Review Insights · App Store
AppClose
AppClose, Inc · 38,281 ratings · ★ 4.7
4.7
★★★★★
38,281 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 89 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
"messages"
26 negative reviews mention this · 29% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worse Than Free Alternatives. This app is absolutely terrible. The video chat feature is painfully slow and unreliable. Every time I try to start a video call, I end up waiting 10-15 seconds before the video even begins to work-if it works at all. It’s unbelievable that…" - mr yes212
2
"court"
25 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Hard pass. Only after you sign up and provide your personal information do they tell you that you’ve just started a 60-day free trial. The marketing creates the impression that the service is free, but it isn’t. At least some competitors are more tra…" - Haxors
3
"free"
23 negative reviews mention this · 26% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Not worth the trouble even when it’s free. Difficult to use, when you try to add an agreed parenting schedule the calendar does not reflect the addition correctly. Tried this app to see my schedule months ahead since it was free but now they want to you to pay for it. Deleted this a…" - d130@671
4
"support"
22 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "App is freezing. App is no freezing and support ignores my emails." - RocB13
5
"subscription"
21 negative reviews mention this · 24% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Hard pass. Only after you sign up and provide your personal information do they tell you that you’ve just started a 60-day free trial. The marketing creates the impression that the service is free, but it isn’t. At least some competitors are more tra…" - Haxors
6
"been"
20 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Sucks. This is the worst app ever! I have never been able to use it even though it’s court ordered. It freezes and customer support is horrible. There is no phone number, you have to email and you get one response per day saying they will work on …" - Lisaneg89
7
"customer"
19 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Sucks. This is the worst app ever! I have never been able to use it even though it’s court ordered. It freezes and customer support is horrible. There is no phone number, you have to email and you get one response per day saying they will work on …" - Lisaneg89
8
"work"
17 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worse Than Free Alternatives. This app is absolutely terrible. The video chat feature is painfully slow and unreliable. Every time I try to start a video call, I end up waiting 10-15 seconds before the video even begins to work-if it works at all. It’s unbelievable that…" - mr yes212
9
"money"
17 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worse Than Free Alternatives. This app is absolutely terrible. The video chat feature is painfully slow and unreliable. Every time I try to start a video call, I end up waiting 10-15 seconds before the video even begins to work-if it works at all. It’s unbelievable that…" - mr yes212
10
"service"
17 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Hard pass. Only after you sign up and provide your personal information do they tell you that you’ve just started a 60-day free trial. The marketing creates the impression that the service is free, but it isn’t. At least some competitors are more tra…" - Haxors
11
"doesn"
16 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Way too complex and hard to navigate. There’s a bunch of features here, and I’m sure they’re all very valuable, but there is absolutely no way to Taylor the experience to anyone’s individual situations. They also bury things you use a lot deep down scrolling lists, and there i…" - RikiTikiTavi13
12
"other"
16 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Hard pass. Only after you sign up and provide your personal information do they tell you that you’ve just started a 60-day free trial. The marketing creates the impression that the service is free, but it isn’t. At least some competitors are more tra…" - Haxors
📋 All 89 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").
Not worth the trouble even when it’s free
Difficult to use, when you try to add an agreed parenting schedule the calendar does not reflect the addition correctly. Tried this app to see my schedule months ahead since it was free but now they want to you to pay for it. Deleted this app and am using the native iOS calendar with no errors and is so much easier to use.
Worse Than Free Alternatives
This app is absolutely terrible. The video chat feature is painfully slow and unreliable. Every time I try to start a video call, I end up waiting 10-15 seconds before the video even begins to work-if it works at all. It’s unbelievable that anyone would expect people to pay for this when free apps like FaceTime and WhatsApp perform dramatically better.
The app feels buggy, outdated, and frustrating to use. One of the most annoying issues is the notification system. No matter what I do, message notifications refuse to clear, even after I’ve read every message. The badges just sit there permanently, constantly grabbing my attention and making it look like I have unread messages when I don’t.
