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- 93.1SAFETY SCORE
- 17+CONTENT RATING
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Headway: Daily Book Summaries App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2024
Headway: Daily Book Summaries app received 106 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using Headway: Daily Book Summaries? Can you share your negative thoughts about headway: daily book summaries?
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Headway: Daily Book Summaries for Negative User Reviews
✓ Too many emails with a lousy opt out systemOverall not a bad app with great content. I like the non fiction focus. A few improvements can be made to make it better - I want to receive interesting quotes once a week within the app or on my phone notification, not via emails - seriously TOO MANY EMAILS and they make it especially hard to unsubscribe to all. No such option. They only allow you to unsubscribe to that particular category and god knows how many categories they have?! It’s 2021... Should be more transparent with these things and allow us to customize what emails we want, how regular we want to get them..Version: 110.0
✓ Money hungry with no good grace…couldn’t give them zero stars!Cancelled my subscription 30mins after the monthly subscription amount was automatically deducted from my account and contacted customer service….they quoted that in their terms I could not be refunded because I had neglected to cancel my subscription myself before the monthly amount was deducted even though I no longer use the app freaking opportunistic billing system with no understanding or real people behind this…not an empathetic or people focused company at all! The recommended summary books were pretty much all the same and became very repetitive even though preference questions were completed. Not a great personalised algorithm at all! I would recommend just listening to podcasts rather than using this app you will get more out of them than here!.Version: 268.2
✓ Great app, but full of mistakesI actually really like the idea of the app and it has a great selection of books. However, out of (maybe) 10 books I’ve read this far, there was only one that didn’t contain grammatical mistakes. Please, force your writers to proofread or hire some proofreaders..Version: 150.6
✓ HeadwayThis is a really cool app, but it has taken 150 dollars out of my bank account which I’m really gutted and not happy about. The way you bill users is sneaky and misleading, you need to change the way you bill customers or better yet make the app free. It is constantly sending pop ups that you have to click into to try and make you buy deals for $100 for a year. Very very annoying!.Version: 212.6
✓ Unsavoury business practicesThis company will continue to bill you even after you have deleted the app and cancelled subscription..Version: 262.0
✓ Very user friendly(but not free)The UI and app are very simple to use, however this app is not really made for free users. They keep begging you to subscribe and only let you read 1 book per day THAT THEY CHOOSE. App is great, price is not.Version: 160.6
✓ Stop taking my money!!!!Paid for a $15 per year subscription, this company is taking $40.88 per MONTH! Insane! Customer support is totally useless. Had to back charge credit card and file a fraud claim!.Version: 263.3
✓ FRAUD & DECEPTIONDo not sign up for any ‘free trial’ or anything with this organisation. Their information is false & their conduct fraudulent. Despite trying to ‘cancel the free trial subscription’ according to their terms & conditions, there is no way to do so through App, Apple support or a ‘website account’. You end up chasing your tail to try & resolve it. If you inadvertently sign up using PayPal, be sure to remove them from Automatic payments under your PayPal profile! Otherwise they will thieve your money and you probably won’t get it back. They ask you to email them with queries & promise to respond in 24 hours. They don’t! Messenger communication defers you to check their ‘FAQs for quick help’ (but they can’t be found) & also send them an email (to which they don’t respond). WALK AWAY & DO NOT SIGN UP FOR ANYTHING!.Version: 108.2
✓ Need to change the narratorWhile the concept & content I’d amazing, the narration is terrible- this, for me, is the reason I can’t listen to some audio books….. however the narrator is the same (either male of female version) on all books. It sounds terrible. There needs to be more voice options..Version: 249.1
✓ A Reading App That’s Not For ReadersI wanted to like this app. I love the concept of it, getting right down to the main concept of a book without all the extra fluff. But here’s the problem, the fluff is what makes a book unique and useful. That’s the stuff that resonates with someone that causes the light bulb to turn on in their head, which in turn causes changes in their lives. I can look at someone who wants to grow their business and say “You have to put in the work” and then walk away. Is this going to help them? Most likely not. But that’s what this app is doing. Stripping down books until they are basic clichés such as “Stop eating junk food”. Well no shut Sherlock. I think the reason that so many people are liking this app is that they probably aren’t readers. So giving 15 minutes to a book makes them feel good. That’s great, but you could do the same with an audio book and get so much more out of it. This isn’t a video game. You’re not leveling up with each synopsis you listen to. The point of these books is to better your life. Are you actually making changes or are you just wearing your “Listened to 38 books this month!” badge like a mask for you to hide behind so you don’t actually have to do anything? Something to think about..Version: 250.1
✓ Ok but not worth paid subscriptionThe one thing I actually liked about this app is that it made me realise how cool it is that I haven’t spent a penny on these crap books 😄 As I mentioned, the books are not worth anyone’s time, so don’t waste your money on paid subscription - the content is just…very bad and basic. The question that kept popping up in my head was: why would anyone write a whole book about this at all?! Also, as someone mentioned in their review - books are read by a computer, not by a human which isn’t a great deal really bust sometimes it gets hard to understand..Version: 181.4
✓ Content okay; narration terribleOverall the content categories and book options are great. The summaries are a little lacklustre at times, but what makes things a bit frustrating is that the narration is well below par. I’m quite often left feeling like there’s a point missing. Further, because the narration seems to be computer generated, the pronunciation and emphasis isn’t always right, which in turn can be quite distracting. We should expect better from a paid app in 2023, with the development of AI narration etc..Version: 228.7
✓ Do Not UseLike the other reviews they lure you with a free trial then charge you anyway. Please google this app before using. It’s not legit..Version: 261.3
✓ Annoying to listen toI’ve used other services like this in the past, so this is not an original idea yet the amount charged is the same. This would be fine if it wasn’t for the ridiculous automated voice used to produce an expensive service as cheaply as possible. Listening to an episode is like receiving an email from someone who doesn’t know how to use punctuation and it’s simply painful to listen to. I regret paying for a month and I’m glad I’m not stuck with this for an expensive year..Version: 148.0
✓ ScamThey charge you even when you cancel your subscription!.Version: 264.2
