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Apps you regret buying, and why

K

ktchong

Android Enthusiast
Have you paid for any app and later regretted paying for it?

Why so? Was the app glitchy or broken? Did you find another similar app that's better or free? Did an update make the app worse? Or has the app never received an update from its developer?

Tell us about the app and why it let you down, so we may watch out for it. Obviously, the app has to be a paid app: it is either purchased directly on Goggle Play store, or unlocked/upgraded with an in-app payment or license key.

ktchong said:
I started this topic because I myself have wasted money on many apps.

ASTRO File Manager, which was preinstalled on my first Android phone. So I bought the Pro key. Later I found many other superior file managers. The updated ASTRO has an awful UI that would not even allow me to rename its default bookmarks "Myfiles1" and "Myfiles2" to "Main Storage" and "External Storage".

Android Tuner. It makes everything too complicated. I was expecting a simple, user-friendly optimizer. However, users have to learn about various complicated system settings to properly use it. I bought it because it was on sale, and thought I could just tap on an icon or button to clean up and speed up my phone, but apparently this one needs a degree in Android to understand and use it.

Beautiful Widgets Pro. Its theme library is a godawful disorganized unusable mess. That's why it's removed from "Editor's Picks" in Google Play. HD Widgets is more organized, streamlined and usable.

ezPDF Reader Multimedia PDF. The rendering is tediously slow. I needed needed a basic and super-fast PDF reader. This one is bloated with too many annotation and multimedia features that I've never used but can't be disabled. The useless features makes it too slow for my basic reading/viewing purposes.

ROM Manager Premium. It's only useful for people who use custom ROMs. Which I don't. It was recommended to me when I started rooting my phone, but I've never gotten into custom ROMs. Oh, I despise ClockworkMod Recovery (CWM), which has to be installed to use this app. That's the main reason why I have not used it: I do not want to flash CWM onto my phone.

Smart Task Switcher. It has an unlock key. Two years ago it was fine, but the developer has not updated the app since then. Back then the app had a few glitches, which have never been fixed. Now the app has become outdated and obsolete. The developer has, however, recently updated the key, just not the outdated main app. So he wants your money but does not want to do the work to fix/update his app.

Smart Tools. Neat, but I've not found any actual use for any of the tools. It's for a one-time amusement purpose only.

Superuser Elite. Switched to SuperSU Pro. Honestly both are about on par in terms of functionality, and a user only needs one. SuperSU gets regular updates. Superuser does not. That makes SuperSU better than Superuser.

SystemPanel App / Task Manager. Seems useful... but then it's not. I have not used it after fiddling around with it a bit after paying for it. I'm still not sure what it is good for... or why I bought it. The biggest issue is.. it has to run in background to record usage history, and it used quite a bit of resources. I don't really want to waste system resources on an unnecessary background app.

Tasker. The most overrated crap... even has its own dedicated sub-forum pinned atop this forum. I bought it, excitedly coded a few different tasks, (e.g., automatically turned Wi-Fi on and 4G off at home.) The tasks either did not work correctly or not at all. So I searched around for solutions and found out Tasker has some internal logical glitches, so it could not execute some tasks correctly. What a piece of crap. It also consumed too much battery power while it's running in background. I decided to get rid of it because battery life was more important than whatever tasks it could not execute correctly.

WidgetLocker Lockscreen. It has rigid, limited customization options, (i.e., everything has to fit into a sliding bar on either side.) It also conflicted with a few other apps (like my anti-theft phone locator.) Active Lockscreen is slicker, faster, better, and free.
Click to expand...
 
SwiftKey. I bought it while it was on sale, and looking for an alternative to the never-ending-beta of Swype. After using it even just a little bit I discovered I *HATE* their 'next word prediction', which can't be disabled. Why? It makes correcting the word I just "flowed" more difficult, and given the frequency with which their word suggestions when "flowing" are wrong (for me), the increased effort involved in previous word correction is too frustrating. I know that many people love SwiftKey, and that my experience is not typical, but I still regret buying it.
 
Not really. I tend to be conservative with apps and do enough research to have good confidence that the app will meet my needs. Ironically, SwiftKey is one of my favorite apps (in contrast to previous poster).

That said, where I have the least luck are with live wallpapers! They seem cool until I actually use them and then discover some issue... Like poor contrast with app icons.
 
I regret buying all the Twitter apps. Slowly but surely that API is affecting all of them. My Twitter usage has decreased immensely because of it and I really used to enjoy it daily.
 
