Feedback on the new update to Opal

Feedback šŸ’”
21

Hey there @Bluesaphcas ,

Sorry for the trouble and thanks for your request for Block Lists to be reintroduced to the app. Youā€™ll be happy to know that this feature will be going live quite soon! On that note, please ensure that whenever able, you update here:

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/opal-screen-time-for-focus/id1497465230

In the meantime, it sounds like you may have multiple Opal accounts, as your progress and Rules should have been retained when you onboarded to the newest version of Opal. On that note, our Support team would be happy to help with that - please contact us by navigating to Settings > Chat with Support.

Sorry for the trouble,
Team Opal

22

signed up just to post this and was glad to see someone else did. the new UI is just awful, you used to be able to see everything you needed at at a glance. Iā€™ve been a subscriber for two years now and although the ā€œsleepā€ update was a mild annoyance the feature creep continues.

nothing about this UI is intuitive, it feels like it takes more clicks to do everything and it has completely lost the charm and ā€œpremiumā€ feeling that justified the price tag for me. honestly if I knew this update was coming I wouldā€™ve never renewed, feel really disappointed that Iā€™m locked into this for almost a full year and my choice is either deal with it for a full year or eat the cost to buy another app that fills the void.

is there any recourse for partial refunds here?

2 Likes
23

I agree. The second I realized they made resetting unblocks a paid feature, Opal was deleted. Sad to see it go, but at least with the Apple blocks I donā€™t have to pay for anything.

24

Totally agree. The new UI is awful, and honestly Iā€™m not using the app anymore because of the change. How do I get a refund?

1 Like
25

@inthevoid
Two years as a subscriber means a lot, and Iā€™m sorry the new version feels like a step backward for you. Thatā€™s not what we were going for.

V4 was a big redesign and we knew some things that felt natural before would need relearning. What we didnā€™t fully anticipate was how much of the simplicity would get lost in the process, and itā€™s something weā€™re actively working to address.

On refunds: we have a policy, please reach out to support directly: Opal > Profile > Settings > Chat with Support.

Thank you,
ā€” Team Opal

1 Like
26

Iā€™ve got a streak of 400+ days and Iā€™m grateful for this app, but the new update is disappointing. I canā€™t even access my screen time anymoreā€”it pops up on the home page randomly. Appreciate the effort to refine UI, but I would also be happy to be restored to the old version

27

Hey @Grace_Shallow ,

Hey there,

Thanks for your request to reintroduce more comprehensive screen time analytics to the new version of the app. Youā€™ll be happy to know that feature is now live here:

Once you update, you may view your daily screen time by following these steps:

  • Tap on ā€œHomeā€
  • Tap on ā€œSleep,ā€ ā€œFocus,ā€ or ā€œRestā€
  • Your daily Screen Time will be rated
  • Tap the > toggle to the right of your Screen Time to view more comprehensive metrics

All the best,
Team Opal

28

Hello, Iā€™ve been using Opal for about a year or so. The new UI seems really clean and I like it, however I have some issues with it. The Focus Score can be kept, but the first thing I would like to see is my actual screentime. Second, can you bring back the groups we used to be able to make that made it easier to just dive in into a focus session/timer activity. Third, for those who have Opal Pro and want to make it so that you canā€™t leave the session it would be nice to make the once a week emergency pass harder to access again. Thank you so much for your time.

29

Hi! @jayzamn

Thank you so much for the kind words about the new UI, and for taking the time to share such detailed feedback, it really helps.

Hereā€™s where things stand regarding your concerns:

Screen time ā€” you are not alone and we are working on releasing daily screen time tracking for users. Always make sure that the app is updated to the latest version as we are releasing updates multiple times per week.

App groups / focus session shortcuts ā€” we hear you on this. The quick-session presets and ā€œRecent Timersā€ have been rebuilt in v4 (you should see them when starting a timer), but the named groups you could set up in v3 havenā€™t made it back yet. Itā€™s on our radar and something we want to bring back and Iā€™ll make sure this feedback is logged for the team.

Emergency pass friction ā€” The once-a-week break being too easy to reach in Hard Mode is something other Pro users have mentioned too. This hasnā€™t been addressed in v4 yet, but Iā€™m flagging your feedback directly to the team as a vote for adding that friction back.

Thanks again for sticking with Opal, feedback like this shapes exactly what we prioritize next.

30

Like many others on hereā€¦ I need to express my frustration about the new app updates. I loved the existing app and had just paid for a year subscription. Since the updates, I feel the app hardly works any more and I regret my purchase!!!

