Review Insights · App Store
SmartGo One
Smart Go, Inc. · 1,762 ratings · ★ 4.8
4.8
★★★★★
1,762 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 10 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
"computer"
6 negative reviews mention this · 60% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No Way to Play a Game. You can’t seem to play a game. You can watch other famous games replayed, but the app doesn’t have a clear way to just play against the computer." - RCA411
2
"game"
5 negative reviews mention this · 50% of all complaints
★★★★★ "How to start a game?. New player - no idea how to start a game - intro mentions a + to start, but + nowhere to be found" - New Go Player
3
"play"
4 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "How to start a game?. New player - no idea how to start a game - intro mentions a + to start, but + nowhere to be found" - New Go Player
4
"against"
4 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No Way to Play a Game. You can’t seem to play a game. You can watch other famous games replayed, but the app doesn’t have a clear way to just play against the computer." - RCA411
5
"against computer"
4 negative reviews mention this · 40% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Does not work. Game crashes and does not work when play against computer." - ohmmslaww
6
"play against"
3 negative reviews mention this · 30% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No Way to Play a Game. You can’t seem to play a game. You can watch other famous games replayed, but the app doesn’t have a clear way to just play against the computer." - RCA411
📋 All 10 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").
How to start a game?
New player - no idea how to start a game - intro mentions a + to start, but + nowhere to be found
Problems are a mess
I assume this is popular because there’s so little choice out there. So many problems have missing paths, both mistakes (what’s the use of a problem that only shows the correct path) and solutions. They clearly stole the problems from some user-submitted database and didn’t bother to QA any of it.
Unbeatable for beginners
As a beginner to go this app is unbeatable even on the easiest setting
Does not work
Game crashes and does not work when play against computer.
Have to upgrade to play 19 x 19?
Really? I have to upgrade to a yearly subscription to play 19 x 19 against the computer? That’s kind of like saying you have to upgrade to a yearly subscription to use the queen in chess. Deleted.
No Way to Play a Game
You can’t seem to play a game. You can watch other famous games replayed, but the app doesn’t have a clear way to just play against the computer.
Discouraging for novices
Even the lowest AI setting is near impossible to beat for newcomers to Go. It does not teach novices, it only discourages. While a new player is thinking only a couple moves ahead, the computer seems to, almost without fail, set itself up many, many moves in advance, no matter how the scenario plays out. For instance, even when undoing 5-10 moves back from a tricky situation and trying to learn how you should have approached it, there is often still no way for you to kill/survive-in any possible outcome. This does not benefit novice learning. I’m sure this is a great app for everyone else, but I’d bet that more of the newcomers who use this app get pushed away from the game rather than desire to pursue it more.
If the AI had an option catered toward true novices, this would be a 4-5 star review instead
If the AI had an option catered toward true novices, this would be a 4-5 star review instead
More Caution
The program seems unused or unintuitive.
Missing a few features, needs work
The previous, Kifu, version had a few features that this one is missing that I wish it had. For example when playing against the computer, the computer never resigns, so you are forced to play out a doomed game that the computer cannot possibly win. It’s a waste of time. If there’s an option for that behavior, it’s well hidden. It also doesn’t handle consecutive passes correctly. (It passes, but when you pass, it goes back to playing as if it had never offered the pass. also, this version has been very unreliable. It often crashes and stops playing against you after half a dozen moves. There have been no updates in months.
Same as SmartGo Kifu
SmartGo Kifu was great. Why make longtime users pay again for the same app just with a stronger computer, and no longer able to use auto handicap on Kifu?
Anyone can download strong AI for free on a desktop/laptop. Two stars only because Kifu was good.
Anyone can download strong AI for free on a desktop/laptop. Two stars only because Kifu was good.
Sentiment summary
96%
Positive (4-5★)
2%
Neutral (3★)
2%
Negative (1-2★)