I have purchased very few, but:

SwipePad add-ons (only $1)
The hotspots are just too hard to touch accurately when I want to and too easy to touch when I don't want

SwiftKey ($2)
Like Uncle Mike alluded, SwiftKey's reputation preceded it. I figured Swype like sliding with SwiftKey prediction would equal perfection. Turns out Swype is significantly more accurate with sliding and only slightly worse with prediction.

SlideIT keyboard ($4)
When Swype was having issues I bought this, but got a refund a long time later when they had an undetermined issue with voice recognition and no idea when they might fix it

Tasker ($6.49)
Got a refund also. Resource hog. And for the admittedly limited use I was planning for it, Automateit was just as good
 
I don't really regret buying any of my apps, because most of my apps, besides those that require root, were bought when they were on sale. So even though I don't use them I might in the future.
 
Not really regretting, but not able to justify the act of buying as well: Falcon Pro. Its a nice app, no real complaints. But I find that I liked Carbon because it just looks better and has more blacks (AMOLED screen so more blacks is more battery). But Carbon is slower and has only a 15min refresh for notifications.

PowerAmp has also became a questionmark for me since the new TouchWiz player has all the functions I wanted when I first bought PowerAmp. The only reason I keep on using PowerAmp is that there are more blacks. LOL.
 
gtbarry said:
Tasker ($6.49)
Got a refund also. Resource hog. And for the admittedly limited use I was planning for it, Automateit was just as good
Click to expand...

More irony! One of my most used apps, if you consider all the things it's doing that I would otherwise be doing myself. I'll admit it's not for everyone though, but with all the alternatives out there I'm sure there's at least one good fit for anyone looking for such an app.
 
An airplane flight tracking app. I bought it when my mom and sister were flying back to Ireland so i could watch their flight progress on my tablet. I have never been able to get it to find a single flight. If it hadn't been on same for a quarter i would have been very upset.
 
Good topic! The app that I am growing to regret having purchased is Rotation Lock Adaptive. It just does not work correctly on Honeycomb, though it's advertised as "2.2 and up." I notified the developer with very specific details of what was wrong and what I'd tested. He acknowledged the problem, but has done nothing to fix it. I was excited to see an update to the app yesterday, after an almost 2 month wait since contacting him. However, not only is the problem not fixed, but a new fault has been introduced, which I can duplicate at will on my Honeycomb and Jelly Bean devices. I have notified the developer once again, but I'm not holding my breath.
 
I started this topic because I myself have wasted money on many apps.

ASTRO File Manager, which was preinstalled on my first Android phone. So I bought the Pro key. Later I found many other superior file managers. The updated ASTRO has an awful UI that would not even allow me to rename its default bookmarks "Myfiles1" and "Myfiles2" to "Main Storage" and "External Storage".

Android Tuner. It makes everything too complicated. I was expecting a simple, user-friendly optimizer. However, users have to learn about various complicated system settings to properly use it. I bought it because it was on sale, and thought I could just tap on an icon or button to clean up and speed up my phone, but apparently this one needs a degree in Android to understand and use it.

Beautiful Widgets Pro. Its theme library is a godawful disorganized unusable mess. That's why it's removed from "Editor's Picks" in Google Play. HD Widgets is more organized, streamlined and usable.

ezPDF Reader Multimedia PDF. The rendering is tediously slow. I needed needed a basic and super-fast PDF reader. This one is bloated with too many annotation and multimedia features that I've never used but can't be disabled. The useless features makes it too slow for my basic reading/viewing purposes.

ROM Manager Premium. It's only useful for people who use custom ROMs. Which I don't. It was recommended to me when I started rooting my phone, but I've never gotten into custom ROMs. Oh, I despise ClockworkMod Recovery (CWM), which has to be installed to use this app. That's the main reason why I have not used it: I do not want to flash CWM onto my phone.

Smart Task Switcher. It has an unlock key. Two years ago it was fine, but the developer has not updated the app since then. Back then the app had a few glitches, which have never been fixed. Now the app has become outdated and obsolete. The developer has, however, recently updated the key, just not the outdated main app. So he wants your money but does not want to do the work to fix/update his app.

Smart Tools. Neat, but I've not found any actual use for any of the tools. It's for a one-time amusement purpose only.

Superuser Elite. Switched to SuperSU Pro. Honestly both are about on par in terms of functionality, and a user only needs one. SuperSU gets regular updates. Superuser does not. That makes SuperSU better than Superuser.

SystemPanel App / Task Manager. Seems useful... but then it's not. I have not used it after fiddling around with it a bit after paying for it. I'm still not sure what it is good for... or why I bought it. The biggest issue is.. it has to run in background to record usage history, and it used quite a bit of resources. I don't really want to waste system resources on an unnecessary background app.

