Astra Trainer

This app is where I started to learn tarot. I dedicated myself to learning from here and did not realize until I bought my first actual deck that the app cuts off a lot of the cards. Some of the things talked about here describing the cards were hard to understand because you literally can’t see it in the image they provide because it’s cut off. I reached out to Astra about this three times. The first time I was told they would look into it, the other two times I was completely ignored. Since I now only use this app to reference cards when I don’t have them on me, it’s no good to me anymore and I’m trying to get a refund. In addition, I’m not convinced anyone is proof reading their AI created info and quiz questions. A few times things were very confusing or simply wrong. Also the format of the training became mundane over time because it felt like there was no variety in it. This is all unfortunate because over all this app has some great potential. But if the tarot cards are inaccurate, that’s a deal breaker.

I love Duolingo and have always had an interest in tarot and astrology so this seemed up my alley. I enjoyed my experience with the app so I dropped the amount for a lifetime membership attached to my Apple account. My phone was damaged from being dropped and I had to replace it. Now I am trying to restore it, but the text “Restore Purchase” on the plan selection screen doesn’t trigger an action. Update: I do give updates with this stuff. It’s been a reasonable amount of time since my first review that I would have thought I would at least get a response if not have the glitch fixed. So I figured maybe if I lower the rating until costumer service skills are demonstrated, that might help.

I was excited to try this app because I’m interested in learning Tarot, and the “like Duolingo but for Tarot” pitch really worked on me because I have an almost 3,000-day Duolingo streak (!!). Unfortunately, when you download it, you can’t even VIEW the app without logging in — and you can’t log in unless you subscribe for $9.99 per month. I’ve had lots of apps stop me from going very far without subscribing, but it’s a first for me to see an app that wants you to subscribe without even trying it or seeing what the user interface looks like. Why would I do that? I subscribe to an embarrassing number of apps and have no problem giving developers money for the content they work hard to produce. I never give a low star rating because an app wants you to pay to use it. But to convince me to download your app (to boost your download numbers) and then not even give me the ability to try before I buy — that’s a waste of my time, and it’s presumptuous, and that doesn’t sit right. If these people had provided the opportunity for me to try even one card’s worth of tarot practice, they probably could have gotten a year’s worth of money out of me.