✓ Total scam don’t waste your money!The worst app I’ve ever used! Scam you from the start, somehow setting me up with two accounts (one with an auto generated email as the user name?!). I was charged after the initial trial period, so I tried a book. Didn’t enjoy the experience. The auto renew kicked in however there are absolutely no links or settings in the app to cancel/unsubscribe/delete account! Finally found an email address to their support team, refused to refund the money and are giving me the run around when I requested to unsubscribe/cancel/delete both accounts. Terrible app, terrible service. Only 1 star because you can’t leave 0 stars.Version: 141.3
✓ UnethicalI tried Headway out on a promotion basis for US$15 across three months. I later found multiple charges on my credit card from Headway exceeding $40 US, they are not taking responsibility. Now, understanding how the app is used, I found that the micro learning is very abbreviated and needs more reinforcement. I was not the biggest fan of this app overall. I would stick to full audiobooks..Version: 233.12
✓ Be careful - really disappointedI took out the subscription back in October and decided to keep it going as I liked the content on the app. I was aware at this time that this would be billed at £15 per month. This month, two separate charges were made - one for £15 and one for £37. I queried this with the team only to be told that I had TWO subscriptions. One called ‘Easy Fun Growth’ and one called ‘Visualized bestsellers’. I have absolutely no recollection of signing up to two subscriptions (I don’t even know what the second is). Moreover, I received a confirmation email back in October detailing that my billing would be monthly at £15 - at no point did I receive the same for a second subscription. They are not prepared to offer a refund as ‘I didn’t cancel the free trial’. That’s because I didn’t know there WAS a SECOND free trial. As I pointed out to them, if this wasn’t an error, then there are clearly deliberate attempts to either conceal information, or mislead people as to what they are signing up for. Be careful what you’re signing up to..Version: 260.3
✓ No response to customer support - Useless!**Edit** Customer support contacted me 6 months ago to say they are aware of the issue I’ve detailed below, but as expected, 6 months later and it’s still not resolved. I would give this more stars if one major problem of this app was rectified. That is, on an iPad, if you press the ‘Repetition’ button, and then ‘Repeat Cards’, it takes you to a page where it asks you,… ‘Do you remember this?’ On the iPhone there is a choice of ‘yes’ ‘no’ buttons, but on the iPad there are no buttons so you can’t answer the question. I have the latest iPad Pro, so I don’t know why the buttons aren’t there. It just means I have to go to my phone if I want to complete the repetitions. I’ve mailed customer support many times and had no response. They have since emailed me back and said that they have no record of my email address, so I don’t have an account with them. I subscribed through the App Store, you dingbats. Totally useless. I’ve now messaged them again and told them I subscribe through the App Store, yet, again, they just keep replying to me saying they have no record of my email address. Just address the issue, instead of coming back with moronic responses..Version: 233.11
✓ Limited librarySo, I tried a few of these apps over Christmas and I forgot to cancel the free trial of this one before it charged me for a whole year (yes this is entirely my fault). I’m trying to make the best of what was a lot of money (why are there no monthly, 3 monthly, 6 monthly options?) but finding the library very limited. There doesn’t appear to be very many new titles and the narration on many titles leaves a lot to be desired. Unfortunately, this will be like a lot of peoples experience with gym memberships where I will use it for one month and then it will lay dormant until my subscription runs out. In fact I’m close to deleting the app and I’m not even a month in. I would like to see alternative subscription options and the library expanded to include more recent titles. Thanks..Version: 157.3
✓ Not free and won’t cancel so continues to chargeI tried this app. It works perfectly for what it is, but doesn’t suit me. I wasn’t using it so cancelled it a week before the 30 day period via the app after reading ‘how to cancel’. Today I was charged, I went back into the app and cancelled again (it wasn’t cancelled). It confirmed I was cancelled again. I then tried again just to make sure it worked this time - turns out they don’t cancel. The app doesn’t ever cancel your subscription so they can continue to charge you until you realise. They had to manually cancel me and won’t refund my money. Just steer clear, it isn’t worth it..Version: 262.6
✓ ScamI signed up for 7 days free trial and app charged me the annual fee straight away. There is false advertising and this is not acceptable. I’ll talk to my close friend who Cybersecurity specialist and working at government department and put it as an investigation. You’ll get headache in Australia which you deserve. If you having same trouble you can contact to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) or your local Office of Fair Trading if you think an ad is: not truthful. inaccurate. Your advertisement misleading and against the Australian Consumer Law. Edit: Cost refunded through Apple. But it does not change the app’s false advertising..Version: 248.5
✓ Scammed by this app, don’t buyI was offered a free trial to test this app that I found in an old folder, and decided to give it a try since I didn’t remember even opening it. They charged me for 6 months without even letting me use the free week and never answered my emails asking for a solution. Very poor customer service..Version: 1.21
✓ Be careful - they lure you in and it’s tricky to cancelI tried the free trial and found the voice overs really annoying to listen to. They sound like AI. Thought I’d cancelled but apparently you must do it through them, not Apple. So, when I got charged, I asked them to refund me. It took them weeks to get back to me, and they refused. I’d say it’s not worth the money, and the customer service clinched it..Version: 263.3
✓ How Dare you charge me on my first Click and free trialI just enter 7 days Trial and you charged me? I have been downloading free trial for ages and this is the first time I got charged. I should have read the reviews. Please process the Refund..Version: 1.27
✓ Wrong money chargesThey are a scam. They will show you option for one month charges and at the end of free trial period they will charge for the whole year and than no response to emails forwarded. Even Apple support is not helping. Basically you r trapped..Version: 68.0
✓ Terrible support and terrible app. Do not subscribeI subscribed via an ad on Instagram. Headway took my money but when I tried to login my password didn’t work. And the reset password email never arrived to either my inbox or spam. I tried multiple times. I also contacted support 4 times. Each time they just said to use the email reset which I kept telling them didn’t work. I also couldn’t cancel the subscription, which is on repeat subscribe because I couldn’t get into my account. I’m so so so angry. In the end I had to ring my bank. I have never had anything like this happen with an app. Absolutely appalling..Version: 257.3
✓ SCAMAn absolute scam. They will claim you did not cancel your subscription even though I did, and charge you. App was absolutely terrible and useless, use ChatGPT or anything else. Customer service was horrendous, they’re rude and clearly don’t understand customer service. Save your money, this company can’t stand behind their product, otherwise they wouldn’t have to scam people an extra $60 where they can.Version: 261.3
