(1) Warning: 1.5 min read.
(2) Your input is appreciated.
What is your experience with Lock Screen so far? Let me share mine, and you tell me if we share something in common.
Every good thing has room for improvement. CashWalk is a good app, and it also has room for improvement.
My biggest complaint about this app is the lock screen. I tried to work around it, but today, I gave up and turned it off.
IMO, the Lock Screen requirement is this app's most critically flawed feature, and it will be its undoing.
I understand that the app developers need to profit from the app to be sustainable. They earn money through ads. For instance, CashWalk app developers profit by exposing the ads to the users. So even though users are not looking at the ads, they are displayed on our phones 24/7, the advertisers pay for the advertisements that no one is watching, and the app developers collect money. Other than moral and ethical issues, it is quite profitable for developers when they have a significant number of users.
As a user, I find this mandatory lock screen beyond inconvenient. Using my phone and its everyday features has become extremely WTFrustrating. The lock screen encourages us users to waste our time and money. I paid over a thousand dollars for this piece of equipment called a smartphone, and I found out the CashWalk app is solely responsible for ruining my experience with it.
A few examples:
- Shortcut keys do not work. Voice commands, volume/power button shortcuts, quick camera functions, voice recording functions, making/answering phone calls, and many other shortcuts and automated functions are rendered useless. The lock screen stays stubbornly on the screen, and I must get rid of the CashWalk lock screen. Does my phone's shortcut feature work after I swipe the CashWalk lock screen? NO. I must unlock the phone with biometric features or passcodes, hunt down the app that I wanted to use in the first place, and operate everything MANUALLY.
- Cannot use safety features. Sometimes you need a flashlight. Sometimes, you need to be able to sound the alarm. And sometimes, you need to make an emergency 911 phone call. And often times, we must be able to whip out the camera and record the situation These are crucial features that save lives, especially if you are a female. CashWalk Lock Screen disables, if not severely hinders, these important and essential functions.
- The connected Smartwatch functions no longer work. I use my linked Smartwatches to take care of various types of notifications, answer phones, listen to podcasts and music, and pay my tabs. When I have CashWalk's Lock Screen on, none of these functions work.
- Other smart devices do not work. I have Google Assistance/Siri, Alexa, and other smart devices connected to my phone (and to my smart watches and remote controllers). They do not work most of the time.
- Cannot turn off the alarms. Before the CashWalk's Lock Screen: this is how I turned off the alarm: press "stop" on the phone's screen. After Lock Screen, this is how I turn off the alarm: swipe CashWalk's lock screen, unlock the phone, try several timse to unlock if biometric or passcode/patterns did not work the first time, find the clock function, open it, go to the alarm section, and turn off the alarm. If I get lucky, CashWalk Screen does not re-insert itself during these steps. Unfortunately, it does oftentimes, and I must go through all these steps again.
Not long ago, I forgot to turn off the phone during the meeting, and when the alarm went off, the entire meeting stopped for about a minute or two while I fumbled through the phone to kill the alarm. I almost lost my client over this.
- Cannot use automobile and navigation features. I brought my cars to the dealers to take a look. No fault was found, and I thought they were lying to protect their reputation. Then one day, I turned off the CashWalk's lock screen, and all my navigation systems in all my cars worked without a single hitch.
Statistics say we use smartphones 20 or 30 times a day, if not more. And every time we do as CashWalk users, we must deal with this Lock Screen situation. It is beyond WTFrustrting.
Simple tasks, such as listening to the podcast while walking, become projects. God forbid when the alarm goes off while listening to the podcast during daily walks. God help you if you have babies or dogs with you. You might have to grow limbs instantly if it happened while the babies were crying and dogs were barking. Neighbors'd better stay away from you and not say hello even in the distance.
These are a few problems that I cannot ignore. So, I turned off the Lock Screen, and boy, what a smooth day it has been. I stopped struggling with the phone but simply used it. Yes, I just USED the phone.
That efficiency changed the entire day's productivity. It is only 3 PM, and I had completed more tasks than on any other day. I even have time to write this long, pointless post that CashWalk CS will not bother to read or reflect on. (When the users address the lock screen problems, CashWalk blames users by defining the problem as "their confusion.")
CashWalk has so much potential. It rewards relatively easily, pays as promised, promotes community activities, and keeps users engaged. But its mandatory lock screen ruins the entire user experience, making all other excellent features insignificant and this app, worthless.
So, I plan to take down the lock screen most days, although I came to like this app very much. I want to support them and get involved more, but I have no intention of ruining my day and productivity by allowing myself to struggle.
What is your experience with the Lock Screen?
IMAGE SOURCE: Google Play Review / Reddit