Review Insights · Google Play
SchoolMessenger
PowerSchool Group LLC · 4,465 ratings · ★ 4.3
4.3
★★★★★
4,465 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 28 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"school"
13 negative reviews mention this · 46% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Absolutely nobody should be forced to use this garbage. You can't even get an email from the school without a useless middleman." - Norm
2
"email"
6 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Absolutely nobody should be forced to use this garbage. You can't even get an email from the school without a useless middleman." - Norm
3
"attendance"
5 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Appreciate this app, when it works. Since the last update I haven't been able to switch from the home screen or input attendance without the app crashing and closing." - K W
4
"child"
5 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "I have two kids with different fathers and we live in different cities. for some reason the app has linked his name with my email which is comprised of my first initial of my last name. so I don't know how that happened and not only that bu…" - Elizabeth
5
"reporting"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This platform is useless for reporting absences because I uploaded the document and reported the absence I still got penalized and pre courted because they apparently don't pay attention to it this is the worst." - Jimmi Jones
6
"absence"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This platform is useless for reporting absences because I uploaded the document and reported the absence I still got penalized and pre courted because they apparently don't pay attention to it this is the worst." - Jimmi Jones
7
"doesn"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this application doesn't work in Canada they need location USA where my life's studying in Canada not USA" - Kamal Kamal
8
"does"
4 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this application doesn't work in Canada they need location USA where my life's studying in Canada not USA" - Kamal Kamal
9
"been"
3 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Appreciate this app, when it works. Since the last update I haven't been able to switch from the home screen or input attendance without the app crashing and closing." - K W
10
"know"
3 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app is annoying, because they don't know how to put a persistent cookie on the login. Why do I have to log into the app every week or so? It's not like this is really privileged information, that the school just emails to me anyway." - Greg S
11
"every"
3 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "This app is annoying, because they don't know how to put a persistent cookie on the login. Why do I have to log into the app every week or so? It's not like this is really privileged information, that the school just emails to me anyway." - Greg S
12
"work"
3 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Appreciate this app, when it works. Since the last update I haven't been able to switch from the home screen or input attendance without the app crashing and closing." - K W
📋 All 28 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Absolutely nobody should be forced to use this garbage. You can't even get an email from the school without a useless middleman.
This platform is useless for reporting absences because I uploaded the document and reported the absence I still got penalized and pre courted because they apparently don't pay attention to it this is the worst.
I wouldn't use it if I didn't have to.
Can't change type of absence after sent.
It app is hot garbage. Every time I try to use it I have to sign back in. If not for getting an email I would receive no communication from school. I absolutely hate that I need this to control attendance.
this application doesn't work in Canada they need location USA where my life's studying in Canada not USA
Does NOT actually function as a school messenger because only about 50% of the time does it forward the messages and for the past 4 days it doesn't even have the absence reporting button.
terrible. I have been trying to log in 2 weeks ago and it's not opening. even trying to renew the password but nothing working and i can't get any update for my son's school.
I am having issues reporting attendance for 2 different school boards. There’s only an option to report attendance for one school board. I deleted and reinstalled the app. Both school boards are listed but attendance reporting is only showing for one.
keeps saying my email address does not match with the school, but my email address has not changed.
This app is cloned. Please remove all devices from this app.
I have two kids with different fathers and we live in different cities. for some reason the app has linked his name with my email which is comprised of my first initial of my last name. so I don't know how that happened and not only that but gave the child that is not related to him to him and his app and the child that does not live with me in my app and there's no way to change it. I can't do anything for my child that lives with me permanently in the school division and nor can he .
because you can't edit the mistakes the school makes on your contact information
I suspect most of the issues are likely with the school board.
terrible app. It doesn't work.
why can I not install this app on my phone? very important that it be available for all parents
I find this app annoying. It constantly signs you out. I have to reset my password all the time because remembering it is not a priority. Is a biometric option really that difficult to add? Today I didn't even bother trying to put in my child would be late. It was too time consuming and annoying to reset my password. Parents should have the option to delete messages. There are messages from seven years ago still on here. It clutters the app. I don't even look at it anymore.
The verification email isn't coming. Checked all folders including spam. 🙄
does not work.
It's really silly. I said my child's going to be away in vacation for a week and they still bug me everyday. I don't understand why they can't get the message?
I cannot get the app to send me or my wife emails to verify our account. Puts us in a jam considering both boys schools use this app, and we are being left behind in school because of this app.
I don't even have attendance button to report my son absent. kind of defeats the purpose.
Appreciate this app, when it works. Since the last update I haven't been able to switch from the home screen or input attendance without the app crashing and closing.
This app is annoying, because they don't know how to put a persistent cookie on the login. Why do I have to log into the app every week or so? It's not like this is really privileged information, that the school just emails to me anyway.
not able to add a preference for contact. unable to delete older read messages. no faq available in the app
This app badly needs a "Late Arrival" option for attendance reporting. Right now it offers only "Leave&Return", which forces you to enter a meaningless leaving time. If your child will arrive late because of a morning appt., you have to put the start of the school day as leaving time. But the app has the wrong start time for my child's school 8:50 instead of 8:20. So I put 8:50 in and every time I still get the school notification about absence. Waste of time. Just call the school instead.
this app forces you to choose 1 of 4 reason why child will be absent. kinda stupid none of the reasons my kid will be absent are listed so you get to lie.
Any message I get just comes with a blank broken image, I have to go to my email to actually read what the school is sending as the app doesn't display properly. Been like this for a while don't know if they know about it or trying to repair it, as I see others with the same issue being reported in the reviews.
Sentiment summary
78%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
18%
Negative (1-2★)