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{App Warning} Heads up….. if you already have the First Blubs app with all of the animals unlocked and like using it in therapy do NOT update the app or remove it from your iPad. If you did not already have that app, do NOT purchase it. They raised the price to a ridiculously high $99.99 to discourage folks from purchasing it and instead steering them to a new app called Speech Blubs (https://appsto.re/us/n0z4jb.i).

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Unfortunately the app developer has chosen to switch to a subscription based model with that new app and are charging $9.99 per month (that’s $119.88 per year folks….. I don’t care what enhancements they may have done there is no way an app like that is worth that amount.). They claim to have received input from parents and SLPs that they would be willing to pay that. I find that extremely hard to believe.

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I expressed my concerns to the app developer in an e-mail on 6/12/17. Since they had not replied, I expressed concern when the developer posted last week in one of the SLP Facebook groups but that post now seems to have disappeared.

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Because they have mentioned OMazing Kids in the description of the new app I feel compelled to make it clear that I do NOT endorse that new app due to the price.

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I totally understand an app developer needing to cover the costs of making an app and making some profit. But I get very angry when I sense that an app developer is trying to take advantage of parents who have a child with special needs. Please do not be enticed into their offer for a free trial since you then may be enrolled in the monthly fee after that free trial has ended.

I submitted the following concerns in a review on the App Store:

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Based on the app developer’s reply that I received in an e-mail from Apple, it is clear that they are sticking with the subscription-based approach and even more concerning imply that the app might be better than the services provided by a SLP:

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Update:

It took a social media blitz to get them to remove the OMazing Kids name from the description for Speech Blubs on the App Store but I just saw they are still using my name on their website and linking back to a post I did last August about the Blub Blub app. I did an update to that post to hopefully force them to quit using the OMazing Kids name on their website, any social media or any app stores (Apple, Google Play, Amazon or any others that might appear in the future). The app developer is luring folks in with the promise of a free short trial and then charging a $9.99 per month subscription fee. They are also misusing the names of several SLP blogs including my own to promote this new app. On their website they include quotes from reviews for the original app and number of users from that app and are trying to pass them off as being related to this new app. I saw that several other folks have written reviews expressing concerns on the App Store. To see them you’ll have to tap “All Reviews” since reviews are hidden there once an app developer releases an update.

They have seriously messed with the wrong speechie…. I am very active and vocal on social media, am in almost every SLP Facebook group that they might try to lure SLPs in and am definitely not afraid to call them out every single time I see them post.

Also see this post on my Facebook page and the comments section on that post:

 

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Angela Moorad, MS, CCC-SLP
Speech-Language Pathologist
Founder of OMazing Kids, LLC