Flora - Green Focus Reviews

by Amylyn Brooks

So I got Flora literally TODAY. My sister recommended it to me and said it is a great app. So I downloaded it. I got some work done with it and it really does help me. But then after I completed my second session of using Flora , it wouldn’t load anything. Then after not doing anything, it randomly took me through the tutorial. I was so confused because I had already made an account and gone to through the tutorial already. Then when I go to check my account, it has no info. No name, no email. So I log out. Every time I go to log in it just stops at the same page. It says something about needing to put in my email again to verify. I put in my email and then I press verify. NOTHING HAPPENS. I go to press verify again and the same thing. I have tried going through the “Continue With Google “ and I have done the “Continue With Email” and both of them end up on the same thing. I have no idea how to fix it. It seems like a great app (I have read your reviews) but I can’t seem to be able to log in to use it.

by AletheaAy

this app is a great app and concept, I’m not sure if this or Forest: stay focused, came first but either way I appreciate the idea and the fact that Flora is free makes it accessible. It truly does help my workflow. However the face that you HAVE to log in with a Facebook account is annoying and frankly a huge turn off to a lot of users, especially those in the 16-24 range I imagine. If Flora wants folx to plant seeds together consider looking into airplay compatibility or simply generating share codes for long distance collaboration. Finally and this is a minor note, I used one other app similar to this and one of the touches I appreciated was as you racked up more time you unlocked different plants and could get an overview of your ‘garden.’ Perhaps integrating these features would veer to close to a copy right infringement. I’m not sure. But overall this app gets the job done it’s highly customisable in terms of time and relatively intuitive; though I will say returning to the planting screen after finishing a session isn’t the smoothest transition. 3/5 keep going !

by Effy_wolf

Pros: really does help me and my sister to focus on our work together and overall a really helpful app with lots of nice features. The all around the world feature is by far my favourite as well as the group planting aspect. Very helpful app overall if you just want to get off you phone.

Cons: there are a couple bugs which I feel need to be addressed. One is that sometimes when logging in with Facebook it’ll say the login isn’t associated with a account but opening the page in safari seems to let you log in as normal. Another con is the fact that it’s Facebook only but I understand that the team is looking at adding more options soon so it’s not that big a deal. Just a small feature I would like is for me to see on my lock screen the time remaining as a notification so that I don’t have to unlock my phone but that’s just a nitpick.

Overall: Flora works great and gets the job done. Obviously there are downsides which many people see as having a big impact, but personally if you don’t mind using an old Facebook or making a throwaway one, it helps a lot and I would highly recommend.

by Jpomarino

I love the concept behind Flora, but I’ve experienced some problems with it in the past. For example, there are times when I spend 40-90 minutes studying and once the timer is up, I’m directed toward a “connection failure” menu even when I’m connected to the Internet. This screen will not disappear until I close and refresh Flora , which prevents me from earning the time spent on my different goal trackers.
At times, when I open Flora after the timer goes off, there are messages saying that one of my tress was killed, even when my phone remained untouched the whole time.
It would also be helpful if there was a “0 minutes” mark when planting a tree for when people want to focus for exactly one or two hours. Maybe you could also add minutes that are not just multiples of five for those that need to concentrate for a very specific amount of time.
This last point is not a flaw but something I would like to see in Flora . As a busy student, I like to keep track of multiple aspects of my life, and I would like Flora to have more than just six goal trackers if it were possible. It would be truly beneficial as there are some aspects of my life I’d like to monitor too besides my six main ones.
Flora has helped me a lot in concentrating on my homework and studying during the summer and with some fixes, it could be even better.

by A Friedly User

Update:it’s May 5 of 2019 and you STILL DONT HAVE A EMAIL LOGIN OR ANY OTHER LOGIN ALTERNATIVE. You say you’ll add it as soon as possible but you updated Flora last week and still NO EMAIL LOGIN. Just look at your negative reviews for 5 SECONDS and you’ll see that’s all we want.
I have it as 4 stars in hopes that you will see this. You guys say that you’re “working on email login” but it’s been months. Why is it taking so long. Almost all your low star ratings are because it’s Facebook only. This isn’t good for your business because people won’t use Flora because of Facebook login only. You might be working on it but make it a priority. I don’t want to use forest cause it cost $ and I just want to be productive. I understand it takes time to implement this but people have been asking since AT LEAST 2017, I didn’t scroll further cause it was long. Most apps that have sign ins have email function so why is it taking so long. At least give us an explanation

by Etruhart

One of the first things I did with Flora was set aside time to read a personal book. The timer is a really easy way to focus on one thing at a time and get an idea of how much time you need for certain activities. I love that they include this app Care which is a charity you can donate to and in exchange a certain number of hours logged in Flora translates to a real tree planted.

However the only way you are able to use Flora is if you have a Facebook account, I haven’t used my Facebook in months but was lucky enough to remember my login. Although after only a couple days of using Flora I was told I needed to log back in to Facebook and was redirected to a Facebook security measure asking for a photo of my face -after this i was told i had to wait for the photo to be reviewed before i could log back in.

