This app is not good. I used dojo for 10 years before our district was forced to switch to this and it’s such a sad app in comparison. Drab colors, the messages don’t fully show and parents most likely won’t click them to see the rest. Photo uploads take FOREVER and then parents can’t even open them. Photos sent from parents to teacher and vice versa through the messaging feature don’t open or show on mobile. On the desktop you can’t see them all. It will say 14+ photos and only let you click on 4 of them. To see them you have to manually download all of them (no one will be doing that!) can’t post videos on the main announcement page. As others mentioned, it’s hard to find the parents to message them because it says their first and last name but not the child’s name so you have to go figure out which guardian goes with the child you are messaging about. On dojo it would say “Sally’s parent” so you knew easily. Also, I have parents connected to me from previous years which makes it really confusing as well. I don’t like this app at all and I know the parents don’t because they barely log in and read the messages or complain about it crashing and freezing. ALSO PLEASE ADD EVENTS FEATURE! Dojo had it and it was so much easier to schedule all the days off or events so parents could see them.

Our school district requires we use this app for communicating with families. The level of “updates” it goes through only for messages to end up undeliverable, app crashes when modifying posts/adding content…also, the fact that the ENTIRE district catalog of students/staff is uploaded so finding your students without an “S” number takes forever. The depression of losing our accessibility to class dojo only to be forced to use this “Apptegy/Thrillshare/ Rooms/whatever name they give it on a given day”, will last a life time. It’s as if the creators of this app said “how can we make it HARDER for teachers and parents to connect…ah yes. THIS.” As if that wasn’t already a struggle to begin with. When I retire from this grueling profession, THIS APP will be the thing I write about in the memoir.

I was hoping the new update would fix some of the issues. One issue is when you go to crop the image for Instagram it only gives you the square option in the app. If you use the desktop version, you get the other crop options, including portrait and landscape. Additionally, the times are off when it tells you when something is scheduled and when something has posted. They must be using their time zone and not whichever one is set for the account. Again, no problem on the desktop version. Lastly, when you try to do alternative text, if you copy from something else say a list of names or detail, detailed important information included on the flyer, it will not allow you to paste in the app, but again, no problem on the desktop.

This app is a disservice to teachers. If your school or district is considering adopting Rooms as its primary form of home-school communication, DON’T.Teachers already have more than enough on their plates without being forced to rely on a communication platform that makes a basic part of our job more complicated, frustrating, and inefficient than it needs to be. A school communication app should make it easier to connect with families—not create another layer of problems teachers have to troubleshoot and manage.When districts choose a platform like this, they need to seriously consider the experience of the people who are expected to use it every single day. “It technically works” is not the same thing as being intuitive, reliable, or teacher-friendly.Home-school communication is too important to be handled by an app that creates more work instead of reducing it. There are far better options available. Teachers deserve tools that support their work, not tools they have to fight with just to communicate with families.If you are a district administrator researching communication platforms: please listen to the teachers who will actually have to use them before signing a contract.