True vs Root
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
True
This app offers a private social networking experience focused on genuine connections with trusted individuals. It prioritizes user privacy by avoiding targeted advertising and data selling, creating a safe and positive space for sharing.
- Private by default sharing
- No ads or tracking
- User data ownership
- Focus on real friends
- Safe and positive environment
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Focused on people you really know, we’re making social a safe, happy place again without targeted advertising. • It’s the quality of relationships, not quantity, that make us happier. We’re building new ways to tell your story and strengthen your community • We don’t spy on you, read your cookies or follow you around the internet. You own your data, forever, and we’ll never sell or share it with anyone It’s time to try an honest solution. We’re thrilled to get you back to things that matter. • Private by default – photos, and updates only with people you trust. • No ads. No tracking. Ever. – we never sell your data. • Real friends, real life – original content from people you actually know, not influencers or brands. • Safe and positive – a drama-free space designed to make social a happy place again. The True Story True was founded in a lovely little mountain town filled with giant redwoods, beautiful valleys and neighbors who look after each other. It’s this real-life Happy Valley that inspired us to build a company that gets back to things that matter. Real friends and real life without commercial interruption. It’s the quality of our relationships, not the quantity, that make us happier. It’s the joy of making new friends and connecting with old ones that strengthen our sense of community. Somehow, in a rush for growth and profit, these feelings have been lost. Social today no longer feels like a Happy Valley, it’s more like we’re all living in a big creepy commercial. Big social companies are in the middle of our relationships. They’re taking our best intentions and selling them to the highest bidder. Well, we’re just not going to do that anymore. Why Should I Trust You Guys? There’s a lot of talk about privacy. Every few weeks, another big company gets caught in a new scandal. But there is never anything really done about it and we go on accepting the problem. The crazy thing is, this is never going to stop. As long as these companies make money by selling our personal information, they will always find ways to collect it. But we never signed up for this. We didn’t post our lives, families and personal relationships for sale. We did not agree to let these companies make money from being in the middle of our friendships. We believe you should be free to share your life without big brands competing for your attention. You should own your information and decide what you want to do with it. 3rd parties should never have access to your data. You should not be the product. We believe your privacy matters. We take it into consideration with every decision we make. You should believe we respect your privacy and trust we’ll do the right thing with your information. What’s Different About It? We just don’t think you can be yourself in a world of perfect pictures awash in a sea of influencers. Old-school social is for blasting your life to people you don’t really know, measured by standards you will never achieve. So we’ve built a new kind of threaded sharing that is private by default. Until now, no one has tried this before. It gives you control over things you want to share and who you want to share them with. By combining beautiful, edge-to-edge storytelling with private messaging, it’s the best of both worlds. What do we all love? Updates from real friends. But original thoughts and stories have gone missing in big social. Sadly, most content today is created by companies with an agenda. We share an endless stream of news and ideas pushed by these companies and no longer share our real lives. So we built a platform that only allows original content. There are no political arguments here. You come to True to see real updates from friends. Content they created themselves, not clickbait designed to hold your attention and manipulate opinion. True lets you… be you. Real sharing from real friends, we’re making social a safe, happy place again.
Root
Engage in structured debates on current events and thought-provoking questions. Share your reasoning, see community stances, and join live discussions. Submit your own questions to drive conversations.
- Take a stance on debates
- Share reasoning and cite sources
- View community breakdowns
- Join live AI-moderated discussions
- Submit custom debate questions
- Browse trending and curated questions
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What do you actually think? Root is the debate app that turns today's news and biggest questions into real conversations. Take a stance, share your reasoning, and see how your thinking compares to everyone else's. What's new in 1.4 Root now has a Community tab — where users like you drive the conversation. Submit your own debate questions, browse what the community is discussing, and join live rooms to debate in real time. Community questions Have a question you want Root to debate? Submit it from the Ask tab. Add an inspiration source — a Reddit thread, YouTube video, or anything that sparked the idea. Questions go through instant AI review and are live within seconds if approved. Live Rooms browser See every active Breakout Room across Root in one place. Search by keyword, filter by topic, and jump straight into a live AI-moderated discussion without having to find the question first. How Root works Pick your stance — Agree, Disagree, or Neutral on any question Share your reasoning — add context, tag your perspective, cite a source See the breakdown — how does the community actually split? Go deeper — explore the top reasons on each side, drill into the arguments, join a live Breakout Room to debate in real time In the news Root surfaces real articles twice daily and turns them into debate questions — so you're not just reading the headlines, you're weighing in on them. Tap any headline to read a summary before you respond. For You Your personalized feed mixes weekly curated questions, news-driven debates, and community submissions matched to your interests — all in one place. Trending See what's generating the most discussion on Root right now across all question types, ranked by real engagement. Breakout Rooms When a question gets heated, jump into a live AI-moderated discussion with other users. Real conversation, structured debate, no pile-ons. Built for thinkers Root isn't social media. There are no likes, no follower counts, no algorithmic rage-bait. Just questions worth debating and a community willing to engage seriously with them.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Root at 5.0 against True's 4.2. Root also leads on update cadence (weekly vs every 3 weeks) and monetization model (free vs ad-supported). True's advantage is ratings volume (9 vs 2) and iOS requirement (13.0 vs 15.1). On price, ads, in-app purchases 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. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Root holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.2. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 9 and 2 respectively.
True ships an update every 3 weeks, Root weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 23, 2026 and October 7, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | True | Root |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.2 (9 ratings) | 5.0 (2 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 85.1% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 9 — better | 2 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Ad-supported | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPod |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 15.1 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 102 MB | 36 MB |
| Age rating | 12+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Hello Mobile Inc. | Marcus Holloway |
Customer experience
True
Root
Bugs and requests
True
Reported bugs
17 issues- Posts revert to older dates
- Cannot read email for verification
- Cannot view or open notifications (likes, comments, friend requests)
- Cannot get verification code by email
- App crashes or freezes
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- Cannot access other albums
- Camera roll is a mess
- Cannot use own GIFs
- Confirming account is a nightmare
- Cannot confirm phone number
- Cannot set password
- Phone seizes up when writing reviews
- Location history not fully captured
- No response from support
- Cannot upload own GIFs (no animation)
- Spam notifications from 'Alex'
- App keeps showing error messages
Requested features
7 requests- Allow editing of posted text
- Allow pictures and videos as comments
- Provide a way to download photos
- Dark mode
- Evernote integration or export options
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- Add missed location logs
- Improve contact access
Root
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
True
No in-app purchases
Root
No in-app purchases