✓ Robot narrator and sus pricingThe books are read by a robot voice but if that’s what you’re into you’re good. Also after I cancelled my subscription I noticed that the price automatically charged me for 6 months is the same price as their 1 year subscription so they would’ve charged me double for the year if I stayed.....super shady.Version: 1.2.17
✓ Beware!!!! Highly promoted but low in delivery.No customer service. Especially when you missed cancelling the subscription before the end of the few days trial. They don’t respond to you email request or inquiries. Over promising promo video. Low delivery in app design and quality of audio book summary. I hardly wrote any apps reviews but I do this time. first payment is a 6 month commitment costing over $100..Version: 1.17
✓ Not what I thought it would beI impulse bought 3 months of this app after I saw it advertised. It sounded great in theory, but the concept of reading or hearing the key points of a whole book in 15 minutes doesn’t play out that well in reality. The summaries are written in a bit of an odd tone, I’m guessing either by AI or someone who speaks English as a second language. It is such a lot of info to take in and actually quite hard to diges. Also the AI voices are quite creepy and not nice to listen to..Version: 257.3
✓ Huge fraud they charge you for 6 months even if the app says weekly subscriptionThey offer a one week trial and then 9,99$ per week. After one week they charged me for 6 months 135$!!!! There is no way I would have agreed to renew for 6 months. The robot voice is extremely annoying, why would I pay that much money for a summary of a book read by a robot!???? I can’t get a refund through apple I am so angry and I can’t afford to lose 135$ just because of these scammers!.Version: 1.12.0
✓ ScamI have signed up for a 7-days ‘free’ trial - the app never worked: with every click i would get a pop up offer to sign up for a year membership. It didn’t appear in my Apple Id so i could not cancel it, and the website only sends you to app store to get the app. Tried contacting the support line to no avail, eventually being charged £47 something for the annual membership, because it is impossible to cancel it. And guess what, the app still doesn’t work, offering me to subscribe.. the helpline only replied once with a default message that i should have known that i’ll be charged after 7 day trial. I have sent all the print screens of the faulty app and they just don’t reply.. have since read lots of reviews from people with the same problem! And i still can’t cancel it and will be charged next year as well?? I am in a very vulnerable financial and mental state now and that was a massive blow to lose this money. I have signed for a ‘free’ trial in hope of getting better, instead got a terrible stress and can’t stop crying...Version: 109.0
✓ 😡Absolute trash. I came for help and instead they’re asking me for my money..Version: 262.0
✓ Fees for no service?I signed up to this over a year ago out of interest. Didn’t really like it because if just seemed like it just skimmed across the top of each book without giving you much. Barely enough info in it to say you understand anymore than the skin of a subject. After that I decided to get out. I though that had been done but have now noticed they have been taking money out every three months. I haven't signed into it in over a year yet they continue charging. Basically happy to take the fee without giving any service or product. The thing that really annoys me is they never sent me a single receipt or notification for any of these transactions. They just seem happy to slide it out of your account without notifying you. Based on the fact it doesn’t give you any in depth knowledge of subjects and is easier to sign up to than cancel I couldn’t recommend..Version: 257.3
✓ Over charges youDid the free trial and it said after that I will be charged $9.99/week Just looked on my credit card statement and they charged me $117.99 for 6 months. Never once did it say anything about this when downloading. Also when I went to my subscriptions to cancel there are multiple prices listed just randomly for different time periods..Version: 1.16.1
✓ Intolerably bad AI voiceoverSuch a nasty product. They take your money, offering no free trial and couldn’t care less if you are satisfied. They basically plug content into ChatGPT and then get a robot to read the summary back to you. I lasted less than two minutes before I had to stop listening because to me, obvious AI voice generation makes my ears bleed. I asked for a refund immediately after purchasing and was denied with all subsequent attempts to contact them ignored. Hopefully I can help at least one other person save their money with this review. Honestly…just don’t..Version: 257.3
✓ Free trial was a con. Ripped off on day 1I signed up for a 30 day free trial so I could check out this app. I wish I had ticked the monthly fee box because I was charged for the app for a year, over a hundred bucks when I started my trial. I used the app a few times and then the Content options disappeared, and I checked Apple subscriptions have me signed up to next Jan not the 30 days. Now I have to go through apple to get my money back. I am mad.Version: 205.7
✓ Voice over and reading of wordsI’d prefer to listen to this information with a choice of voice and the voice to have recorded each book in whole rather than singular words that have been put together as that’s how it sounds The information is good from each subject I just wish that it was a little more user friendly to give me a plan for my day and on how to use the app effectively as I kind of feel lost as to what my goals are and why.Version: 133.3
✓ Don’t download it’s a money grabVoices read by robot voice and will automatically charge you for the highest subscription without warning and won’t give you your money back!.Version: 1.24
✓ HmmmI don’t want this to set others’ opinions of this app as I suspect the app has a lot of great value to it for people. But, the very first “Insight” I received after downloading it was; “Friendships that revolve around people are companies that research shows to be healthy, lasting and satisfying.” I had to read it 3 times over as the word “companies” just didn’t make sense here. It’s not a word that would be generally used for people with English as a first language and it threw me. I asked my husband and he said, “It’s probably written by someone whose first language isn’t English. I think they mean “relationships.” This doesn’t fill me with great promise for the app. I’d rather an app that could give tidbits of info and insights that simply just make sense and you don’t have to reread several times. Also, it makes me feel like the content is just churned out from overseas, or from bots translating things. Not a great start but I’ll persist for a bit. Any more though and I’ll leave this app to the side..Version: 205.7
✓ Overcharged and extremely poor customer serviceI opted for annual subscription which was going fine u til I noticed that they over charged me in addition to annual payment. After a month they charged me again. When I contacted them, they responded after 3 days and said that it is a monthly subscription. I shared few screenshots of annual payment and other over charged payments, and it’s been a week, haven’t received any response at all. I have paid over $200 so far for a month. This is non sense. Instead I could have bought original books of all the books that I read so far. These guys are cheaters in the name of motivation. Please don’t subscribe. Waste of money. Waste of time. Waste of energy. They don’t have any money back guarantee when opted though their website. There is no means to cancel the subscription. There is no means to modify the payment method. Once in, never out. I seriously don’t know how these guys got 4.5 star. I was going though few comments, and I can say that most of them are endorsed. And in few comments, there is no match between the rating and comments. Some of them have given a 5 star with negative descriptions. Please do your research before subscribing..Version: 262.3
