Review Insights · App Store
Howbout: shared calendar
Howbout Ltd. · 46,670 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
46,670 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 38 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
"invite"
17 negative reviews mention this · 45% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No deal. Can’t join app unless you invite people." - DM87367
2
"friend"
12 negative reviews mention this · 32% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Horrible app, confusing, hard to use. I downloaded this app to share with my friend and it's so confusing to work. It makes no sense and we ended up uninstalling to look for another after 10 minutes. Would NOT recommend." - hgrshnkj
3
"people"
8 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No deal. Can’t join app unless you invite people." - DM87367
4
"friends"
8 negative reviews mention this · 21% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DONT DOWNLOAD. Downloaded the app to keep track of my work schedule and appts only to have to invite three friends and not only that I can’t unlock the app until one friend joins. Not good immediately deleting." - volley05mfvc
5
"calendar"
7 negative reviews mention this · 18% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Just why. What is the point of having the option to say you are using the app as a self calendar just to STILL make me send it to someone in order to unlock the app" - Lil_meow04
6
"work"
6 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Horrible app, confusing, hard to use. I downloaded this app to share with my friend and it's so confusing to work. It makes no sense and we ended up uninstalling to look for another after 10 minutes. Would NOT recommend." - hgrshnkj
7
"download"
6 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Horrible app, confusing, hard to use. I downloaded this app to share with my friend and it's so confusing to work. It makes no sense and we ended up uninstalling to look for another after 10 minutes. Would NOT recommend." - hgrshnkj
8
"unlock"
6 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "DONT DOWNLOAD. Downloaded the app to keep track of my work schedule and appts only to have to invite three friends and not only that I can’t unlock the app until one friend joins. Not good immediately deleting." - volley05mfvc
9
"invite people"
5 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No deal. Can’t join app unless you invite people." - DM87367
10
"someone"
5 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Just why. What is the point of having the option to say you are using the app as a self calendar just to STILL make me send it to someone in order to unlock the app" - Lil_meow04
11
"without"
5 negative reviews mention this · 13% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Terrible. Everything locked behind a paywall. Can’t even use the app without inviting a friend. Really annoying." - S_200869420
12
"literally"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "sucks. you literally cant do ANYTHING if you dont have premium and i am not paying 40$ MONTHLY for a app for teenagers?" - Jjugdnejgg
📋 All 38 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").
sucks
you literally cant do ANYTHING if you dont have premium and i am not paying 40$ MONTHLY for a app for teenagers?
Honest review
They have everything locked, if you don’t pay for it you don’t get many things.
Horrible app, confusing, hard to use
I downloaded this app to share with my friend and it's so confusing to work. It makes no sense and we ended up uninstalling to look for another after 10 minutes. Would NOT recommend.
No deal
Can’t join app unless you invite people.
DONT DOWNLOAD
Downloaded the app to keep track of my work schedule and appts only to have to invite three friends and not only that I can’t unlock the app until one friend joins. Not good immediately deleting.
Mandatory invite friends
WHY is it mandatory to invite at least 1 person onto the app to UNLOCK THE APP?? This is genuinely ridiculous I’m uninstalling
Literally have no friends to invite so i can’t use the app
kinda mean
i can't put in my number???
it literally doesn't let me put in my number to sign it. it just won't load and i've been waiting for it for an hour now.
Terrible
Everything locked behind a paywall. Can’t even use the app without inviting a friend. Really annoying.
AHHHHH
I was trying to send this to my bestie and it wasn’t showing as a contact but I know she is I thought maybe it’s because I’m using her email so I tried her phone number but still nothing now I can’t continue
One star
One star because when you select for your personal use it forces you to select 3 friends and it for my personal use i dont need my friends to know that and it was a mess most of the things you have to pay and overall it was not good at all
I can’t even open the app
Why must I friend someone to even unlock the app? I just want to use the app without having to share with anyone
Pyramid scheme
You can’t download this app unless you share it and three people download it. I’m 100% sure these reviews are all fake. This app has to be some crazy Chinese made thing that’s trying to get peoples information. I would avoid at all costs
Not liking it
I cant believe i need to get a friend to unlock the app. I just need a calendar for myself.