Not only did all my rules get deleted with the update, I canā€™t seem to create the same ones again to get the desired effect. Itā€™s almost as if Opal wants me to get addicted to my phone again??!!

I used to have JUST the games in the waiting room, now it gives me the option to skip and have the breath screen. This is completely pointless and is way too easy to bypass. The games were a great turn off but now I can just skip them and pause my block!! And donā€™t tell me to use hard mode, because I still need to pause sometimes, I just want it to be actually annoying to do.

Also, thereā€™s a weird glitch where I canā€™t change the available pause time on some of my rules. I used to be able to have it as 15 mins max, and now itā€™s stuck on 60 mins no matter what I do. Extremely frustrating.

Pls fix the app before I request a full refund. This is not the app I paid $100 for !!!

31

Hi Team,

I joined Opal in January this year and totally fell in love with the app and how it improved my life. I didnā€™t mind its very high price because getting so much of my time back was totally worth it. But the new UI is very disappointing and I will not renew my subscription if the app remains as it is.

I switched phones from iPhone 13 Pro to 17 Pro two weeks ago and this is when I got the new UI and fell out of love with Opal.

First, I canā€™t easily see my actual screen time with distracting/productive scale - please bring it back.

Second, I donā€™t need Opal to pretend it tracks my sleep or how much I am sitting throughout the day. Please, remain a screen time and focus app, this is what you do best.

Third, what happened to the streaks celebration with a pop up and vibration?

Fourth, the reports delivered once per week are incorrect - at first when I switched phones I thought that this is going to get back to normal, but I just got the report that shows me 0h screen time for Monday-Saturday and 7h for Sunday. None of this is correct.

I also donā€™t like being reminded of apps currently blocked on the app home screen - why would you show a cigarette to someone who tries to quit smoking? A separate screen for apps is just enough for that.

The main screen used to give me a positive boost for doing great - feedback on screen time, number of hours Iā€™m getting back, etc.

Now I canā€™t see the numbers but some unclear rating with sleep and a reminder of apps. It makes me soooooo upset.

My overall report, the one I can see when I click the user bubble top right, shows no data at all - it says it will be available upon a full week of data and it says to come back in two days or to come back in five days. Iā€™ve been using the app on this phone for over two weeks now.

Overall, I enjoyed the app for almost 6 months, now the experience couldnā€™t be worse I think. I hope you change it back and I can stay with Opal, otherwise I will most probably uninstall it soon.

13 Likes
32

Iā€™ve been using Opal for over a year, and I enjoy how it blocks apps better than the Apple ScreenTime. However, I just got the new update today, which is mostly cool, but I do have some things Iā€™d like to change. Some changes are removing what I liked about Opal. (I can edit and put as separate posts if needed, but did not want to post multiple in short times).

  1. Where did the friends leaderboard go? Seeing my friendsā€™ screentimes would help me get off my phone and use less. I cannot find it literally anywhere.
  2. Screen time on main screen. I believe another user posted about the same thing, but I would like to see my screen time on the main page again. I used to just quickly check my Opal screen time by opening the app and glancing at it (to see it compared to Appleā€™s default, which includes things like Maps and phone calls).
  3. Sleep Assistant forces unblock limit. I like sleep assistant because it encourages me to be off my phone while not strictly enforcing it, which I do with a ā€œruleā€ or whatever itā€™s called now (prev. a focus session). The unblock limit means that it becomes a strict thing, which I donā€™t want. Iā€™d like for my distracting apps to be harder to access, not impossible after a certain amount of tries. Sometimes my sleep schedule changes due to work, meaning I need to access apps that would normally be blocked by sleep assistant, but not always allowed.
  4. Blocked groups is gone? Maybe I just havenā€™t figured it out yet but when I go to the quick timer, which I donā€™t mind being on its own page, I have to manually select every app I want to block. On average, my sessions block 30-40 apps. I donā€™t want to have to spend fifteen minutes selecting each app I want to block before I can even set the timer. (It could also be that the blocked apps stay after the timer is over and Iā€™m just not used to the new update yet.)
  5. When adding apps to ā€œdistractingā€ or ā€œalways allowedā€, it doesnā€™t say if one was already selected. Pretty straightforward. If I go to select an app to add to either, I canā€™t tell if itā€™s already been selected or not.
  6. Limit to always allowed apps. Similarly to above: I canā€™t add as many Always Allowed Apps as I want. Why? I understand not wanting every app to be always allowed, but as said previously, I need dozens of apps for work and school. I canā€™t be worrying if theyā€™re going to get accidentally blocked by screentime, right when I need to show something to my boss.
  7. AI features off toggle. I donā€™t want AI in my life, especially in my screentime app. When I went to go to support for some of the UI changes, it took me to a chatbot (which I donā€™t like using) instead of an FAQ or actual support like on the website. I am also pretty sure the Autofocus feature uses AI (which is weird because I feel like it wouldnā€™t need to), and itā€™s probably integrated unnecessarily into other features. But I have many concerns with it, and I donā€™t want to have AI forced on me. If itā€™s integrated so deeply that this canā€™t be done, I also find that concerning, and will consider deleting Opal.