✓ Good concept, poor executionI saw Facebook ads for Headway in the form of these 28 Day Challenges and I was very intrigued. I’m always down for a good challenge, especially one in the self growth department. I downloaded the app and was all excited that it was going to create my OWN personalized challenge tailored to my interests. Wow! Well, when you make it to the home page, your personal plan vanishes. Gone, never to be seen or accessed again. That was very disappointing but I was still willing to give it a try. The audio recordings are awful. I’m a VO artist and I actually wondered if these summaries were recorded by humans. The cadence is off, it sounds hollow, there are no gaps between sentences. I could barely comprehend. And before I could cancel (because I wanted to see if all the recordings were that bad or just a few) I get charged $80 for 6 months. Not worth the money and I haven’t used it in months. Like I said, excellent concept, but the technical execution (the vanishing of your plan and the audio recordings) leaves much to be improved..Version: 99.7
✓ Very Shady BillingI had this app as a trial for 1 week. I was not notified that the trial was about to run out. There was not notification, just a sudden charge for what I can only imaging was for a whole year’s subscription. Pornography sites are more reputable this this app. Zero stars. This company sucks..Version: 1.6.2
✓ Waste of moneyI can’t believe I spent the money I did on this app. Biggest waste of money. The books are read in a robot voice. Wish I read the reviews before buying. I was suppose to get a week free then be charged after that week was over which was not the case. They charge you as soon as you click on the subscription. Also you can’t review any of the books before buying a subscription. If I knew it wasn’t an actual person reading the books I would of never paid that overpriced price..Version: 1.24
✓ Waste of time and moneyThe idea of this app is to save you time reading books. It will waste your time getting set up and logged in. It was the most frustrating and circular log in process i have ever suffered. Having gotten nowhere, the company refuses a refund, quoting their fine print. I cancelled my subscription and still got reminders that i would be billed in two weeks time. So they will take your money AND waste your time!.Version: 184.4
✓ Waste of time and moneyHonestly it’s terrible. I bought it thinking it will be helpful, it is not. The narration is atrocious and the summaries leave a lot to be desired. No description as to what needs further grasping. They use terms that are explained in the book as everyday language which is confusing to just assume you know what it means. I wish I could get a refund..Version: 262.0
✓ ScamI downloaded the app out of curiousness, as it interested me. I went on the app and it says NOTHING about when you press the arrows through the slides as like a tutorial it takes 10 pounds out each time you press the arrow. No warning nothing. so i had a notification from my bank minutes later saying 30 quid had been taken out. Obviously i had no intention on buying these things at all, so emailed about a thousand times no response and then finally had a réponses saying basically it’s my fault for pressing on the arrows when there was no warning of buy now or a price on it. they refused to refund me and i deleted the app straight away 30 quid down the drain. Don’t trust, didn’t even use the services i purchased and didn’t even bother refunding me. Dont fall for it! they will take your money..Version: 267.2
✓ I Got ScammedI bought a subscription and have been trying to contact them bc it is not working. No one is getting back to me. Their email congratulating me on my purchase, linked me to their app and all that does is try to sell me a subscription which I already have but can’t use..Version: 148.0
✓ PointlessNot for me, and not really sure who the audience is. The app starts by recommending consuming 38 “books” a month. Seems like an arbitrary goal of summaries, and makes you wonder how much detail you will retain at such a pace. But as a prolific reader, I thought that reading the salient points of a handful of books could help me narrow down what I would like to focus on and read the full length version of. Unfortunately, I never found anything of value during my trial. The majority of selections in my recommendations I’ve already read and were very dated. The ones that I wasn’t familiar with, I had no idea why they were being recommended to me as they didn’t fit my survey results. How many books do I need summarized about being productive in the morning? The library trends predominantly to self help books. Summaries must come from AI because they vary in quality from book to book. I read a couple summaries from books that I was familiar with and I didn’t feel they managed to identify the key takeaways. If you are one of the 5 people who never read Rich Dad Poor Dad or Freakenomics, maybe you will get value out of it. But if you had any interest in the topic, chances are you’ve read them in the past 20 years without the aid of a summarization..Version: 232.8
✓ ScamThey lure you in with the free trial subscription and then take your money without any chance for a refund..Version: 1.10.0
✓ Dishonest marketing and zero reply to concernsSo I tried the 7 day trial. I thought I cancelled the trial. I get charged for a year. I have contacted the company twice now. Zero reply. The app does not work as advertised and even though I have been charged the app shows I am not registered for access to books as promised. This is not a case of not knowing how to use the App Store, or anything like that. Rather the marketing is deceptive and set up to charge regardless. The fact the books do not have original covers is also suspect. If the company bothers to reply to this review, the question I have is why they cannot reply to support requests?.Version: 95.3
✓ ScamThey do not offer a stop subscription. They automatically pull money out of your account even after a subscription cancel..Version: 263.3
✓ DO NOT SUBSCRIBE - Fraudulent activity reportedI subscribed via Paypal to this app. The same day I started the trial period I cancelled the subscription with Paypal. In my subscriptions within Apple this app was not present as a subscription. Having cancelled with Paypal I considered the matter finalised. I have today viewed my bank account to find the company have taken £43 directly . I did not originally subscribe with Apple Pay and no subscription was set up with Apple. Subscriptions are listed - this was not and has never been present as a subscription . The payment taken from my bank was not via Paypal. I did not authorise this transaction. Having contacted the company they informed that I should have cancelled my subscription - I did. Please be very aware of subscribing to this app. Today my bank has launched an investigation into this as I am not the only person this has happened to. The company are known to the bank and if you read reports on the in web this is a common dilemma to customers ..Version: 111.0
✓ ScamAfter signing up for the one week free trial it will ask u to sign up for the ‘free trial plan’ that costs 150+ for half a year.Version: 1.17
✓ I have never been so upset about an app experienceScam. Someone is making a killing off this. They lure you in with a free trial, and then scam you out of over $100. Not to mention, the summaries are terrible quality. It’s like they’ve been written by someone in the 9th grade. I suspect it’s all done poorly by AI. Even before I realized how badly they scammed me, I was extremely disappointed in the writing and summary quality..Version: 259.3
