Hi there, I really really appreciate you guys creating an app like this where you can study the Word, connect with friends, and grow a little pet on the side in the process lol. The idea is fun and really cool. However, I wish there was an option to interact on the app partially for free for those of us who financially cannot afford to pay into the full package/a really cool app such as this one. I feel terrible because I truly would sow into this yearly even especially if I could, because I think it’s absolutely worth sowing into more so than most of these other learning apps on here. I’ll still give it five stars because of the time and effort you guys have put into creating an app like this. But if I can’t afford a cup of coffee on a regular basis like I used to, barely able to afford eggs these days then I certainly won’t be able to subscribe to an app like this unfortunately.

I was looking for an app that would help me learn the Bible. I downloaded Ascend- Bible Lessons for a trial. To do things quickly, I used my Apple account to log in to the app and started my trial. I kept having the same lesson over and over again, and the games were full of errors. I quickly realized it wasn’t the app for me; but I did not realize I would have to CANCEL a subscription I neverSubscribed to - I was NEVER shown any price, and I was waiting to be offered different subscriptions - NEVER happened. I checked my credit card statement and saw a $50 charge for Ascend and I immediately cancelled any subscription. I waited a few days to see if the charge cleared, because $50 for ANY app is beyond my budget. After a few days, I decided to email customer support and ask for a refund. The respond I received from Gideon: “you’re supposed to cancel the subscription if you don’t want to pay.” I decided to write a review, and upon reading all the positive reviews and seeing the update I decided to give it another chance. I tried the app and the first lesson I tried to do became stuck on question four, and I had to force quit the app. It’s frustrating that I was told that I’m responsible for the outrageous cost of the app, and then not even have a functional app at all!

Overall I really like the app. I like the encouragement to read and pray. I also really enjoy the Bible trivia. I never even knew an app like this existed. However when it comes to the Bible lessons I wish it had a little more actual Bible reading because it can be hard to get the full context of the lesson from just one verse. As it is the lesson does a very brief summary with one verse and I’d just like a little bit more of the actual Bible to be apart of the lessons. It would help contextually and to get a feel for where things actually are in the Bible too. It is the inspired word of God after all.Also, it’s a minor thing, but I wish that it wouldn’t show the streak screen after every lesson completed and Bible trivia battle. It would be nice if it only showed up either when you first open the app or first complete something. It also would be neat if they involved memorizing the Bible a little bit too somehow where you could get extra gems or something maybe for memorizing a verse or for reviewing an already memorized verse. Just an idea!

Update: they responded quickly to my concerns with billing. And quickly resolved the error. I’m very impressed with the customer support experience now, and will update the review in the next few days. There’s a fair chance I’ll try the subscription for a month, to see if perhaps it’s more of a “me” thing than an app thing. And I’ll update. Now I’m less “stay away” and more “go ahead and give it a try, it might be the style that you like.”I really wanted to like this app. It sounded good in the description. So I downloaded it and signed up for their free trial. That was very easy to do. Problem is, the app feels like it’s missing something; you get a “reading” (a very short quote) and then go on to the next steps, which seem to reference a longer reading that I can’t find anywhere. In frustration I tried to cancel the trial.If you go to cancel, dig around in the app, the cancel is there, but not on the game Home Screen. Click on the far right icon on the bottom and you’ll find the menu at the top. Scroll down to subscription to manage it. Sounds very simple writing it, so maybe it was a me problem. LOL.