Finger Blood Pressure: BP Mate

Originally my pulse and blood pressure readings were extremely high and not accurate. But I realized that my finger was pressing too hard on my iPhone camera. A light touch is all that is required for more accurate readings. I informed BP Mate of this information and they said that they would incorporate my suggestion on their app.

This seems like a decent app, however I’ve just been extorted into leaving a five star review in order to be allowed to continue using the app. I was literally given a popup that said “leave a 5 star review with at least 3 words for more uses.” The app wasn’t concerned with what my actual opinion and review or rating of this app may be; it literally strong-armed me into leaving a five star review in order to continue using it. My truthful and organic opinion of the app was that it’s actually a pretty decent app, and I’d have given it a very fair review (not 5 stars tho) while noting the couple shortcomings I’ve found it to have such as accuracy when compared directly to my BP inflation cuff (VERY close, but still always a few point lower than my actual BP when compared to my higher-end home BP monitoring device. Again, for an app I still feel it’s impressive how accurate it manages to be while simply using your pulse to determine your SYS/DIA). It also has some nice charting and tracking features, as well as the ability to manually enter in your BP’s take on a proper cuff and include that data in your charts. I’m not sure quite how well the calibration feature actually works so far, but I’m still tinkering so maybe it’ll dial itself in a bit better after more use. But I genuinely detest the fact that I was in plain English told by the app that if I wished to continue using the app I needed to go leave a 5 star rating with at least a three word review. I find this to be entirely unethical and a misleading way to produce falsified higher star ratings and reviews which other users will then base their decisions whether or not to download/setup and learn the app. The app should be confident enough to stand on its merits and allow the users to rate it based strictly upon their own user experience. Really disappointing. My HONEST star rating for this app would’ve been a 3.5. Deducting a star for extortion I put it at a 2.5. A shame bc with some basic improvements to UX and the basic integrity required to stand upon its own merits this could easily be a 4 to 5 star app.

This could be such a useful app and prevent so many issues and improve many, many lives. However, it inundates the user with ridiculous subscriptions, won’t let user keep a simple log, and leaves me more confused about blood pressure than I was when I downloaded it. Heart disease affects everyone in some way and I thought this would make the topic more manageable. They’ll make a better one that’s more accessible for the old people who need it like me. I’ll wait for that….unless my heart gives out of course!