✓ Useless Without PaymentSo it turns out you can’t read any book summaries from a book you’d actually like to read, you can only read one free summary they force feed you, that isn’t even a selection from your saved books. So unless you want to do the 7 day trial and then pay, there’s zero reason to download the app. It would make more sense to me if you got a less functional version of the app if you didn’t want to pay the subscription, such as having to watch ads or only getting to read one summary a day, but I’d at least like to be able to select what I was able to read. The advertisements I’ve seen definitely don’t talk about how the only way to actually read something you want off of this app is to pay. It’s way more convenient to just get a library card. Edit: Today I came across such a sexist ad for this app, talking about downloading this app to be the “most interesting woman in the room”, as if the everyday woman is uneducated and boring. I never would’ve downloaded the app in the first place if that had been the first ad I’d seen..Version: 257.3
✓ Spammed by emailI looked into Headway and considered it briefly. Of course you must provide an email to look at what the app has to offer. I decided against Headway and have now had a barrage of spam emails that keep coming even though I have "unsubscribed"..Version: 116.1
✓ Just badI had high hopes of this and it’s one of the worst apps I’ve ever encountered. The reality is firstly that reviews are written by non-native English speakers/some form of AI: so they just sound very strange and not at all natural. If you’re not a native English speaker that may matter less. Second, they sound like a (bad) book report rather than a summary. Lots of ‘the author thinks’ and ‘the author shows’ for example. I’ve tried at least 10 books and can’t get any handle on what the point is of any of these books from these summaries, even for those I’d read before. So if you want the detail you’re going to have to fork out and buy the actual book. And that means whatever you’re paying for this app is basically a waste of money. It’s truly dreadful..Version: 82.6
✓ Horrible ! THEY WILL NOT RESPOND TO YOUI signed up for a free trial and was billed for the year. I’ve written two emails to their support team and have never received a response. A fraudulent app and I can’t believe they are able to continue to offer it here..Version: 1.12.0
✓ Paywall remains and can’t unsubscribeTerrible experience. Got the free trial subscription and then couldn’t access the content. Then once the trial had finished I tried to unsubscribe through my settings and online to no avail. Got in contact with Headway and only got automatic replies with instructions that didn’t work. All while they continue to deduct money from my bank account. Couldn’t give zero stars but that’s what this experience deserved..Version: 263.3
✓ Focus on your moneyThey are more take your money than help you in some way. They should give a trial for a month to see if it’s real worth and not asking for payment at the first..Version: 170.6
✓ Really badDO NOT SUBSCRIBE!!!! Not good content at all! I never rewrite reviews but this is necessary. I paid $40 for a years subscription and I feel like I could read all the books on there in a ,onto if I really wanted to. Yes they’re meant to be sort books but they aren’t even good. There isn’t a lot of book options on there and all the catergories are mostly the same and all the books have the same premis. Additionally I bought this to give audio books a try andonce I tried listening to a book I turned it off straight away that’s how bad the voice is. Save your time and money and do not purchase this app. You’re better off buying full books on things such as audible or Apple Books. I’ve basically paid £40 for a years subscription basically to delete the app days later. Save your money and buy an actual book.Version: 69.1
✓ It’s a scamDo not get lured into this.Version: 164.9
✓ Disappointed in myself for Trying the appThe app popped up in a social media add, I had been slacking in my reading recently so I decided to get a free trial. I get how trials work and why they set them up to auto bill after the trial, I accept that. I have never been so mad at myself for not canceling a free trial on time, and I’ve done it a few times with other apps I really didn’t want to pay for. If you are planning to ‘Listen’ to the book summaries, the robotic auto- read narration is so god awful I wished myself deaf. It does a horrible job at communicating the intent. I’m not sure if the summaries were written that poorly or the auto-read technology is that bad, lack of punctuation, pause, tone and human inflection often leave you confused at what you heard that you can’t even pay attention. I even tried listening to one of the books on focus and paying better attention, it didn’t help. The cards and summaries seemed to get the main points of books across I was familiar with, but I think you would have been better off reading a free summary online. The ‘cards’ and repetition features don’t seem like they would be helpful to most people or really add much value to make the App worth even risking a free trial..Version: 1.21
✓ ScamI should have read the reviews before I downloaded this app, very disappointed . I cancelled my subscription the day I downloaded the app because its not what I expected, and just realized from my card statements they’ve been deducting payments! Funny thing is I’ve checked my Apple purchases so many times and it’s not even showing I’m subscribed to this anymore!.Version: 265.2
✓ Bad customer care... fraudulent subscription pricesI try to contact them about my subscription, which they charge me 132$ for 6 months... they did not asked me which one I want when I subscribed.. there is no reply and no contact number... do not get into this app.. very shady.Version: 1.13.0
✓ False advertisingThe infographics cost extra, when it’s already 36$ CAD a month. A MONTH! Do not fall for this scam. It’s basically the back covers of books read by AI narrators. It’s just AI generated content, just ask chat GPT to summarize a book and have Siri read it to you. There, saved you hundreds of dollars a year. Garbage..Version: 265.2
✓ Misleading marketingFunny story, I’ve clicked on their instagram ads MULTIPLE times before realizing that those ads are completely false. They have many different ones with information on various measures of personality types and there’s a little rectangle that says “Take Test” at the bottom so you assume there’s going to be a quiz. So I (re)download the app and then… There are no quizzes or even suggested lists for the categories they advertised. It’s just another app that summarizes books. But without the personalized suggestions they promised. Do those appear somewhere after I pay them money? So despite being literally duped many times, the app itself looks pretty nice. It has broad categories for types of books if you want to browse but I think there’s a cap on how much you can read/listen to if you don’t pay the subscription. If I were to use the app, I’d like to see a “mark as read” function for books that I’ve actually already read or maybe a way to request books. For me it was an easy way to see what books are popular but other than that it doesn’t really have any use for me. Especially since it’s not what I thought I was getting based on their own ads..Version: 179.0