Paying for an app that performs worse than free alternatives is ridiculous. This app is a complete waste of money and one of the most frustrating apps I’ve ever used. If I could delete it from existence and never deal with it again, I would.
The app feels buggy, outdated, and frustrating to use. One of the most annoying issues is the notification system. No matter what I do, message notifications refuse to clear, even after I’ve read every message. The badges just sit there permanently, constantly grabbing my attention and making it look like I have unread messages when I don’t.
Paying for an app that performs worse than free alternatives is ridiculous. This app is a complete waste of money and one of the most frustrating apps I’ve ever used. If I could delete it from existence and never deal with it again, I would.
App freezes
You take my money but I’m not able to use the app it’s completely useless
App is freezing
App is no freezing and support ignores my emails.
Hard pass
Only after you sign up and provide your personal information do they tell you that you’ve just started a 60-day free trial.
The marketing creates the impression that the service is free, but it isn’t. At least some competitors are more transparent about their pricing and trial structure upfront.
The onboarding process also raised concerns. The app repeatedly informed me that it had generated an invitation for my co-parent and asked whether I wanted to send it, despite the fact that I had never provided that person’s email address.
What bothers me most is the business model. Family courts increasingly encourage or recommend these apps, creating a captive audience of parents who often have little choice but to use them. Yet many of these services put basic functionality behind subscriptions and recurring fees.
The company states that fee waivers may be available for qualifying users, but it is unclear how those programs operate or who ultimately bears the cost. Greater transparency would be welcome.
To me, this is a perfect example of capitalism at its worst: taking a difficult family situation, inserting a middleman, collecting personal information, and then charging people for services they may feel pressured to use. When an industry profits from conflict rather than solving it, consumers should be skeptical.
Hard pass.
The marketing creates the impression that the service is free, but it isn’t. At least some competitors are more transparent about their pricing and trial structure upfront.
The onboarding process also raised concerns. The app repeatedly informed me that it had generated an invitation for my co-parent and asked whether I wanted to send it, despite the fact that I had never provided that person’s email address.
What bothers me most is the business model. Family courts increasingly encourage or recommend these apps, creating a captive audience of parents who often have little choice but to use them. Yet many of these services put basic functionality behind subscriptions and recurring fees.
The company states that fee waivers may be available for qualifying users, but it is unclear how those programs operate or who ultimately bears the cost. Greater transparency would be welcome.
To me, this is a perfect example of capitalism at its worst: taking a difficult family situation, inserting a middleman, collecting personal information, and then charging people for services they may feel pressured to use. When an industry profits from conflict rather than solving it, consumers should be skeptical.
Hard pass.
Not human
This app is ran by AI and doesn’t go through waiver application for domestic violence.
Sucks
This app never sends messages and you have to pay for it! Has to update all the time. Super slow
Freezes
The app recently released an update that locks you out of messages. Technical support cannot figure out the problem, and response times are significantly longer. Explore other options.
Greed is ugly
This app has aided my ex in keeping my son isolated from me. Then after two years it starts charging the poor parents who are court mandated to use this app. Rug pull type of nonsense. User help is almost nonexistent.
Freezing
Downloaded last update and now it freezes and I can’t read messages. Support only works through emails and it’s stupid and slow. Go with OFW.
They won’t stop billing my credit card
I canceled over 2 months ago and they keep billing me. Placed into dispute with Apple and have had to report my card lost due to fraud. Why do we tolerate this business model?
Sucks
This is the worst app ever! I have never been able to use it even though it’s court ordered. It freezes and customer support is horrible. There is no phone number, you have to email and you get one response per day saying they will work on the issue with no help. I hate this app!!!
A nightmare for court records
I have been a customer since December 2020 I’m getting ready to go to court and everything from December 2020 through June 2024 im unable to export it! I can see it on the app but when I go to export it to email to my lawyer it says no messages found I’ve been emailing app close for over a week and those knuckleheads can’t fix it. But they don’t have a problem auto drafting on the 7th of every month.
