Focus Aura vs SMSReader
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Focus Aura
This app gamifies focus sessions by growing a virtual garden. Stay on task to nurture your plants, or watch them wilt if you get distracted. Collaborate with friends and block distracting apps to enhance productivity.
- Virtual plant growth for focus sessions
- Focus with friends and cheer each other on
- Block distracting apps
- Customizable Pomodoro cycles
- Collect rare seeds and beautiful plants
- Build and maintain focus streaks
- Progress tracking and weekly reviews
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Turn focus into a habit you actually look forward to. Focus Aura makes deep work feel rewarding — and beautiful. Plant a seed, start a focus session, and watch it grow into a stunning plant every time you stay on task. Lose focus, and your plant wilts. A gentle nudge to keep going. FOCUS WITH FRIENDS Add friends with a personal invite link or code. See your focus week next to theirs, spot who is focusing right now, and cheer them on mid-session. Friends see your time and your level — never your tasks. A STUNNING SPACE TO FOCUS We obsessed over every detail. A calm dark interface, soft glowing animations, and a living garden that's a genuine pleasure to open. Focus Aura doesn't just track your time — it makes the experience feel like a tiny moment of calm in your day. THREE FOCUS MODES Strict — leave the app and your plant dies. Maximum discipline. Lenient — step away for up to 15 seconds. Real life, with stakes. Ambient — pure focus, no penalties. BLOCK DISTRACTING APPS Social media, games, news — choose what steals your attention and Focus Aura locks it for the session. Apps unlock on their own the moment the session ends. Built on Apple's Screen Time: we never see which apps you picked — your list stays on your device. REAL POMODORO CYCLES Set your session and break lengths, choose how many sessions come before a long break, and let the app keep the rhythm for you. COLLECT BEAUTIFUL PLANTS Earn coins as you focus, then spend them in a gorgeous shop: Rare seeds across five rarity tiers — from Common to Legendary A Seed of the Month, available only while the month lasts Each plant beautifully rendered, with its own name and story Ambient sounds: Rain, Forest, Ocean, Café, Fireplace, Space Color themes: Cyberpunk, Solar Flare, Dark Matter, and more A GARDEN THAT NEEDS YOU Water your plants once a day for bonus coins. Walk away mid-session and your plant wilts — it comes back to life with your next finished session. BUILD STREAKS, STAY CONSISTENT Keep your daily streak alive with at least one focus session a day. Save it with a Streak Freeze when life gets busy. TASKS THAT MEAN SOMETHING Create focus tasks for work, study, sport, or reading. Set session goals, make them recurring, and earn bonus coins on completion. SEE YOUR PROGRESS Beautiful insights show your weekly focus, best streaks, and the times of day you focus most. Every Sunday, a Weekly Review sums up what changed — plus AI-powered analysis of your productivity. FITS THE REST OF YOUR PHONE Lock screen and home screen widgets, tinted with your plant's own colors Live Activities and the Dynamic Island keep the timer one glance away — with buttons to end a session or a break Focus is logged as mindfulness minutes in Apple Health UNLOCK FOCUS AURA PRO Go further with Pro: 2× coins on every session + bigger streak bonuses (up to +50%) Expand your garden from 2 to 6 active plots Higher chance of rare, epic & legendary seeds Custom session lengths (5–180 min) & unlimited tags AI productivity insights + full session history Exclusive plants, premium themes & 50% off music Free automatic Streak Freeze Block any number of apps and whole categories No daily coin cap (free users: 500/day) Pro is available monthly or yearly, with a 7-day free trial. Plant your first seed today. Your garden — and your focus — start now. Terms of Use (EULA): https://focusaura.app/terms.html
SMSReader
This app offers a fast and comfortable reading experience for digital books and documents. It supports various file formats, including PDFs and EPUBs, with advanced features for page turning, text display, and annotation. It also includes text-to-speech and translation capabilities.