Some things that I do like are that you can add to both distracting and always allowed, because some of my communication apps count towards distracting time but I need always available. I also like the timer as an easily accessible tab.

I hope these are considered because I liked Opal as an app, but the new features are making it hard to use.

33

Hi @sapphire-05 thanks for putting this all together rather than sending multiple posts. Going through each one:

  1. Friends leaderboard: Not in v4 yet. A Social section is actively being built but isnā€™t live yet for users.

  2. Screen time on main screen: This moved to the Focus tab on the Home page in v4. Your comparison is a good argument for bringing it back to the home screen and I have flagged it.

  3. Sleep Assistant: In v3, Sleep Assistant used a soft diminishing-unlock pattern; in v4 it migrated as a time-windowed open-limit rule with a counted budget. You can edit the rule to raise the unblock count to make it feel softer, but the ā€œencouragement without enforcementā€ distinction from v3 hasnā€™t carried over.

  4. Blocked groups / app selection for timer: Good news here the Recent Timers section (on the Timer tab) saves your last 20 timer configurations, including the full app selection. After you set up a session once with your 30ā€“40 apps, it appears as a Recent and you can re-launch it in a couple of taps. Itā€™s not a named ā€œgroupā€ like v3, but the re-use flow is there.

  5. No already-selected indicator: Youā€™re right, thereā€™s no visual feedback showing an app is already in Distracting or Always Allowed when you open the picker. Thatā€™s an unaddressed UX gap and I have logged.

  6. Always Allowed app limit: This one isnā€™t something Opal can change ā€” itā€™s a hard Apple system limit (49 apps per category) enforced by iOSā€™s FamilyControls framework.

  7. AI features / Autofocus: A couple of clarifications worth knowing. Autofocus isnā€™t AI. Itā€™s a deterministic scoring algorithm based on your screen time patterns (rolling usage windows and fixed thresholds, no model, no inference). If you want to turn off the Autofocus nudges, you can disable them in Settings ā†’ Notifications ā†’ Autofocus. The support chatbot is separate from Autofocus; thereā€™s no way to opt out of it currently, but the Help Centre (Settings ā†’ Support ā†’ Help Centre) has articles that donā€™t require the bot.

34

Signed up here to let you know Im so confused by the new update. Been using this app for over a year, loved it, recommended it, had all the blocks working well and suited to my needs. Then this new update has changed everything. I dont know where anything, how to create blocks, edits blocks or make simple adjustments. I find myself locked out of things I normally wasnt and now I feel the need to wipe it entirely and start again. Very disappointed.

35

Iā€™d like to start by saying Iā€™ve been using Opal for over two years, and during that time Iā€™ve recommended it to more friends and family than almost any other app Iā€™ve ever used. It has genuinely helped improve my relationship with my phone, and I believe itā€™s one of those rare apps that almost everyone could benefit from.

That said, the Opal I was so eager to recommend unfortunately no longer exists.

This most recent major redesign has significantly hurt the user experience, and Iā€™m honestly struggling to understand how it made it through testing in its current state. The app is no longer intuitive, and much of the time it simply doesnā€™t work. Itā€™s common to open the app and have to force close and reopen it three or four times before you can accomplish something because it just freezes. Many buttons, especially on the Profile page, donā€™t respond at all. Trying to unlock a block frequently causes the app to freeze, and the list of issues goes on and on.

Several of the people I recommended Opal to have already given up and stopped using it since this update. Despite all of these problems, I still use the app every day because I believe what Opal provides is incredibly valuable. I donā€™t want to have to switch to a new app and set up all my blocks again, but I am getting close.

Please prioritize fixing the stability and usability issues. Right now the app feels unfinished, and every day it becomes harder to justify continuing to use it.

Thank you.

36

Iā€™ve been using Opal for almost two years now, and I used to love the UI and how the app worked. Now, it seems like a totally different thing.

I have been so frustrated with the new UI and its features that I even looked for other apps that looked like the old Opal. I couldnā€™t find any though.

I hope the entire Opal team sees how disappointed the community is with what the app is turning into.

If things donā€™t get better, Iā€™m afraid Iā€™ll actually have to migrate to another appā€¦