ALWAYS FROZEN!!!
I got the app because it was free then it made us purchase a subscription. Now im paying for an app that freezes every time i go to use it!!!! Ive been trying to read the dang messages that got sent over an hour ago and its frozen on the messages page. All my other apps work. I deleted and reinstalled and its still not working. Im so over this.
No customer service
I have been paying for an app I can’t use. It’s completely frozen. I have been trying to update my primary email but I can’t. I have reached out for help but I am getting nowhere through email. I have asked for a phone call but they won’t call.
Please fix duplicates sending problem since starting Autocheck
Within last 24 hrs since using the new option of auto check (which as far as I can tell has not worked) , the messages I send and recieved have duplicates sent at same time in same conversation making things very, very hard to interpret. It looks like there is no way to remove auto check? Please fix
Edit: now it’s sending triples of the same message when I send something only once… incredibly frustrating 😖
Edit: now it’s sending triples of the same message when I send something only once… incredibly frustrating 😖
Unable to use messenger
Just updated to the latest version and the app freezes and crashes when I try to open messages. I have unread messages that need to be resolved and support is non-existent. No phone number due to some BS record keeping. FYI calls can and are recorded by literally every company.
Horrible
I have constant problems with this app. I applied for and was approved for a fee waiver which never applied. They just kept charging me. The customer service is awful. They never respond or resolve anything. Horrible app!!!
Notifications don't work
The notifications don't work and I'm constantly missing calls from my kids. Junk software.
Not free
Online it told me that it was a completely free coparenting app that was court approved and upon creating my account it told me my 60 day free trial started and after that I would have to pay. No thank you
Discriminates against primary parent
This app discriminate against the primary parent when dividing expenses.
The person who enters the expense gets to pay the extra penny on every expense thus, the primary parent typically, the female parent ends up paying more for everything.
Yes, it’s one Penny at a time but over the course of 18 years it adds up.
The person who enters the expense gets to pay the extra penny on every expense thus, the primary parent typically, the female parent ends up paying more for everything.
Yes, it’s one Penny at a time but over the course of 18 years it adds up.
An app that cost money on top of my child support and doesn’t even work
Not user friendly at all. I’ve been on this app for more than an hour trying to add my time only to not see it in the calendar. Things were easier when my ex and I just texted one another pick-up/drop-off times. And I wasn’t paying nearly $10 a month for the privilege. This app is a scam forced on families by judges who don’t care about kids.
Abysmal support
The app went to a subscription model which would be okay if they gave a value for the subscription. I’m guessing they are counting on the fact that people like me that are forced to use the app per divorce agreement/court order have no choice but to deal with their garbage support models.
Junk
So far this app is about useless wants u to pay to talk to your kids calls don’t work period messages don’t go through and now says my subscription has expired but I paid in full now day 3 of not being able to talk to my kids
Laggy
I am ordered to use this app. My child had an allergy attack and since we are ordered to use this app the other parent was messaging me and I had NO IDEA because I didn’t get the messages or alerts until 24 hours later. I checked the app throughout the day when my child is over there and it showed nothing. Now I have to pay monthly for this app that doesn’t even work. I want to be reimbursed for the last few months until this app is fixed properly!
Won’t verify my account no one is helping
I have been trying to get my account verified in order to use the “ipayou” feature, but it keeps saying my DOB on my ID does not match my account. I even tried deleting the original account and starting over, but it brought me right back to the same place. I have tried reaching out several times, but no one is helping me to resolve this issue. This is the worst customer support I’ve ever experienced. If you have other options out there, DO NOT USE THIS APP. Unfortunately I do not.
Notifications don’t work
The lock screen and Notification Center banners only show a generic message received notification. There is no way to read messages through the notification, like you would a normal text. You can only read them by opening the app.