Tasker. The most overrated crap... even has its own dedicated sub-forum pinned atop this forum. I bought it, excitedly coded a few different tasks, (e.g., automatically turned Wi-Fi on and 4G off at home.) The tasks either did not work correctly or not at all. So I searched around for solutions and found out Tasker has some internal logical glitches, so it could not execute some tasks correctly. What a piece of crap. It also consumed too much battery power while it's running in background. I decided to get rid of it because battery life was more important than whatever tasks it could not execute correctly.

WidgetLocker Lockscreen. It has rigid, limited customization options, (i.e., everything has to fit into a sliding bar on either side.) It also conflicted with a few other apps (like my anti-theft phone locator.) Active Lockscreen is slicker, faster, better, and free.

 
ktchong said:
I started this topic because I've wasted on so many apps.

Beautiful Widgets. Messy, disorganized user interface and library. That's why it's removed from "Editor's Picks". HD Widgets is much better.
Click to expand...

BW sucks now, I am very disappointed I bought it haha if only i could get my money back from them.
 
'Freedom from fears and phobias' - Have no idea why I bought this plus it didn't nothing for my fear of spiders lol

'Juice Defender' - I bought this when I got my first smartphone but then learned that turning off half a dozen settings I don't use works just as well

'Beautiful Widgets' - I just plain old use HD Widgets waaaaaaaaay more
 
I have mostly played free android games and haven't spend much on buying you should always first try the free version before buying the best I have spent is on "Where is my water" by Disney
 
Tasker. 1st app I ever bought. I think I used it once or twice. I don't even have it installed anymore.
 
I wont name any apps because the last time i did, a complete stranger completely attacked me verbaly lol but any premium app where the developer doesnt at least reply to support/bug report emails is bad imo :beer:


P.s, i dont understand any of the hate for Tasker. It isnt over rated lol, its a fantastic app and no offence but i think anyone who thinks it wasnt worth buying a) didnt understand what they were buying or b) is too lazy to learn to use it.
Im a category b) lol, im lazy and cba learning it but i still respect it fully :)
 
The app I regret buying most is Jeannie (like Siri). It's NOTHING like Siri. Jeannie cannot understand a dang word I say. Worst $5 I ever spent.
 
Lol dont ever buy the ChatBot app. i played around with on the chatbot web version when i was stoned/bored and it seemed cool so i bought the app and its terrible :)

EDIT i cant even find the app in PS now, has it been pulled?
 
funkylogik said:
P.s, i dont understand any of the hate for Tasker. It isnt over rated lol, its a fantastic app and no offence but i think anyone who thinks it wasnt worth buying a) didnt understand what they were buying or b) is too lazy to learn to use it.
Im a category b) lol, im lazy and cba learning it but i still respect it fully :)
Click to expand...

I don't understand it either. Considering that the developer offers a free 7 day trial, I don't know why anyone would buy it if they thought it was too complex or buggy. That said, I've been using Tasker since before it was released, so I've had 3 years to absorb its capabilities. If I were exposed to it in its current state for the first time, I'm not sure how well I would take to it.
 
My issues with Tasker are minor. It is a great very usable app and deserves a following.

- It was $6.49 to buy. Which made one of the most expensive utilities on the Play Store. Now it is $3
- It was resource hungry
- Unless I was going to dive into the deep end and use Tasker for more than seven or so tasks, there are other apps that have similar functionality for what I personally wanted - that combined cost less and use less resources.
 
Totally ^^ thats why i uninstalled it. i had no need eventualy for it to be there running other peoples simple recipes when dedicated apps started filling those niches and android got better.
It is still such a geekgasm app though and it probably introduces a lot of talented people into coding :) (like Oasis did for guitars)
 
gtbarry said:
My issues with Tasker are minor. It is a great very usable app and deserves a following.

- It was $6.49 to buy. Which made one of the most expensive utilities on the Play Store. Now it is $3
- It was resource hungry
- Unless I was going to dive into the deep end and use Tasker for more than seven or so tasks, there are other apps that have similar functionality for what I personally wanted - that combined cost less and use less resources.
Click to expand...

Understood. Quite often when I reply to a general "is there an app that does..." and say that Tasker can do it, I usually add that if the stated need is the only thing Tasker will be used for, a purpose-built app would probably be a better choice.
 
Tasker. Many profiles just don't work properly, or not at all. Wireless charging is not detected correctly, Tasker 'thinks' it's AC charging. The app factory doesn't work. And it drains my battery.
 
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