The app is a great idea, and has a really cute premise. After a few hours with it, though, I had to uninstall it. It wasn’t worth the aggravation. The problem is it isn’t sophisticated enough to differentiate between work and recreation. If I suddenly remember I need to reschedule a meeting in the calendar app, I should be able to do that without killing my tree. This might be an OS limitation, but if so they could have found some way around it, through different mechanics.There’s no way to pause cycles. If you need to have a messenger conversation about plans later that day, your tree is dying, no way around it. There might be some way using the in-game currency, but it shouldn’t need that. Why is there even a currency system for a pomodoro timer?? I get that companies like making money by selling you ephemeral nonsense, but they charge for the basic things you’d use the app for.Its messaging is also really harsh. “Go back to forest immediately!” is pushed when you change apps. While in the app, it says things like “stop looking at me!”. And yet it’s hard not to look at it, as things keep changing/moving onscreen.By killing the tree and leaving its corpse in your field, they punish you for failing. I’d rather you just lost progress and had to restart planting that tree. I wish they focused more on positive reinforcement and less on punishment.I feel like they put a lot of effort into the aesthetics, making it cute and pretty, but not enough into user research and usability. I’d give it a 1-star in terms of how well it accomplishes its goal. There are better pomodoro apps. But it is very pretty and there’s something soothing about seeing a field full of trees. It has the skeleton of a great app, but it’s not fleshed out.
Hi,Thank you for your feedback!We would keep improving Forest in the future. :) - Forest