Blinkist: Big Ideas in 15 Min Reviews

Useless

CaliMichele

Unless you pay for the subscription this app is useless. Even the daily free articles become locked after a day passes. If you read an article it is locked the next day and it stays on you read list even though you can’t read it again. The concept was exciting though the content wasn’t the best. It was a complete waste of time doing the supposed free trial which requires you to actually put in payment info to get it to work. Don’t do it

Audio recordings Skip

applecustomer1234xyz

Out of nowhere and for no apparent reason, the recording will sadly Skip back to the beginning. Since you are concentrating on the content and not watching the time, you don’t know where you were when the audio returns to the beginning. Very distracting. I will not renew this subscription.

Terrific!

JustinMoran

Very happy with my subscription! Keep up the good work?

Summaries aren't worth the money

delsan19

I had access to the full version as a perk of being a Scribd subscriber. In my opinion the summaries were bland and vague. So I just deleted Blinkest.

Are you kidding? Absolute scam!

Cavemanion

$7 a month to read articles and books you can find on your own. Good grief.....deleting immediately!

Idea is cool, app needs work.

jc7792

I like the idea and I've been able to "read" quite a few books but the app is incredibly wonky. I don't like how the audio is either always repeating the first 20 seconds of a new blink over and over indefinitely, or the book pauses after one blink so I have to manually pause/play to turn it back on... kinda want my money back especially after paying so much for a yearly subscription. The app simply doesn't work all the time - and that doesn't seem fair for such a steep price. Not only does this make the app look bad, but it makes top influencers who advertise and recommend it seem less credible. Look I'm not here to be a raging customer, I'm just hoping the company has the integrity to back up their product or provide a return for it not working right.

An interesting idea that isn’t quite there yet

BenjPhoto

As someone with a disability that makes it hard to read, this concept is a welcome one and I can see it being extremely beneficial with some improvements. The interface is spartan. It could do with some sprucing up, but that’s only aesthetic and I could live with it in exchange for better functionality. The book selection seemed pretty limited. (EDIT: The selection is much broader than I initially thought. I was able to search for titles I didn’t see on the home page). I only saw a couple of books I recognized (though I did not look though all titles). The two free articles I read (On the history of the iPhone and the history of Airbnb) were just that. I didn’t get the sense I was getting a book but rather a Wired article. That may be because they choose less popular material for the free service. The use of the term “blink” seems an awkward attempt to be clever. Blink has a connotation of missing something rather than showing something. “Don’t blink or you’ll miss it”. I don’t know what a “blink” is. Is it supposed to be a chapter summary? Without hearing a better book, and possibly one I’ve already read, I don’t have a sense that I’m getting the meat of the book but just a few representative paragraphs. More of a sampler than a summation. I try to follow along with the audio and, while that is possible, it’s less than ideal. Since I’m looking at the text and listening to audio simultaneously it would be helpful to have audio controls on the text page as well as the audio page. Switching back and forth was a pain and often resulted in losing my place and starting a page over and using the scrubber back and forth several times to find my place. The only other negative was that the price seemed a bit steep. BUT, I want this to be better. Better interface. Better selection. Better place tracking.... If I could walk away feeling I have the essentials of the book this could be a great app!

Price is absurd

Vnessquikk

first of all the service they offer is not worth 70$ a year..also who would lay that amount of money down without even being able to see what it has to fully offer you. All i see is one book summary. Is that really all the app does? Summarize literature and choose what you should read? There was a list of books “recommended for me.” I hadn’t even been asked anything that would allow for any sort of personalization. The 70$ yearly price is absurd. I deleted the app already. There’s no way I’m falling into that trap. It’s a cool concept but they need to rethink that price bc there’s apps that perform the same function for free lol

Was enjoying the app

Iwantsuga

I was enjoying the free daily on the app, but I noticed this morning the book Blink I’ve been waiting for all week, since they email the schedule in advance, was changed this morning when I was in just about to start it. The free book changed completely from a conservative book to a liberal book. I’m not ok with material being censored. If they didn’t want this book delivered free of charge they shouldn’t have emailed me 6 days ago. Censoring will always get 1 Star. The book reviews do seem more on point than other free book breakdowns.

Update

haart

The app will, without fail, repeat whatever chapter I play after 30 seconds of playback whenever i start a new track. This is very annoying. Update: it appears the developers have resolved playback errors revised up one star. Will update review days later.

Blinkist: Big Ideas in 15 Min Reviews – Page 36