ThingsBook vs dumb MESSAGE
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
ThingsBook
This platform encourages long-form writing and organized collection of life's moments. It provides a personal space to document thoughts, memories, and interests, creating a lasting archive of your experiences.
- Long-form writing without character limits
- Organized collections for various life aspects
- Create a lasting personal archive
- Flexible sharing options (public, friends, private)
- Prompts and search for easy documentation
- Designed for everyday life moments
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Your life deserves more than disappearing posts and scattered notes. ThingsBook is a new kind of personal platform built for people who love to write, reflect, and collect the moments that make up their lives. It’s where long-form storytelling meets beautiful organization, giving you a space to capture what you did, how you felt, and what you care about in lasting detail. Whether you are journaling about your day, writing thoughtful reflections, or collecting the books you love, the meals you cooked, the trips you took, or the ideas that moved you, ThingsBook helps you turn everyday life into something meaningful and permanent. Write freely At its core, ThingsBook is about writing. Real writing. Long-form, text-centric storytelling that lets you express yourself without character limits or performance pressure. Capture your thoughts, routines, memories, and observations in a way that feels natural, personal, and deeply yours. Collect what matters Organize everything you write into beautiful, structured collections. Your books, travels, meals, fashion finds, hobbies, goals, and ideas all live together in one place. Think of it as your personal digital shelf, always there when you want to revisit your life. Build your archive ThingsBook is not about fleeting trends or posts that disappear. Your writing and collections become a lasting personal archive, a living record of who you are and what you love. Over time, your ThingsBook becomes your story. Share on your terms Share publicly, with friends, or keep things private. Post whenever inspiration hits. Take breaks whenever you need. Your space never goes stale, and there is no pressure to perform. Designed for everyday life You do not need special skills, perfect photos, or big moments. ThingsBook is built for real life. Write about your morning coffee, the song you cannot stop playing, the trip that changed you, the book that stayed with you, the place that always feels like home. Smart tools that support your writing Helpful prompts, thoughtful organization, search, and location features make it easier to document your life as it happens, without turning your thoughts into work. Your corner of the internet ThingsBook is where your interests, ideas, and experiences come together. Not a feed to chase. A space to build. Write your life. Collect your world. Remember what matters.
dumb MESSAGE
Collaborate on a shared pixel canvas with friends in real-time. Draw, stamp images, or use dictation to add text to the evolving artwork. Experience a minimalist social interaction without feeds or typing indicators.
- Shared pixel canvas
- Real-time drawing
- Stamp images as pixels
- Dictation to pixel text
- Day and Night modes
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The future was supposed to be simpler. dumb MESSAGE is one shared pixel canvas. You draw. Your friends draw. Everyone sees the same thing at the same time. No feed to refresh. No followers to impress. No typing bubble making you anxious. No color because frankly, you’ll cope. There is no feed. There is no typing indicator. There isn't even color. HOW IT WORKS • Start a canvas and get an ID you can say out loud, like MINTFOX42 • Send the link. Friends open it and their ink shows up next to yours • One finger draws, two fingers pan • Point the camera at anything and stamp it as dithered 1-bit pixels • Or talk — dictation turns your words into pixel type on the canvas • DAY mode is reflective gray. NIGHT mode glows green
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: dumb MESSAGE at 5.0 against ThingsBook's 4.5. dumb MESSAGE also leads on update cadence (every 2 days vs fortnightly). ThingsBook's advantage is ratings volume (1.9K vs 1) and chart position (#42 vs unranked). 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
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
dumb MESSAGE holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.5. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: ThingsBook has 1.9K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
ThingsBook ships an update fortnightly, dumb MESSAGE every 2 days. The most recent releases landed on November 6, 2026 and November 5, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | ThingsBook | dumb MESSAGE |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.5 (1.9K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 66.0% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 1.9K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Best chart rank | #42 — better | — |
| Devices | iPhone | iPhone, iPad — better |
| Requires iOS | 17.0 | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 133 MB | 1 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Naver U.Hub Inc. | Matt Jakob |
In-app purchases
ThingsBook
No in-app purchases
dumb MESSAGE
No in-app purchases