✓ Great concept not well executed.Great idea, I was pulled in by the ads. I wasn’t impressed with the quality of the book summaries - seem watery and lacking in clarity compared to competitor apps like Blinkist. The infographics, which come with an additional monthly subscription cost, were nowhere near as info-rich or data driven as the ads make out. I didn’t find them useful; in fact arguably, most of them weren’t even infographics, just small bits of summarized texts from the books all on one image, which you don’t really learn much from. I contacted customer service about an accidental purchase and wasn’t responded to for over a month, which is incredibly slow for an app/tech company today (again, Blinkist seemed to reply in 24 hours, like most). Overall quite disappointing..Version: 259.3
✓ Caution before subscribingI loved the idea of replacing doom scrolling with micro learning. I love to read and learn new things, and I thought this would be an interesting new way to do that. I was disappointed to find that the book summaries were far too simple. They take a book and shave it right down to a few basic points per chapter. They simplify it so far, that the information you’re left with is basically common knowledge. They’ve taken out all the supporting details that make the information interesting or memorable. They essentially erase the author’s perspective. I figured out pretty quick that this app wasn’t for me and cancelled my subscription. I later realized that I was charged for an additional 2 months after canceling. When I reached out to customer support, I was told the the 2 months I was overcharged for were nonrefundable because I had subscribed through their website rather than through the app. I’m not sure how that happened considering I just downloaded the app and followed the prompts. Finally I paid an additional $15 for infographics that I was never able to access. The company had no response to that complaint. Apparently they’re quite comfortable with ripping people off. If you’re interested in overpaying for book summaries, please proceed with caution..Version: 233.22
✓ SneakyI opted into this app from a Facebook ad. I have gone back-and-forth with Customer Service about charging me after the trial when it very clearly says when you sign up that several reminders will be sent when your trial period is about to run out so that you can decide whether you want to keep the app or cancel the membership. I received zero and I mean zero notifications. I also did not see the app in my recently purchased so there was no way for me to go back and delete it or unsubscribe until I was billed. I very respectfully wrote back two emails letting the customer service personnel know what had transpired and they could care less. I think this is very sneaky I am very aware of how trial periods work but I also believe that you can go back and see the history of the application being used or not used and I was not given any notification I think it’s garbage and really bad customer service and a really bad way to do business. I will eat the $40 but I feel like this is just mean and not a good way to attain and keep loyal customers. Tracking them into paying for something they don’t use and yes I said tricking because zero notification was sent even though your sign up process said it would..Version: 157.3
✓ Great concept, irritating voicesI have had a great time so far reading the content summaries of the many books I’ve been keen to read but not had time. I tried just listening to book summaries to maximise time while doing other things but the voices to me are quite robotic, monotone or irritating. I gave this feedback in the app and it’s alternated between 2 or 3 equally uninspiring voices. It does have many of the titles I was keen to know more about so it’s a great help when wanting to know more about a title. I’ve experimented with some summaries of books I’ve read that had inspired me in the past and honestly it is not the same at all. Sometimes not even coming close to what I took from a book. I guess books can mean many things to many people. Most summaries give me an urge to read the actual book as they touch on some points I’d like to know more about, but I don’t feel like I’m gaining as much as I thought from the advertising. Overall it’s ok, more productive then scrolling social media I imagine..Version: 233.11
✓ DupedFell for a year promotion. Paid $ 50 US. Then was put on a 3month payment plan for $40 US. Essentially I was assigned two contracts. I was able to unsubscribe from the second plan but, but I have no idea how to get a refund for the supposed annual subscription I paid for! I have no access to the app and only receive stupid helpful hints in my email. Don’t support these people! Get Kindle unlimited instead!!.Version: 262.0
✓ BEWARE of subscription renewal!!!If you forget to cancel your free trial even by a day they charge you for a YEAR! No chance of refund. $130 ish Canadian. Yikes! Ap itself is ok but not at that price. Feel ripped off. Lesson learned. This is my 1st 1star review..Version: 160.6
✓ Make sure to double-check your trial cancellationI signed up to Headway paying around £10 for a trial, but pretty quickly realised that i won’t find the time for using it, so I cancelled it to not be further charged once the trial is up. However, when it had run out I was charged with the full monthly fee. I immediately contacted their customer service. Apparently my cancellation hadn’t registered in their system and despite not having read a single book in their app they pointed to their no-refund policy and that they do automatic renewals (without informing the customer one might add!) for the customer’s convenience. We’ll, the convenience for THEM to pocket £30 for absolutely nothing and having less automatic emails to send. I can‘t comment on the quality of the app, but the people who run it are appalling. I will never be a customer again!.Version: 255.0
✓ Horrible!Beyond disappointed.Version: 1.24
✓ Good and…I haven’t used the app too long yet and didn’t read that many summaries. My verdict so far is; there are many summaries in here which is fantastic. From the few I read/listened to I wasn’t sure if they were as clear as some other summaries I had found. Also, the reading voice for some of the summaries is very robotic and difficult to listen to. An example for both of the above points is ‘The Fifth Discipline - Peter M. Senge’. I also find it frustrating that the app on an iPad only works in portrait mode. When you have an attached keyboard and want to read on your iPad standing in front of you on that keyboard, that’s not possible..Version: 231.8
✓ Badly read booksMost of the books are poorly ready by automated computer text readers (not humans), this means that emphasis is non-existent where it’s required in a sentence/paragraph. Punctuation is sometimes ignored and it makes it very difficult to listen to. It doesn’t integrate properly with Bluetooth devices. Back and forward buttons should skip 5-10 seconds in either direction so you can re-listen to what was JUST said (needed often with the computer generated voice books), but instead it skips back an entire chapter! Not great when driving or in the shower... which is when many people would be using this app. I wish I hadn’t paid money for this. I can get clearer, human-read info from free videos or podcasts of the same topics..Version: 116.1
✓ Intrigued by the infographics in the ads?I certainly was! The use of these in the advertising is what drew my attention to pay for the yearly subscription, bit of a shame to find out afterwards that you have to pay extra to access these. Good app otherwise.Version: 215.6
✓ DON’T TRUST THE TRIAL - it’s misleadingI am very mad right now! They have taken $150 out of my account. First they had monthly highlighted. I’d never agree to a yearly subscription so somehow it transferred over plus they gave me a 2day warning and I unsubscribed the following day and they had already taken money out of my account. I expect a refund. I feel tricked, ripped off and completely misguided..Version: 260.3