Bait and switch
They wait until they get courts to mandate it for thousands of users because it’s free and then they charge money.
It’s not even a good app and paying a subscription doesn’t get you any additional features. No AI to help send messages. Calendars are confusing and hard to use. The whole thing is just a really really bad user experience.
It’s not even a good app and paying a subscription doesn’t get you any additional features. No AI to help send messages. Calendars are confusing and hard to use. The whole thing is just a really really bad user experience.
Their customer service is 🗑️
Find a better communication app, when something goes wrong they leave you in the dark and offer very little assistance.
Hopeless customer service, constant glitches
I have never been so infuriated by a service/product’s flaws and by the company’s failure to address any of my problems clearly and swiftly. They offer only email support, and those in that role struggle both to parse YOUR written communications and certainly to respond clearly in writing themselves. You’d think that because the app is so hopelessly buggy and because support is so limited, they’d surely offer a library of screen recorded video tutorials, but they do not. I dropped a bunch of money I don’t have for a worse than average texting mechanism and…nope…that’s it. Nothing else worked properly, and no one helped me resolve any of issues. Number one parenting app? Lol. Don’t bother, anyone considering it. It’s a scam.
Non operable
This app makes hard work out of what it’s supposed to do, sometimes picture is blurry or you can’t hear anything, I have submitted my details for payment numerous times and they still can’t seem to receive it, they also don’t answer emails when you inquire about the subscription problems.
Don’t use! Use other options
Horrible! No customer service. Multiple charges stay away use Family Wizard
Same(…,.,,) thing
Doesnt work . The one star is for the review.
Garbage now
This app was court ordered/recommended and when we started it was great! Now they completely redid it and charge a fortune to use it! I speak to my ex 2 maybe 3 times a month and I refuse to pay 10 bucks a month for that. Total waste of money now and ex agreed. DONT NOT BUY THIS OR DOWNLAOD IT.
Money grab
Forced by court to download this app for co parenting. Now 3 years later I have to pay for it… sad that this went from helping parents to stealing from them when they are already struggling.
Needs fix!!!
The app constantly shows 1 notification and the message never changes to read even after I open and respond. It also doesn’t notify me of calls or messages.
Notification that will not go away
I've been using this app for almost 2 years now, and all of a sudden, within the last couple weeks, I have a notification on my AppClose icon that will not go away, no matter what I do, it’s driving me nuts! I've contacted customer service and they haven’t done anything.
I’m running iOS 26.3.1
Anyone else having this problem? It keeps showing I have an unread notification, however, I’ve read all the messages, but it still shows a notification icon.
I’m running iOS 26.3.1
Anyone else having this problem? It keeps showing I have an unread notification, however, I’ve read all the messages, but it still shows a notification icon.
Paying for this?
AppClose began charging me to use this app on Jan 1 2026. I have no idea what I’m paying for. It’s extremely clunky, paying each other is a pain, and it doesn’t connect to Siri. Total rip off and it’s one of the only court approved messenger apps available. Basically they have us hostage.
Disgusting
Making the app a pay by month service after making so many families dependent on it is sick.
The worst app
I’ve never seen a less intuitive and more difficult app.
Payment Doesn’t Work; Calendar Doesn’t Work; Not Worth It
This was fine when it was free… sort of. The calendar has never worked well with schedules that don’t fit the developer’s little boxes. Now the payment doesn’t work because they say my DOB on their app and my DOB on my license don’t match (even though they do). Then they started charging, further decreasing the value of the application. There are free ways to do the same thing built into your iPhone. This isn’t worth it.
Hello? Hello? Is anyone there???
There is absolutely no customer support at all. I’ve been sending emails since December and I’ve got no response. They forced you to pay a subscription but you can’t talk to a person when a question or concern arrives? And this is the number 1 app??? Shane Shane Shane. I will not recommend this app
Scam…..
