Customer Reviews (100)

Vijayasaradhi Nithish • 2025-07-15T06:48:30.386Z

best app so far

Divyanshi Pareek • 2025-07-15T06:48:22.635Z

Helps to maintain consistency

Sagar Kamble • 2025-07-15T05:02:06.267Z

Rewarded App Slider resetting to off every now and then even if we manually turn it on. Kindly check.

Summary of Key Insights

The Forest app generally receives positive feedback for its core functionality of helping users focus and increase productivity through gamification. However, recent updates seem to have introduced significant performance issues, particularly lagging and unresponsiveness, which are heavily impacting user experience and satisfaction. There's also a recurring theme of bugs, synchronization problems, and issues with the premium features. While the concept remains popular, the app's technical performance needs immediate attention.

  • Strengths: Effective focus tool, engaging gamification, helpful for productivity.
  • Weaknesses: Lagging/slowness, bugs, synchronization issues, concerns about recent updates, ad formatting issues.
  • Overall Sentiment: Mixed. While many users appreciate the app's concept, recent performance issues have significantly lowered satisfaction.
  • Overall Rating (estimated from distribution): Approximately 3.1 stars (weighted average).
  • Score Distribution: 1-star (29%), 2-star (11%), 3-star (17%), 4-star (13%), 5-star (30%).

Data & Methodology Overview

  • Sample Size: 100 reviews
  • Time Frame: Not explicitly stated, but based on the content, most reviews appear to be recent (within the last few months).
  • Analysis Methods: Sentiment analysis (manual), keyword extraction (manual), frequency analysis of mentioned issues and features.

Key User Pain Points

  • Lagging/Slowness: The most frequently reported issue. Users complain about the app taking too long to open, plant trees, and respond to actions. This severely impacts usability and makes the app frustrating to use.
  • Bugs/Glitches: Various bugs are mentioned, including incorrect time tracking, extra trees being added, and the app crashing or freezing.
  • Synchronization Issues: Pro users report problems with account synchronization across devices, leading to data loss and frustration.
  • Offline Mode Problems: Users are experiencing issues with offline mode, including constant prompts and limitations in functionality.
  • Ad Formatting: Some users find the ad formatting intrusive and designed to trick them into clicking.
  • Network Errors: Some users report network errors even when connected to the internet.

Frequently Requested Features

  • Pause Option: Users want the ability to pause a focus session for short breaks (e.g., bathroom, refill water).
  • More Allowable Apps: Users want to be able to allow specific productive apps (e.g., WhatsApp for urgent messages, Notes app) during focus sessions.
  • More Tree Variety: Users are requesting more diverse tree options to keep the gamification engaging.
  • Offline Mode Improvements: Users need a stable and fully functional offline mode.
  • Landscape Mode for Tablets: Tablet users desire landscape mode for better usability.
  • Option to turn off all vibrations: Users want to be able to disable all vibrations from the app.

Strengths and Positive Aspects

  • Focus and Productivity: Users consistently praise the app's effectiveness in helping them stay focused and avoid distractions.
  • Gamification: The tree-growing concept is highly motivating and engaging for many users.
  • Pomodoro Technique: The integration of the Pomodoro technique is appreciated.
  • Aesthetic Design: Users find the app visually appealing and easy to use.
  • Real Tree Planting: The option to plant real trees is a positive aspect for environmentally conscious users.

Prioritized Action Recommendations

High Priority:

  • Performance Optimization: Address the lagging and slowness issues immediately. This is the most critical problem and needs to be resolved to retain users. Profile app performance, identify bottlenecks, and optimize code.
  • Bug Fixing: Prioritize fixing the reported bugs, including incorrect time tracking, extra trees, and crashes. Implement thorough testing procedures for new releases.
  • Synchronization Issues: Investigate and resolve the synchronization problems for pro users. Ensure data is reliably synchronized across devices.

Medium Priority:

  • Offline Mode Improvements: Fix the issues with offline mode to provide a seamless experience even without an internet connection.
  • Ad Formatting: Redesign ad formatting to be less intrusive and avoid misleading users.
  • Pause Option: Implement a pause feature to allow users to take short breaks without abandoning their focus session.
  • Allowable Apps Customization: Expand the allowable app list and provide more customization options for users to tailor the app to their specific needs.

Low Priority:

  • More Tree Variety: Add more diverse tree options to keep the gamification engaging.
  • Landscape Mode for Tablets: Implement landscape mode for tablet users.
  • Vibration Control: Add an option to disable all vibrations.

Opportunities for Startup Ideas

  • AI-Powered Focus Assistant: Develop an AI-powered assistant that learns user habits and provides personalized focus recommendations and strategies.
  • Integration with Other Productivity Tools: Integrate Forest with other productivity tools (e.g., task managers, calendars) to create a more comprehensive workflow.
  • Focus Communities: Create online communities where users can share their progress, challenges, and tips for staying focused.
  • Adaptive Difficulty: Implement an adaptive difficulty system that adjusts the challenge based on user performance.

Trends and Observations

  • Recent Performance Decline: A significant number of recent reviews mention a decline in performance after recent updates, indicating a potential issue with the latest releases.
  • Pro User Dissatisfaction: Many pro users are expressing disappointment with the app's performance and synchronization issues, suggesting that the premium features are not meeting their expectations.
  • Language Preferences: The presence of non-English reviews indicates a global user base, highlighting the need for localization and multilingual support.

Conclusion

The Forest app has a strong core concept and a loyal user base. However, recent performance issues and bugs are severely impacting user satisfaction. Addressing these issues should be the top priority to prevent further user churn and maintain the app's reputation. By focusing on performance optimization, bug fixing, and addressing user-requested features, the Forest app can regain its position as a leading productivity tool. I recommend prioritizing addressing performance issues and bugs, as these are causing the most significant user frustration.

Original App Link

https://play.google.com/work/apps/details?id=cc.forestapp