✓ ScamI downloaded this app a few months ago, and paid for the annual subscription. Subsequently I cancelled all future subscription payments so it didn’t roll over at the 12 month mark which would have been 2024. For some reason they have charged my account again, with no explanation. I’ve tried 4x over a couple of weeks to reach out via the help desk and I’ve not even had a response. The payment they’ve charged was over $100, so not a small amount! Good product but this company is very untrustworthy and I don’t recommend leaving your card information with them..Version: 254.3
✓ Why do you have to pay for it?I don’t have any money I don’t want to pay for it and I can’t so can you make it free like I don’t mind watching ads after each book but still can you make it can you make they’re free version because it seems like a cool app, but I really don’t want to pay because I don’t have any money.Version: 220.5
✓ No free trialThey changed me immediately for the whole amount, I wish I read the reviews before, how can I trust these people and use the app?.Version: 261.3
✓ ScamPaid for the subscription but nothing worked, no response.Version: 262.3
✓ A SCAM - do not sign up!!! They steal your money!!This app will offer you an ‘incredible’ free trial. You will use the app for two seconds and realise it’s a total waste of time then unsubscribe. Unfortunately, regardless of the fact you have unsubscribed you WILL GET CHARGED for an annual subscription. There a huge amount of complaints against this company on Google review and Apple Store for them charging customers after they have unsubscribed and people never receiving a refund. I followed all the correct protocol, my account literally says NO SUBSCRIPTION and I still got charged a $75 subscription after the end of the trial period. The only way to cancel this is to cancel the credit card you signed up with. It is disgusting that an organisation will do this, and this is clearly a scam. The content of the APP is rubbish, I didn’t listen through a single book, it’s a total waste of time. DO NOT SIGN UP TO THIS APP! THEY WILL STEAL YOUR MONEY!!!!!.Version: 262.3
✓ Love love love the concept, narrators need some updatingI am absolutely obsessed with the idea behind this app. I couldn’t ask for something more up my alley. The UI of the app is clean and easy to use and there is so much potential here. However, the narrators of the summaries are almost certainly computer generated. The voicing is very robotic and monotonous and it makes absorbing the information very difficult. The summaries themselves are just ok. I think they can do a bit better to capture the voice of the writer and not just regurgitate general sparknotes. There is definitely a middle ground where the fluff of the book is taken out but the key concepts and examples are preserved. There is too much of a focus on quantity and there needs to be more on quality. Maybe an option where users can choose how much of a summary they’d like of the book between a short bullet point style like they have now and a longer form, more absorbable format. I have seen others with similar feedback. Hopefully this gets addressed and I would gladly return as a paying customer!.Version: 232.18
✓ This app is trash, you have to pay to use!Title says it all. You can’t do anything on the app until you activate a 7 day trial and then pay 117$ for the year! You can only look at the pretty book covers. This is a great concept but I guess the developers are insanely greedy that they can’t offer a free version of the app with limited functions to at least let people try the app before committing. Don’t bother downloading..Version: 169.6
✓ Give money backTo be exact it was 133$ taken from me and i cannot cancel so i want money back now because even if it was canceled before hand it still won’t work.Version: 1.23
✓ They Scam you even more with upsells that you don’t even know you are purchasingI spent almost $50 CAD before I even downloaded the app, and as soon as I saw the accidental charge, I cancelled everything and tried to request a refund through Apple only to realize that they do not charge through Apple (1st red flag). At least Apple is reasonable when it comes to accidental subscriptions, this company is not. They charge you directly, and do not give refunds so when you think you are simply personalizing your content, you are actually signing up for additional monthly subscriptions! It is insane that their rating is even this high. I am surprised more users haven’t come forward with the same experience. That money could have gone to groceries, or an exercise class, instead it went to a shady company who tries to squeeze you for every last dime and does not offer refunds. DON’T DO IT, I’m sure there is much better out there. At the bare minimum, don’t give your money to an app that doesn’t charge you through Apple, as there is no way to fight charges you were unaware that you made..Version: 262.3
✓ Great idea in theory. Bad customer support.Thought I’d try out Headway with a three month promo. Didn’t really gel with it, the summaries lack all the meat that makes the content stick, or make sense. Apparently auto renew was on (despite me swearing I cancelled it well ahead of time) and it renewed for another three months. I contacted customer support within minutes of receiving the email saying it’d renewed but I was refused, on the grounds of clause 7.8 that all purchases are non refundable. I’m done with Headway. I can’t recommend it on customer support alone, let alone that it didn’t work for me..Version: 265.2
✓ ScamSimilar to other reviews on her, I subscribed which was a huge mistake. The ‘books’ are not books, they are brief summaries of existing books and the bulk of the point to the books is missed. You’d be better buying the actual book itself for the price of the app. Also, I paid £58 for an annual subscription and an offer popped up on the app offering it for £48 instead and stated I would be refunded the difference between what I’d already paid. The refund never came so currently I’ve been charged almost £100 for an app that isn’t even worth £1. The customer service is terrible, I just receive a copy and pasted email back every time I’ve tried to contact and no one is willing to help. Do not buy this app..Version: 205.7
✓ Audio is American accent.I purchased headway, and was quite excited about using it. However, when listening to the audio books, I found that they were all in an American accent which I found it difficult to relate to, also, I just felt that it was a little bit electronic like it wasn’t a real person reading the book out loud. For me, if there was a possibility to change the accent of the person reading the book to you, then I probably would’ve kept the app and the subscription. I didn’t get far enough into the subscription to know whether or not this was a good choice for me or if it worked. If the app designers decide to add a feature where you can change the accent of the audio, then I would consider using this again..Version: 250.1
✓ *Scam Alert! Beware! *I saw this app being sponsored, and after looking into it, decided to try the “free” trial. Well, apparently there’s no such thing. I got charged immediately without my knowing. Within 2 days of trying it out, I realized I didn’t like the format because it wasn’t what I was expecting. I went into the app, hit “unsubscribe,” and deleted the app. I thought this was all set. Until I received my credit card statement with a charge for the app on it. I was charged as soon as I downloaded the app. Not after the free trial. So apparently, hitting unsubscribe wasn’t good enough. I was apparently expected to contact apple for a refund. But didn’t realize I got charged until I got my statement in the mail, and now I’m outside of the cancellation period. The funniest part is, if I go back into the app, and hit “resubscribe,” I’m being notified that I’ll get charged. So I basically made a $64 donation to this app when I downloaded it. This is all infuriating, and super scammy. I’ve never had any issues with apps before, nor have I ever written a review, but after being on the phone with customer service for over an hour and being told there’s nothing they can do, I can’t help but want to warn everyone that this is how this app is operating. Shameful! Oh, and I was informed that if I contact my credit card to reverse charge, I could potentially lose my apple account. WOW!.Version: 160.6
