23andMe - DNA Testing

Such an amazing concept and the app update is incredible! They'll send you a kit, all you do is spit in the tube they provide and mail it off. Super easy. I got my results super fast too. Thanks to 23andMe I discovered I have a half sister and surprisingly we get along great and we text occasionally and we follow each other on social media so I get to see her beautiful family and her adorable little children. Because of all the information my results provided I've also been able to adjust my diet to fit my bodies needs better (bonus: so far I've lost 30 lbs. by doing so). The downfall: the kits are VERY expensive! But it provides a ton of information so it's basically worth it. I'm currently saving up to buy my mom the health and ancestry kit. She's been struggling with her health so it could really help her and give me a lot of insight about myself as well. My goal is to get everyone in my immediate family on 23andMe, which might take a couple years since the kits are quite expensive but I know my family will thank me later.

Overall it’s a good app. User friendly for the most part and a beautiful interface. That being said, it could use some improvements. There’s no actual messaging section so if you want to message a relative, you have to go to that persons profile and click message. It would be great if there was a section totally dedicated to messaging where you can access them at the same time. There’s no notification that tells you when you get a new message either. You just get an email which can get a little excessive. Also sometimes when you try to send a message, the messaging function will randomly just close out in the middle of sending a message. Same when you try to put anything in the “how can we improve this feature” section. When you try to enter cities relatives were born in it doesn’t always work. You’ll select a city and it disappears similar to how the messaging function just closes you out. There’s also A LOT OF INFO so sometimes it’s kind of hard to find your way around because some sections are sort of arbitrarily labeled. I sometimes struggle to remember how to get back to things I’m looking for. These things don’t keep me from enjoying it though. It’s just a bit frustrating and I feel they could be easily fixed. When you consider the amount of information you get in this one app, these issues are minor and I hope 23 and me will fix them in the future because it could be great.

It’s about as good as an app could be that hasn’t figured out scrolling on a phone. Yes, when you are answering questions, it doesn’t let you scroll to see all the answers, making all the research they collect inaccurate. The only other thing that needs work is connecting with relatives. Location is a filter that can’t be applied by itself, why? It also takes some wild guesses at close relatives, but it’s still pretty impressive. The ancestry is really good and the health leaves a lot to be desired. The single most important thing about the app is that they keep refining and improving! The more information(also money) they get, the more accurate results they get. If you decide to buy it, you can keep coming back to see if they have more accurate results for you. They don’t just take your money(and saliva) and run, they use it to get better! As mentioned earlier, health isn’t worth the money yet at least, but I don’t feel too disappointed because I’m hopeful it will be improved later and if not, the ancestry was worth the money itself. I was also happily surprised by the noteworthy people in history that you share DNA with. It’s a nice little value add that may be unique to 23&me. It’s also has an intuitive layout that’s easy to navigate for the most part. Keep up the good work!

I recently joined after my daughter did. Being an attorney who believes in the adage “trust but verify”, i did a lot of reading prior to joining & became sufficiently comfortable to want to take part in some research. (one can opt out at any time). This site is fascinating & addicting! (much more so for me than FB used to be). It’s exciting to see names of relatives of mine that I haven’t heard in years & be able to send a safe msg through the site to reacquaint. It is fascinating to see names of people I recall my parents talking about when I was a child & contact their offspring who are my DNA relatives. And people have messaged me looking to explore relatives we have in common. I found I share DNA with well over 1,000 people who have participated in 123&me. and the site shows a map of countries in which those DNA relatives are likely from or live now. At the least, the educational offerings on this site are worth exploring if you are thinking about finding relatives and exploring your heritage & your personality.

The main service/product that 23andMe delivers to their customers is data, and so how that data is presented is absolutely clutch to the experience and paramount in achieving satisfying results. For the most part this is delivered on the iPhone, but opening that same app at double-pixels on an iPad is disappointing. Also, the data visualizations could’ve been delivered with a bit more pizzazz. The newer iPhones and especially iPads have processors that can render 3-D graphics and data visualizations. Taking this a step further, the app developer could make the visualizations interactive, especially considering the touchscreen nature of mobile devices. In summary, the service is cool & interesting and the app manages to display your data to you in a fine enough manner along with unobtrusive tutorials, questionnaires, FAQ, and other helpful things. I reserved the fifth star from this review bc they really should have a native app for the iPad, and the data visualizations should shine a bit more with Apple’s faster processors in the later iOS device generations.