The Promise of Emotional Enlightenment… and the Paywall of Disappointment

What have I tried recently? I’m going to be honest (there goes my affiliation bonus) but I did a trial using an iOS app called ‘Ahead’ which is centered around emotional intelligence. It’s got a nice UX layout and has some real useful insights – nothing I didn’t already know but does a good job of bringing it to the front of my mind.

Ahead promises a lot, and you get a small taste of that during the free trial. It comes with a series of features designed to help you understand your feelings, including a Daily Mood Tracker, which lets you log your emotions and see patterns over time. There’s also the Journal, which encourages you to reflect on your day and think about how you reacted to certain situations. You can even access the Insight section, which gives you little nuggets of wisdom about different emotions and how to manage them.

Where it fails is that it’s mostly hidden behind a paywall after a 7 day trial – it doesn’t want adverts to ruin your experience (hence the subscription fee) which is ironic considering the notification bashing I experienced from the app itself! I’d recommend the app if you want to be pummeled by sinisterly friendly notifications until you either subscribe or delete the app.

I deleted the app.

But not before a notification floated up offering to extend my 7 day trial to 30 days – for free.

Upon clicking the notification – nothing happened. No extension, no acknowledgement, the notification long gone. Was it a bug or a con?

It’s a classic bait-and-switch. The app dangles the promise of emotional growth in front of you, only to yank it away unless you fork over the cash. The fact that the extended trial offer was either a bug or a deliberate ploy just adds to the sense of cynicism. It’s a prime example of an app that’s more interested in milking you for a subscription than it is in genuinely helping you.

I feel Ahead has some nice tools to help deal with emotional intelligence but my cynical demeanour was so offended and ‘triggered’ through yet another marketing funnel posing as an app that gives a damn.

I’ll tell you what’s worked better for me in recent times – stoicism, and delving into the idea of the self. 

Have you used Ahead? What did you think?