Arc Timeline - Trips & Places 12+

Note for sour developer: your response sounds so very friendly and professional, that made me think I better not contact you at all. To stop using and uninstall, that goes without saying, don't sweat it.

My review:
I have been using Moves since 2013, and if I switch to a REAL Moves replacement, obviously I won't notice any difference in experience, other than satisfaction. Not with Arc, I keep noticing something's off with my experience.

-BE A PART OF DEVELOPMENT
This app will request money for development. Leaving bad rating in app review will trigger the developer. Commenting on some drawbacks may be considered as providing false information. If you want to use the app, I suggest to be active and involved in the development.

-THIS APP MAY NOT BE FOR YOU
I experience this myself, where after reviewing, the developer response is to ask me to uninstall and stop using. Done. Now I need to tell my friends to uninstall too. If you come here from "Moves alternative" articles, you could definitely skip this one, unless it has been revamped. Last updates I remember were like "added skiing, tram, snowboarding etc transportation options."

-NO CLOUD STORAGE
Because Arc focuses on privacy, unlike Moves, it will store movement information on your device, mine has grown up to 300MB after 4 months. So roughly 900MB per year. If you plan to use for years, spare ~3GB for 3-4 years of use. Please note 16GB iPhone users.

-BATTERY HOG
After many updates, this is still a battery hog. Moves drains battery as much as Arc does (of course.) But when not moving, Arc says it is in "sleep" mode but still drains battery like it's in "recording." I checked my battery graph, with Arc running in the background vs. with Arc closed. Arc still drains battery overnight. (Yeah something wrong with my phone, but only when using Arc. Not happening when using Moves.)
The iOS Battery monitor reports that Arc drains battery as much as 51% during the "sleep" time. Maybe it's just iOS fault, not Arc. Definitely Moves didn't do this. Maybe Arc also think this is false information.

-CAN'T RUN IN BACKGROUND
With Moves, I can even close the app and still get movement data, unlike Arc. (this part is where Arc developer thinks I'm providing false information.)
I'll be positive here instead of keep saying sour words, that iOS 12 may be preventing apps to use location even when it's closed, despite Arc is listed in app store as "may use your location even when it isn't open"

I too have no idea how to make such app so I'll just accept being told as providing false information since I'm helpless.

YES I did always close Moves from the app switcher, since knowing it apparently still record moves SOMEHOW. How am I sure I remember? My wife keeps closing Moves and that's why I keep telling her "DON'T CLOSE MOVES, you will not record movement if you do!" but when I open Moves, NO DATA GAP. Maybe I was just dreaming, right? of My wife was playing around with me; she showed me closing the app but secretly run it again to prevent data gap. (Yeah sure that was just my dream right? I have a severe memory damage.)

-NOT RELIABLE
Nothing is more frustrating than knowing that my 160km car trip to beach is recorded only the last 60km, and Arc reports NO DATA GAP. It looks like I was teleported from home to in the middle of the highway and started driving. I have checked Arc before starting driving. Arc was running and showed my position. There was no loading or anything, it's just ready. (Yeah maybe I accidentally closed Arc before leaving home and started again in the middle of the highway; or something wrong with my phone.)

-FRUSTRATING MOVEMENTS DETECTION
Frustrating data recording and elements corrections. Moves do these more accurately: It usually provided a car ride, that consists of only car ride. Definitely Moves has better algorithm in handling the inaccuracies. Inaccuracies are caused by hardware and environment. With Arc, I can see the algorithm is very basic. The "knowledge" thing seems like just to look as if it has AI or something, because I haven't seen its magic yet. I was driving in a car for 25 mins and then switched to bicycle for 2 mins and then go back to my car for 10 mins? come on. This happens 100% all the time (now 98%, sometimes Arc can be accurate.) With Moves, that ridiculous suggestions almost never happened. (Yeah I might be just forgot how was Moves doing, despite my 5-years experience.)

-SLOW, PHONE HEATED
Feels like Arc has a very complex and dirty codes that result in slow performance and heated phone. Moves was some time slow but never gets my phone so hot. (Yeah if you don't believe me you can just say there's something wrong with my phone. It does have something wrong, but only with Arc. Arc is fine, it's just my phone goes wrong when using Arc. Not Arc's fault at all.)

Surely needs BIG REVAMP to catch up with Moves. But after hearing from the development team I can see that it's impossible.

Maybe Arc is much better than Moves but it's just I am being delusional and my phone is broken. That's all only happen when using Arc though.

Final Edit: Yes, your review is full of false information. You may not believe it is false. You may be speaking in good faith. But your statements are factually incorrect. If you have contacted me directly, I would have been able to help you understand which details you are getting wrong. But you never did. I am glad that you have uninstalled the app and moved on. There is a minimum level of conduct that should be acceptable both in business and in personal life, and making false statements is not part of that minimum level of acceptable conduct. Thank you for moving on. Goodbye.

Edit: You keep editing your review, putting in more false information, and never contacting me directly for correct information, as I have repeatedly requested. I have repeatedly offered to assist you, and inform you, but you have never contacted me.

One specific note: Your points on what Moves was capable of are absolutely false and untrue. You've repeated those falsehoods, even though I have explained to you multiple times why they are not true. That is very uncool.

It's time for you to delete my app and move on. People who make stuff up, and never bother to contact me directly, are not acceptable users of my app. Please delete my app immediately, and move on to something else. This app is not for you, and I am not happy with your continued use of it in any form.

Here is my previous reply, which is no longer relevant, but kept here for the sake of other readers:

Hi!

For battery use, have you contacted me by email? Arc typically uses the same or less battery than Moves did, so if you're seeing more than that, then something is going wrong on your phone.

Please contact me directly from "Feedback & Support" inside the app. The email sent from there will contain debug information that can help to find out what's going wrong on your phone.

For swiping the app closed, you could not do that in Moves. It is completely impossible in iOS apps. Once an app is swiped closed, it is removed from memory completely. What Moves was doing was *pretending* to have done something after it was killed. But it absolutely could not record data until it was restarted again.

Moves was also not more accurate than Arc. I've spent the past three years doing daily testing to ensure that I can say that as a confident truth. Your memory is failing you there 😉

As to catching up to Moves, Arc surpassed Moves in accuracy, detail, and functionality over a year ago, perhaps two. It's not always a good idea to trust your memories - they are not always accurate 😉

Anywa, if you would like help with the battery life consumption, definitely send me an email from "Feedback & Support"!

Thanks 😄

There are still much better app out there like gyroscope

Hi!

I also use Gyroscope, and like it very much! The Gyroscope guys are nice guys, and we chat often. We have similar goals with our apps, but also some very different goals.

But I assure you that Arc is just as reliable as Gyroscope. If reliability is your problem, then I ask that you contact me directly from the "Feedback & Support" button inside of Arc, so that we can look at the debug information to find out what is going wrong on your phone. Arc should always be just as reliable as Gyroscope, and usually also more reliable than Gyroscope.

But yes, feel free to use whichever app you prefer. (I use both!). But if reliability is your problem, then something is going wrong on your phone, and I can help. you with that.

Thanks,
Matt