✓ Such a great idea!The idea of this is great, the execution of it is not. I checked out the summary of a book that I am very familiar with and understand the concepts of it completely, and I just didn’t feel like the summary really got the point of the book. So that decreased the credibility of the summaries for me. The next thing is that I didn’t realize that it wasn’t real people reading the summaries and the robotic AI voices are very hard to listen to, they actually have no life in the sound of the voice, and I didn’t realize how hard it would be to engage in the learning without that real life voice. The weirdness of the quirky mispronunciations and awkward timing in the readings pushed me over the edge and I had to cancel my subscription/free trial which was easy. Just remember to go to profile, settings, click on manage subscription (don’t delete account yet) and click cancel subscription. It’s very clear and easy. I’m grateful for that, and grateful for the opportunity to try it. This was not for me, but give it a try, it might be right for you..Version: 265.2
✓ ScamTotal scam charged me up for a yearly subscription automatically after a free trial and didn’t even notify me that the trial was over GIVE ME MY $133 back.Version: 166.0
✓ Do not waste your moneyI forgot to cancel my free trial so I gave it a shot anyways. Extremely disappointing selection of books. Robot narrator that makes you want to jump onto a cactus. Don’t waste your time or money..Version: 1.15.1
✓ Great Idea,shame about the narrationI have to say, what an amazing choice of books to listen to. I prefer the audio as I have a visual impairment in my right eye.. also, it allows me to listen on the go and take in more information. My biggest criticism would the the narration. Some of the voices are really hard to listen to, and others sound very robotic. If they’re using people to narrate, the sound is so over processed. One voice exaggerates every single word, and I can’t listen to it. I do wish there were other accents rather than just American. It would be good if there were some choices with voices too. I would give the app a 5 had it not been for the narration, as it really is a great app with lots of amazing books.Version: 210.0
✓ Great idea, annoying executionUpon seeing this app, I thought it had a great idea, bite sized bits of information to learn and better yourself. The idea of the app is great, however, they force their subscription so many times the app is almost unusable for a free user. There’s a delicate balance between offering a subscription, and forcing it. This app has crossed the line 100 miles back on forcing it. If you’re a free user, you can only read/hear about 2 out of the 10 books it recommends you per day. If you click on one that you have to be part of the subscription to use? Instant popup for the subscription. Click another one that you didn’t know counted as a premium book? Instant popup. It’s popup central for their subscription service. Too limited use for free members and a constant burden of popups makes for a very infuriating experience. Great idea for the app, but dear lord dial down on forcing the membership. I should be buying the membership because I want it, not because you showed it to me well over 1000x..Version: 230.13
✓ DONT DOWNLOAD, FREE TRIAL SCAMA bad app developed by people that are obviously just in it to make money. I had high hopes for this app, but it’s good idea done badly. At every turn it cuts corners. It uses speech to text for the audio tracks, the UI/UX was buggy and the content is low quality. I didn’t ready any summary’s of books I had read to check their accuracy but of what I did read, it felt jumpy, rushed and kinda like it was written by either a bot or someone with limited working proficiency in English. The icing on the cake is the automatic £88 6-month subscription after the free trail ends which I, nor others, feel was made clear. Of course, a little my fault but such blatant money grabbing tactics are just gross. I don’t usually write reviews but felt compelled to share so others don’t suffer the same fate..Version: 86.0
✓ UnimpressedInstantly regretted paying for this. All the books are voiced by a computer. Sounds like Siri is reading too you. Refund please..Version: 1.6.2
✓ ScamMake it completely impossible to cancel the subscription.Version: 158.3
✓ Mediocre content, bad programmingI have listened to about 20 book summaries over the past two weeks on Headway. They have a great selection of books across huge variety of genres. I have found the summaries to be OK but not inspiring. One of the things about books that makes them great is the stories they tell, but you cannot fit a story into a 15 minute summary so while the content of the summary is good it lacks the impact that the real book has. I have yet to listen to a book read by a real human, they’ve all been either a male or female computer that does an OK job. The functionality of the app itself is pretty bad. I get emails or notifications recommending certain books, but when you tap on that notification it opens the app back to the last page you were on instead of sending you to the recommended book. It takes forever to load the audio, and does not have any controls available in CarPlay. Today it told me “continue reading for zero minutes to meet your daily goal!” Overall I am using it as a way to screen books to decide what I’m interested in actually reading, rather than finding inspirational summaries like I expected..Version: 156.1
✓ It's a scamMy overall impression of Headway services is terrible, I would never recommend them to anyone. I was charged 3 times for the past 4 months, and only 1 time I was actually supposed to pay. The first refund (after I was charged twice because of a bug in your payment system) was replaced by some bizarre infographics pack I didn’t ask for. The second time I wanted a refund because I wasn’t using your service and simply forgot to cancel the auto-renewal. I asked for a refund just a few hours after I noticed my card had been charged. My request was declined, although any other company would look at usage analytics and make a refund without any questions asked. But it looks like Headway is just a scam, charging people in every possible way. And you’re using the Ukrainian flag in your branding! You should be ashamed..Version: 217.4
✓ Good concept ruined by non-English speakersSome of Headway’s book summaries are quite useful but others are completely ruined by poor summaries from people to whom English is obviously a second language. I tried really hard for a month to like Headway, but trying to decipher shoddy summaries is a waste of my time. Be warned..Version: 177.4
✓ Don’t do it!!!The default subscription is a year. No reminder that the app free trial will expire. Automatically charged one of the most expensive subscriptions. Apple should remove this from the App Store!.Version: 173.3
🙂 Headway: Daily Book Summaries Positive Reviews
Headway: Daily Book Summaries works most of the time. If it is not working for you, we recommend you excersise some patience and retry later or contact Headway: Daily Book Summaries.
⛔ Headway: Daily Book Summaries Problems