A completely waste of money and time at first, the app was free for thousands and thousands of parents and I agreed to using it because that’s what the other parent wanted and the judge said yeah that’s fine to use it so now I have it in my parenting plan to use this app and half of the time it doesn’t work but all the parents that we’re on here that now have this app in a court order pay for it where it was free and this app is completely unnecessary. You could get all documents tax through your cellular data plan or provider and if the other parent it
becomes hostile. What’s this app gonna do absolutely nothing you can block people on your phone with or without this app if it becomes hostile it really doesn’t make any sense to have this app when you can have all the proof at your fingertips anytime you want through your cellular plan it’s easy to export data. This app is just more of a violation of privacy than anything and half of the time it doesn’t work right I have to restart the app to send messages so many times because it says it failed delivery.
becomes hostile. What’s this app gonna do absolutely nothing you can block people on your phone with or without this app if it becomes hostile it really doesn’t make any sense to have this app when you can have all the proof at your fingertips anytime you want through your cellular plan it’s easy to export data. This app is just more of a violation of privacy than anything and half of the time it doesn’t work right I have to restart the app to send messages so many times because it says it failed delivery.
Service Failure - Court-Ordered Communication App
This app is currently preventing court-ordered communication between my child and his father. I am a paid subscriber, yet for over two weeks the app has not functioned properly, and support responses have been slow and ineffective.
Because this platform is court-ordered, technical failures create serious legal consequences. When an app is used for mandated communication, reliability and timely support are critical. Unfortunately, that has not been my experience.
I have submitted support requests and emphasized the urgency, but the issue remains unresolved. At this point, I am paying for a service that is not being provided and am left documenting outages to protect myself legally.
I hope the company improves both its technical stability and its customer support response times, especially for users relying on this app for court compliance.
Because this platform is court-ordered, technical failures create serious legal consequences. When an app is used for mandated communication, reliability and timely support are critical. Unfortunately, that has not been my experience.
I have submitted support requests and emphasized the urgency, but the issue remains unresolved. At this point, I am paying for a service that is not being provided and am left documenting outages to protect myself legally.
I hope the company improves both its technical stability and its customer support response times, especially for users relying on this app for court compliance.
Messages
I really dislike that you can’t search messages by keywords like you can in standard text messaging. Without this feature. It’s nearly impossible to find messages from weeks ago, which makes the app pretty much useless for keeping track of past conversations.
App installed to snoop
This app was installed on phone and watch fraudulently without my knowledge by an unknown source. Company was useless in getting my personal data recovered and holding the responsible legally accountable for spying
Fraud
Forced into a subscription through the court, originally it was free, but now I’m forced to pay for the subscription. Evil and disgusting world.
Customer service
Absolutely no customer service! Will not respond to emails or requests
Worst app ever
My ex sent me a link for this app with instructions and a code on how to sign in. The instructions state to open the app and click the circle tap then input the code. There is no circle tab and there is no auction to contact anyone in Support that I was able to find. My ex went ahead and blocked all other forms of communication so now my only recourse. Is to contact my lawyer to contact her lawyer to request we work together to find another option as a IT professional of 10 years for a company to operate with no support options that is supposed to maintain communication between parents and children is the most you’re responsible management I have ever seen I would look into any other coparent options available if I were you
Was better
I have contacted support last year. I haven’t heard back yet. The conversations in the app are being cut off when you enter them. Is there a new limit as to the number of characters you can use? This is a new thing since December. Yes, the app and my phone’s operating system is up to date. The phone has been restarted. AppClose became a subscription app since January which is ok because it a court ordered thing mainly because my coparent is my coparent. Sharing medical information between coparents is difficult when the information is not being conveyed because the app cuts off the message!
Update: I was contacted by the developer. The problem has not been solved.
Update: I was contacted by the developer. The problem has not been solved.
+ 39 more in the clipboard copy
Sentiment summary
93%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
3%
Negative (1-2★)