A few weeks ago, I did the Alpha M 30 days to Look More Attractive Challenge. You can watch that video linked in the description. Part of that challenge was drinking one hundred ounces of water per day. To keep track of that intake, I purchased and downloaded an external mobile app. That mobile app is WaterMinder. Let me extend that old video challenge further by reviewing and entering my water intake with WaterMinder every day for 30 days. What’s going on everybody! My name is Jack Jenkins. I do reviews and challenges within the realm of self-improvement. Today it’s time for me to take on WaterMinder by doing the app for 30 days.
[Intro]
This application’s whole purpose is to track your hydration intake and compare that historically. I can say without a doubt that the app does this purpose perfectly. The application, by Funn Media, is available for iPhone, IPad, iWatch, and Google Android devices. It was originally available for purchase for just five dollars. However, since editing this review, the application was updated to be free with a subscription model. The subscription is now three dollars and fifty cents per month or twenty-eight dollars per year. Over five times how much it used to cost. If you want to buy it forever like before, you will have to pay fifty dollars. God dang, my wallet hurts. Right now, I am still grandfathered in, but if that ever changes, I will be gone.
Before discussing this application in this review, I want to give a big head up. I usually do the challenge and write the script a few months before I publish the review just so I have a backup of the videos. I try and get a whole month’s worth of videos out the gate and then quickly release them about once a week. However, that method does sometimes cause issues if anything changes within the month or so time. Well of course that happened in this review. The application I reviewed and was on is version five. Pretty much all of the footage you are seeing in the background is that older version. The new version, version six, came out just a few days as I was editing the script. Version six has a few new features in it than version 5. However, as I said before, the price has increased over five times and went to a subscription model. I got some new footage of the new design and features when I talk about them so you can see what it’s like. However, I will say that the positive tone of the review has changed a bit since it’s yet another subscription application that doesn’t really need it. I would now recommend an alternative application that is bought once if you find it instead of this one.
Also, as a quick aside, I still use WaterMinder daily to track my intake as a data-driven computer nerd. I would recommend buying an application with this function but maybe not this one directly. Let the review carry on!
Once you download and open up the water minder, you will be greeted with a screen asking for some data. The data you provide will be used to get your water intake goal. Items such as how active you are, gender, weight, and climate temperature will all be combined into your water goal. My total goal is at a hundred and seven ounces per day. That is over Alpha M’s baseline of a hundred ounces of water. When I was in Arizona, where my family is, my goal got moved to a hundred and twenty-eight ounces per day. That’s a full gallon of H2O! I tried to aim higher than this goal because I get disgustingly sweaty even just sitting. After you get your goal hydration amount, choose your avatar and begin measuring in your water.
To add water, click on the little hamburger icon and choose your type of drink and how much you are drinking. The hydration value times the number of ounces you drink will be added to your body. For example, water is pure hydration, so it has one value. If you drink twenty-four ounces of water, you get twenty-four ounces added to your score. Drinking liquor has a hydration impact of point five. Having two shots in the standard American glass is three ounces of liquor. Three times point five is one point five ounces of water being added to your goal. The hydration calculation isn’t created by them, but the company does it in a sleek style with the app’s design.
You can also add water quickly by clicking the plus sign, which acts as a quick add. You can add different combinations of drinks and ounces in the settings. These quick add options also appear in the Apple Watch version, so set them wisely. That’s how I pretty much always did it while doing this challenge. Going downstairs, grab some water or coffee, quickly add it to my Apple Watch and make the long journey up the stairs to begin to work. Such a hard life.
Outside of adding hydration, you can go to the history tab to review how much hydration you have had. The history tab breaks everything down into days, weeks, months, and years. Clicking on any section will bring up how much of that drink type you have had during that period and what percentage of it was your overall amount. The water took up over eighty percent of my hydration values, with Coffee and Tea taking up the rest. Best of all, it shows how much Caffeine you’ve been having, which may or may not be good for someone like me who drinks four cups a day. I will never give it up… NEVER!
Next up is the handbook section. The handbook contains the challenges and achievements. Challenges are part of the big new update that I couldn’t do. From reading about it, it basically tests users to drink or not drink certain types of liquids. Some challenges include No Coffee, No Liquor, and a Vitamin challenge aiming to increase your orange and carrot juice consumption. You can also earn achievements, such as sharing your hydration data or drinking water barrels over time. It’s a fun way to incentivize using the application.
Lastly, the settings allow you to adjust information such as your wait, time, apple watch layout and complications, theme, and more. One feature I want to highlight here is the reminder system. It’s the other part of the WaterMinder name. This application’s notification system is pretty complex, allowing all kinds of notification settings. You can change how often it reminds you when to remind you as well as the style. I set mine up so it will remind me throughout the day only if I don’t meet the current water goal at a certain time throughout the day. For example, I will get notified on my phone and apple watch if I am not at fifty percent hydration at three o’clock. If I am, then I won’t get notified. I usually fill up a big water bottle and drink it throughout the day, refilling it about twice. Whatever your style, I feel this application will work for you.
So that brings me to my overall reaction. I would say that this app is a must-purchase for just five dollars. For a monthly fee, I would say skip it. I love this application and still use it to this day. I haven’t read the developers’ book, but it’s on my list, which shows how much I like it. It pains me to see such a price increase and a subscription change. I get that all software is doing this, but I can’t help but let it bug me. I understand why the move, but the price is just too high to justify it. Maybe it would make sense with more challenges and features, but not right now.
So, guys, that is for my review of the WaterMinder app. A sad display of the trends in software today. If you want to get sadder, why not subscribe to my YouTube Channel. I do videos on topics in the realm of self-improvement. That includes fitness challenges, reviewing fitness games, product reviews, and so much more. If you have any ideas on what I should do next, then please leave them in a comment below. I will do pretty much any challenge. Follow me on Twitter @truejackjenk. Lastly, have a fantastic day, everyone. All you guys watching are just amazing!