- Fast page turning with multiple speeds
- Customizable reading experience
- Read Aloud text-to-speech
- Voice-controlled page turning
- Search and annotate documents
- Paragraph translation and summarization
- Organized bookshelf with cloud sync
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SMSReader is a reader for digital books and documents, built to be fast and comfortable. Even in a book of thousands of pages, the next page appears the moment you tap the edge, and holding the edge flips through pages at speed. BUILT FOR THE LATEST DEVICES • The most comfortable PDF viewer on iPhone Duo • Extensive accessibility support (VoiceOver and more) FAST PAGE TURNING • Tap the left or right edge to turn the page instantly, or choose a slide animation • Hold an edge to flip continuously (7 speeds, from 6 to 60 pages a second) • Flick, drag the slider, or type a page number to move • Pinch in to go straight to an overview of the pages EASY TO READ • Home View: remembers, for each book, the area you want to zoom into, and keeps that zoom as you read on one view at a time. Scanned books with wide margins and two-column pages become easy to read • Right to left (vertical Japanese), left to right, or top to bottom. Two-page spreads and a cover shown alone are set automatically from the PDF • Tall pages fit the width of the screen, handy for PDF screenshots of websites EPUB • Read reflowable and fixed-layout EPUBs, turning pages as fast as with PDFs • Vertical Japanese, ruby, tate-chu-yoko and emphasis marks, in the book's own fonts if you like • Choose the text size, font, margins, line spacing and paper for each book • Press and hold an illustration to see it over the whole screen, and pinch to zoom. Pictures larger than the page are fitted to it LISTEN AND SPEAK • Read Aloud: reads the text, leaving out running heads and page numbers, and follows the ruby in Japanese. The word being read is highlighted; start from any word, or move a paragraph back or forward • Turn Pages by Voice: say "next", "previous" or "page 12". Speech is recognized on the device • Siri and Shortcuts: "Continue reading in SMSReader", "Read aloud in SMSReader" and more SEARCH AND ANNOTATE • Search the text of a book or of your whole library, without missing words split across lines, with your search history at hand • Select text to copy, look up or share, including vertical text and text with ruby • Pages without text, such as scanned books, are read on the device and can be searched, selected, translated and read aloud • Annotate and highlight pages with Apple Pencil or your finger (iPadOS 26 or later). The PDF itself is never changed TRANSLATION AND SUMMARIES • Open the translation panel beside the page to see a translation of each paragraph. Tap a paragraph to match the original and the translation • For translation and summaries, use Apple Translate, Apple Intelligence (on device), or an online translation or AI service with your own API key BOOKSHELF • Organize your library in folders, and folders within folders • Keep the library on this device, in iCloud Drive, or in a folder the Files app can open, such as Dropbox. Books in the cloud are downloaded when you open them • Drop a whole folder to import its PDFs and EPUBs • Sync where you are, bookmarks, annotations, shelves and more across your devices with iCloud • Join several books to read them on as one • Password-protected PDFs open with their password • Shelves, one for each shelf tag, work across folders, and a folder can be filtered by shelf tag • Use any page or image as a cover. Books can also be hidden • Lock the whole app or single books with a passcode and Face ID PRIVACY • No ads, no account, no analytics • Books, bookmarks, annotations and settings stay on your device; with sync on, they are kept in your own iCloud • Text is sent to an outside service only when you have set your own API key, confirmed where it goes and agreed, and then run a translation or summary • Text selection and AI features such as translation and summaries are off for PDFs that forbid copying For iPad and iPhone (Duo), iPadOS / iOS 18 or later (some features need 26 or later). The app can be shown in Japanese or English.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: SMSReader at 100% against Focus Aura's 50%. SMSReader also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 2) and update cadence (every 2 days vs monthly). Focus Aura's advantage is price (Free vs $9.99) and iOS requirement (15.1 vs 18.0). 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
Focus Aura is free to download; SMSReader costs $9.99 up front. Focus Aura sells 2 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. SMSReader asks for nothing beyond the download.
Focus Aura ships an update monthly, SMSReader every 2 days. Both last shipped on October 31, 2026.
| Parameter | Focus Aura | SMSReader |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free — better | $9.99 |
| Positive reviews | 50.0% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Every 2 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Freemium — better | Paid |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 15.1 — better | 18.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 55 MB | 14 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Dmitri Rosca | Kotatsu RIN |
Customer experience
Focus Aura
SMSReader
In-app purchases
Focus Aura
- Pro Monthly7 Days trial$4.991 Month
- Yearly Pro Access7 Days trial$29.991 Year
SMSReader
No in-app purchases