Charged me when I canceled
They charged me 40$ after I cancelled the trial in time.
Terrible
Ur not allowed to use the app until you have a friend on it
Doesn’t Work
Can’t even get past the invite page for some reason. Doo Doo app
Don’t get it
This stupid it will not let you in unless you invite a friend and THEY THEMSELVES have to join it in order for YOU to use it it’s dumb cause then THEY have to invite someone IN ORDER TO GET IN. I say skip out on it.
Terrible
Have to invite 3 people before you can use. Not for personal use
Horrible
Everytime i add an event, it puts it on the wrong day. for example, i put my birthday on the 30th and it added to the calendar as the 29th and wouldn’t let me change it. whats the point of a calendar if all the dates are incorrect?!
1 star
I loved the app till the new update please fix it
Locked after creating account
Having to invite 3 people after I already created my account 🥲 why not make that clear from the beginning before taking my info 😅 many people would not sign up or download the app if they knew from the beginning
Can’t friend people
I thought this app was perfect, but I wasn’t able to find anyone in the links weren’t working so I had to un download it
Review
So I went to actually make an account and in able to get in you have to get another person to install it which is stupid. And I couldn’t even get in. I’d give 0 stars because you can’t even get into the app.
Invitation cripples the demand
The fact you can't use the app without other people joining is really dumb and forced me to use a different app because of inconvenience, it is hard to use and it is almost pointless, I hate the app already and I hadn't even used the services yet because of the requirements.
Invite to Use
I could be using and discovering the app right now but, since I’m blocked until I can invite a friend, I’m here writing a review. This is a horrible account creation process. It’s like an invite pyramid scheme…in the meantime, I found a better app called Timetree
set up
i think having to invite a friend to even start using this app is kinda bs
needy asf
why let me choose that i’m doing this for myself and then force me to invite a friend?? I used to have an account but wanted to start over cuz I didn’t remember how I had anything organized years ago and just want to easily see my work schedule :/ pmo sooo bad. should at least allow you to go forward after sending the link
Annoying
This Appa requires you to add another person and make them sign into the app JST SO U CAN U THE APP. It is rlly frustrating
hard to invite friends
the link you use to invite friends doesn’t work. so you’re quite literally stuck at the “invite 3 friends to use the app” page. me and my friend have sent multiple invites to each other and it won’t let us accept each others.
DELETED MY ENTIRE PHONE CALENDAR
I got this to do a shared calendar with my friends and when it didn’t work for me I deleted it. When I deleted it it deleted every. Single. Thing. In my iPhone calendar. Birthdays, national holidays, doctors appointments, special events, everything. If you rely on your apple calendar for everything and decide this calendar no longer works for you make sure you have everything saved. Apple support could not figure out what happened either. Do not download this app unless you are absolutely sure it is going to work for you because when you delete it everything will be gone.
Data warning
You have give your birthday, email, phone number, and invite someone to do the same before using the app. It’s a calendar, they don’t need that info.
Couldn’t use app
I logged into the app and couldn’t even get passes the first part because you need to invite friends. Terrible app don’t recommend
I have to invite people to use the app???
That is so Uncessary what if I don't want to invite anyone idc if the whole point is a shared calendar I should be able to use the app without doing that bro
Just why
What is the point of having the option to say you are using the app as a self calendar just to STILL make me send it to someone in order to unlock the app
WEIRD.
I think it is absolutely INSANE that you can’t even access the app until you invite someone and they accept & download. This app isn’t about helping organize your life, or boost productivity- it’s about getting downloads. I’ve never seen an app modeled this way. Very sad because I was looking forward to using it.
Forced Invites
I downloaded this app expecting a simple, useful calendar tool, but instead I was immediately hit with a frustrating requirement to invite friends just to unlock basic features. I also don’t have a big contact list to begin with, so being forced to invite people just to access the app makes it even more inconvenient and exclusionary. That’s not a feature-it’s a barrier. I shouldn’t have to recruit other people just to use an app I already installed for personal organization. That said, the concept behind the app seems genuinely useful, which makes this restriction even more disappointing.
Would be real cool if I could get it set up without spamming all my contacts
Can’t really use it
Sentiment summary
97%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
1%
Negative (1-2★)