Shapa

I love the idea behind this app/program. As someone who has for years looked to dieting as the way to lose weight I now see the key role that making behavioral changes plays in achieving overall health - which is in actuality my overall goal. One main issue (and reason for the missing star): One part of the program consists of missions of which the user has the option of accepting or declining one or both. If declined another is offered. There are times I’ve declined a mission that I’m certain I would benefit from simply because I may be unable to complete it within a specified time period because of circumstances outside of my control. MY ISSUE? I get the response that the mission may not be right for me so I won’t be offered that mission again - no questions asked. For me personally that’s very disappointing because as I indicated above, the mission (s) declined may be some that I desperately need to complete in order to make the behavioral changes necessary to help me achieve optimum health.

I like the non-intrusive way this scale and weight control system works. If you prefer to not have someone constantly looking over your shoulder this scale let’s you see progress or backsliding and let’s you take control of it yourself. The missions help you accomplish your goals by giving you set concrete tasks related to several aspects of healthy weight loss; they help you alter your self awareness and mindfulness, food habits, activity, and other relevant aspects of healthy living. And it’s fun to get the virtual reward badges too! I love seeing my Shapa Age change as I accomplish more mission goals and lose weight! Shapa Age is what they calculate based on the goals you accomplish and your weight & BMI. Really fun!

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While the previous version of the app stayed true to the company commitment to stay away from actual weight in terms of lbs as a metric, this version includes weight as a number. This is ridiculous and disappointing, especially since there are so many other ways to display progress without using literal weight in pounds. The company will say that there is an option to turn this new feature off but its existence, and how the app writes daily weight to Apple Health, completely defeats the purpose of selling a “weight free” scale. It literally is no longer truly numbers free. Even worse, the “missions” you are given include typos that should be caught by simple proofreading and are generally of little benefit given the cost paid for the associated AI capability. “Missions” to do things like avoid fried food for a week or send a silly selfie to a friend certainly aren’t remotely innovative. This app and associated scale provide no benefit that a regular $10 scale combined with a google sheet, a few formulas, and some math couldn’t for significantly less money. This has become a colossal waste of money.

I love the missions and the colors. I’m a lifelong dieter, and I have a very unhealthy relationship with food and scales. This has been great for me so far! I want to lose about 30lbs and the positive/fun guidance along with not seeing numbers on the scale is just what I want. I already feel better emotionally about eating well, the encouragement I’m getting to move more is working, and the reward is that my color changes each time I lose weight consistently for 10 days. Thank you developers, I hope I’m on my way to having a healthy relationship with myself (and food) for the first time in my life. :)

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So far, the idea and the promise are great, but the delivery is erratic. Sometimes I have to step on the scale more than once to wake it up (no, its not the battery). The idea of having to commit to a specific daily AM an PM hour for stepping on the scale is totally unrealistic. The daily tasks are mostly annoying and sometimes totally outdated (drink 8 glasses of water, hug your friend, write your feelings in a journal, use interesting spices in your cooking, etc.). The praise and the award badges for being “good” are inane. But what’s most irritating is that the app does not refresh itself daily and I have to turn off the phone (recycle it) every day for the app to show a new day (no, it’s not my iPhone, and even if it is the iPhone’s latest software upgrade, Shapa’s job is to be always caught up). I committed to 2 years and that was likely a very stupid thing to do.