Flow: Focus & Pomodoro Timer

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1. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   somehow got even worse. doesnt track my sessions, thanks for wasting my valuable time. 2nd awful review of this horrible app

2. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   Rip off. 40 dollars for a timer app is straight up criminal.

3. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Live Activities very buggy. Unfortunately, this is the second time I’ve tried the Flow app, and the Live Activities feature is unfortunately extremely buggy. It worked okay in the free version, but when I upgrades to paid, Live Activities will intermittently disappear. I’ve tried reinstalling, updating my iOS, restarting my phone - all to no avail. Using the pause and play feature for the timer via Live Activities seems to also cause trouble. This functionality is key to me, and one of the primary reasons I purchased the app. I wish I was eligible for a refund, but sadly am not. Feeling quite a bit of regret.

4. ★★★★★crashes, freezes and errors

   Ding stopped working. Chime stopped working when the timer is done

5. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Totally useless - shady developer. This application does not work. At all. If you pay for a subscription—and you definitely should not, because it’s a scam—you are promised features such as timer syncing between your iOS devices. For instance, you should be able to manage a focus session from your Apple Watch even if it was started on your iPhone. This is important to me because I am an attorney and I bill for my time. The iCloud syncing feature simply does not work. I have troubleshot this app in every way possible, and if a session is running on my iPhone, it will never appear on my Mac or Apple Watch. This makes it no better than the built-in Clock app. Do not give these people money. Their design team is either totally incompetent or running a scam operation out of a basement in Saint Petersburg.

6. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   lol. Minimum functionality in the free version. Uselessly. I recommend looking at similar services.

7. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

   Menu Timer Issues. The Countdown Timer disappears from the menu bar, and the settings don’t provide a clear way to restore it. Additionally, the app doesn’t allow for a force quit, which could potentially resolve the issue with the missing menu bar timer. I paid for the app, so it’s disappointing that this functionality isn’t working properly. Hoping for a solution soon.

8. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

   App blocker doesn’t work at all. The reason why I downloaded this is because I can get distracted, really easy and go on apps and I don’t need to be on what I’m supposed to focus but this setting totally doesn’t work. I tested it out and now let me go on random apps that I’m not supposed to be on.

9. ★★★★★trial charges and refunds

   7 days free trial needs subscription ??. i cannot even try this app for free.

10. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Disappointed by Limited Features for a Paid App. I’m surprised and a bit insulted that Flow, a productivity app, requires payment despite offering very few to no features. There are many free alternatives that provide much more functionality, so it’s hard to justify the cost. It would make more sense if this app offered a free version with basic features and then charged for premium options, but as it stands, it feels like paying for something that should be free.

11. ★★★★★cross-device sync is unreliable

    Sync needed. Great app, but syncing between devices is essential for me. I frequently use the Apple Watch and encounter issues. Please add this feature and fix the bugs soon. I'm disappointed that the promised sync feature has been delayed for months. As a result, I'm lowering my rating. Syncing doesn't seem like an extremely complex feature that should take a year to implement. I'll update my review once the feature is actually released.

12. ★★★★★trial charges and refunds

    Free trial confusion. As an update: I had used a free trial more than a year ago, but was not prompted with this information the second time around. The app gave every indication that it would be a free trial. After cancelling the subscription the same day, I was still charged. I submitted two refund requests and was denied for both. While I rescind my previous review, this has still been a negative experience for both the app and App Store. The app itself is fine, but did not tell me I was ineligible for the free trial, while at the same time saying it was a free trial.

13. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Unfortunate Downgrade. The app developers decided to remove half the features that were included in the free version, which I used religiously, and it’s now a shell of what is used to be. All the nice features that set this app apart you now have to paid for. Ridiculous and unfortunate, will not be paying for this.

14. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Removal of initially included options. IDK why the developers think that it is fair to remove the menu bar option that shows how much time is remaining on the pomodoro. It was included for free and now you remove it after the most recent update? I get that you have to monetize certain things, but to remove things that were initially included that serve as basic functions that many other pomodoro apps have, is pathetic and greedy. Enjoy having another lost customer

15. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    doesn’t offer stopwatch timer. I think it’s a fair app. It’s minimal and beautiful. There are a bit of problems I’m not a fan of. 1)if you accidentally click on there arrow to go to a new session, even if by accident, you get no warning and your progress from the previous session is deleted and the timer resets with no way to UNDO. 2)Viewing options are limited for graphs and theme. No themes/colors or way to tailor it the way I want to view only have light/dark/system mode. there 3) additionally, I don’t see a way to export data to something like an excel file. 4) the biggest one and Deal Breaker for me: it doesn’t have a way to track productivity with a stopwatch timer; it only has a countdown timer. Even Forest has this and it’s not charging me $18/yr. Credit where credit is due though, it’s elegant and offers some level of customization such as the duration and quantity of sessions + breaks. I also appreciate how it’s on Mac, iPad, and Mac. However, its lack of a stopwatch is a giant deal breaker for me. Some of us don’t want to be forced to commit to a 45 minute pomodoro session and prefer to go off vibes (30min-90+minutes) into flow, we just want a way to track it.

16. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Subscription fatigue. Great app with an unnecessary subscription. I’d be happy to pay once but there is no reason a timer app needs to be subscription based.

17. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    No sync between phone and Mac. It is deal breaker if this app can’t sync between phone and Mac… I have to set blocking list separately on phone and Mac…

18. ★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions

    Functional app w/ decent price, but lacks key feature. The key selling point of this app for me, and what drove me to pay for the lifetime sub, is that it’s a one-time purchase across iOS and Mac. However, this led me to believe that the app would sync an active timer you set on one device, across all your devices. What is the point of an app/website blocking pomodoro timer if setting it on your mac doesn’t do the same on your iPhone? Do I have to simultaneously activate and manage two timers to prevent slacking on both devices?

19. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Not moving on to the break. I wanted to like this app because I love that there are no ads and it’s very simplistic. But after my first 25 minutes were up, I open the app to start my 5 minute break, and for some reason it’s stuck in the first 25 set still. I try another set of 25, and I get the notification for my break. Again, I open the app, and it’s in the middle of my 25 set, it’s not letting me start a 5 minute break.

20. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    App&Web Blocker bug. There’s a bug when enabling the App & Web Blocker on Arc Browser. If you add a URL to your block list and enable your blocker, the app blocks that URL forever! No matter if you’re on a break, pause it, quit the app, or even remove the URL from the list—Flow still blocks it. The only workaround is to manually reopen a new page and re-enter the URL, which is a hassle. Flow team, please fix this and allow URLs to be fully unblocked when unlisted or during breaks!

21. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Too quiet. Can’t get my attention. For whatever reason, neither the watch app nor the phone app makes any sort of noise when timers expire. The best I can get is maybe a notification noise on the watch (which is easily missed). Apparently this is really hard for some reason because this app just doesn’t function in any useful way for me due to the fact it just can’t get my attention when flows end. I have to check it constantly which defeats the entire point.

22. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Does not sync between devices. The app is great, but I cannot sync between devices. That means that it will only track sessions on each device, and you cannot see the total amount of flows you have done across all devices. The timers also do not sync. If you start flow on your iPhone or on your Mac, the timer on your Apple Watch will not synchronize. Syncing across devices would make this an awesome app. Hopefully this feature comes in the future, I would totally give it 5 stars.

23. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Questionable resource usage. Great app. Keeps me from staring at the screen for too long and helps break up my day. However the resource usage is questionable and might lead me to stop using this. Across two machines (reboots, re/installs) I’ve noticed this. When counting down in the background Flow uses about 8% CPU and has an Energy Impact of 7. I don’t see anything in the desktop app package indicating Electron. So what in the world is this thing doing in the background? There’s no good reason for this sort of resource usage.

24. ★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Doesn’t seem to work for me. I never seem to notice any notification or anything when the timer is transitioning into one state or another. At least, I always just see the blinking clock waiting for me to start the next section. I have to keep an eye on it constantly to notice the end of each part. Which reeeeeally defeats the point of the app. I feel like it’s pretty much useless for my case (commonly working with headphones on, not connected to my phone). Deleting and looking for a better solution for me. Maybe something with a better alarm.

25. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Easy to bypass. Great app, but my main issue is that on iPhone, Commitment Mode can be bypassed by force-closing the app, which immediately unlocks blocked apps. Competing apps like Opal do not seem to have this loophole. Flow currently feels like blocking depends on the app staying active, whereas Opal’s restrictions seem to remain in place even after the app is closed. A second issue is break timing. If auto-start break is off, apps become available as soon as the focus timer ends, even before I press “Start Break.” That makes it easy to delay starting the break and effectively extend it. It would be much better if apps stayed blocked until the user actually presses “Start Break.” If Flow added these two features, Flow would be even better.

26. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    3 Stars for UI -2 Stars bc IT DOESNT MAKE A SOUND. I absolutely love the UI. It’s sleek, attractive, minimalist while still somehow not being, but this is my second time trying it and it makes zero sound at the end of either the flow or the break countdowns. What is the point of a timer that you don’t know has run out? If I’m focused and my break comes up, I don’t know it. If I’m on my break away from the screen, there’s no notification to return and get back to work. In my mind this defeats the entire purpose. I’ve tried both notification sounds and neither make a peep. It’s insanely frustrating.

27. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    MacOS/iOS Interactive Widget. I chose this app because it was more aesthetically pleasing than others I’ve seen. So far I like it and at this point, inclined to subscribe after my trial. But honestly, I’m extremely disappointed in the fact that it doesn’t have a widget timer for either iOS or MacOS. I see the 2 options available (quotes and counter). But seriously, an interactive widget would be amazing. The ability to pause/skip/add a session would make this 5 stars right now! Can this be a feature in the next update?…….. Please? I’ll update again after my trial.

28. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Missing functionality in macOS. Can’t purchase the Pro version from macOS. Purchased the Pro version on my phone but still can’t sync it with macOS and restore the purchase. Pretty useless, but can’t experience the Pro features to determine if it would be worth the investment.

29. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    Started out promising, quickly fell short. After downloading I tried using the app for some pomodoro style reading. The first flow was recorded properly but then the issues started. 1) if the phone is closed, the live activity on the lock screen is not synced with the app and does not record the end of a flow. Sometimes it even starts a flow over if you pause it. 2) the Apple Watch feature doesn’t work. I did 2 flows worth of reading and 2 breaks. Neither recorded in the app. 3) despite 6-7 attempts the app says I started 4 flows and finished 2 with 5 disruptions. Good bones but needs refinement.

30. ★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific

    There are other options. If you want the most features for free, don’t get this app. This is really just for people who need something super simple(no setting up just one click). I also think the icon looks really good