A daily habit of creative flow has been proven to reduce stress, improve well-being, and boost productivity. Anyone can do it You don’t need to consider yourself an artist to feel all the benefits of playful creative practice. Our exercises help you drop straight into creative flow, free of judgement and restrictions. Build your creative muscle over time through regular practice and strengthen the neural pathways that bring you satisfaction and joy. Struggled to meditate in the past? Try active creative flow instead. It has many of the same benefits, without having to quiet your mind. Instead, you’ll spend your time focused, flowing, and making new connections between ideas. Exercises in creative consciousness Altering teaches you to approach challenges with an open, creative mind. You’ll learn to embrace the blank page and get confident generating novel ideas. Detox your downtime Make Altering your healthy distraction that you won’t need to feel guilty about. Use your creative time as a daily hit of active, refreshing rest. Subscriptions Subscriptions automatically renew, unless auto-renew is disabled at least 24 hours before the current period ends. Manage your subscription from your Apple account settings. Payment will be charged to your Apple account. Privacy policy: https://altering.io/privacy-policy Terms of service: https://altering.io/terms-of-service
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Messier at 5.0 against Altering's 4.5. Messier also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and review sentiment (100% vs 89%). Altering's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 16 months). 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. Altering sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Messier asks for nothing beyond the download.
Messier holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 21 and 6 respectively. Written reviews point the same way: 100% of Messier's written reviews are positive against 89% of Altering's.
Messier ships an update every 16 months, Altering fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on October 24, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Messier | Altering |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 5.0 (21 ratings) — better | 4.5 (6 ratings) |
| Positive reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better | 88.9% of reviews |
| Number of ratings | 21 — better | 6 |
| Update frequency | Every 16 months | Fortnightly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No — better | Yes |
| Monetization | Free — better | Freemium |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 14.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 41 MB | 38 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Creyo Co. | Altering Ltd |
Customer experience
Messier
Altering
In-app purchases
Messier
No in-app purchases
Altering
- Monthly subscription7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Annual subscription7 Days trial$44.991 Year