It would be much easier to use an account that I use more readily such as gmail, or even the option to create a new this app account not necessarily connected to another social media

by FishNinja1497

So far this is the only time-keeping app that I’ve stuck with—which is saying something, as I’ve got severe ADHD and usually can’t stick with anything. I like the variety of trees and plants you can grow in-app, it’s not annoying so I can run it calmly in my background, and I can adjust the stakes as needed when I really need a kick to focus with the Real Money function. Plus it actually plants trees! I don’t particularly like losing money but I’m satisfied that if I *do* mess up my focusing, the money is going to a good cause. And even if I don’t mess up at all, I still get to plant trees periodically by focusing for certain amounts of time! It’s kind of a win-win.
The subscriptions are essentially identical except you can plant real trees more often, so I don’t mind paying for an app like this (I’m on the Basic plan because I’m a student with limited income—monthly it’s about $2 which adds up to around $20 with the full-year percentage discount, which isn’t bad at all!). Without the subscription you still have 100% access to Flora , it only means you plant more real trees.

All in all, between price, functionality, and environmental ethics, this is the perfect fit for me, and I’d definitely recommend trying it!

by Maxcnw

Great app to help me stay focused while doing my necessary reading. I’ve always had problems concentration, but that has been made worse since the COVID quarantine and my reliance on phones/computers. It had gotten to the point where I would sit down with a book or something and within minutes I would be back on my phone checking something or responding to someone without realizing that I was no longer reading or doing my task. Now, I automatically pick up my phone and I’m gently reminded that I’m working on something else. Plus, after paying a few bucks, there’s an added benefit of slowly working towards a tree donation. I think that helps me stay concentrated, the award of getting my little digital plant as well as working towards a real tree. It’s worth a download to try and it’s definitely better than Flora charging money to do something similar.

by Dawncermcd

After just two days of using Flora, I can finally say I have found a tool that actually helps me focus. I love the incentive of planting trees, it is an incentive outside myself which is more motivating than a cup of coffee. I feel that with each plant added to my personal garden I am working to make a difference!

The reason I didn’t give Flora a 5 star rating is the lack of alarm when the goal has been met. It doesn’t seem to have one (or I just can’t find it). I like to break up my tasks in smaller increments which Flora does wonderfully, but it doesn’t alert me to when I need to take a break or switch to a new task. Ultimately, I have found myself working for an hour instead of 25 minutes (who CJ is GREAT, don’t get me wrong), but it also doesn’t show a true reflection of my focus and doesn’t show me true progress toward my goal. I’d love to have the option for a notification. (If it’s there, please point me in the right direction!).

by Grievedghost

I’ve tried a lot of different habit/to-do tracking and focus apps, but none that had both the rich feature set (habits, to-dos, focus, connections) and the real-world benefit (beyond my own). I also love the “journey” concepts that are unlocked with reasonable engagement with Flora , rather than high-bar “purchases” that constantly seem out of reach as I’ve experienced with other apps. It’s truly an app that balances a motivation to use it with a motivation to put down my phone and focus.

I like it so much that I wish there was an iPad version to complete the iPhone app, perhaps even one that syncs so that if I start a timer on one device, the same timer starts on the other (maybe if I choose for it to be so)... I sometimes find that it’s too easy to lose focus when I have another device to get around using my phone.

Thanks so much to the developers for their work and impact!

by Solgaleo7

I installed Flora at the beginning of the school year to help me focus on assignments (I have issues with focus, and distanced learning hit me hard) and honestly? I love it. The ability to use tags helps to track everything, and the Grand Tour, plus the fact that Flora tracks how many hours you’ve spent in a week, materializes my efforts in a way that is very satisfying to me. I’ve only ever used Flora alone, so I cannot comment on any multiplayer features.
Here’s a story: I procrastinated heavily this trimester, so I’d ended up with dozens of assignments to do and a little less than a month to do them. I’d though it’d be impossible to do them all, and that I’d have to skip some in the interest of time. Yesterday, I submitted the final assignment. It was all thanks to Flora—without it, I’d be unable to gather my willpower and start, let alone finish on track to get straight As. So, uh, thanks.

by Cre8tv

If you can’t stay off your phone and need to get other things done, then I highly recommend this app. It’s motivating (I recommend opting into this app Care for the motivation of planting REAL trees!).

Unfortunately, I wish there were a this app version for us lazy ones who don’t have a phone addiction issue. I simply procrastinate a lot. I’ve found this app is a great motivator, but the problem is that many of the things I’m procrastinating about are phone calls I need to make. That this is geared for the phone addict crowd limits its usefulness as an aid for those who are simply habitual procrastinators. It’s the reason I’m now looking at other apps to try to fit my need to be able to get things done when they sometimes require phone use. I would recommend this app either put out other Pomodoro-style apps or open up availability to other uses, which would help people like me as well as likely expand their consumer base.

But as an app to keep you off the phone and motivate you, Flora deserves FIVE stars.

Areas where it could be improved: Better tutorial and FAQ. I have had to email the developer a couple times for answers to what would seem like basic questions yet aren’t covered adequately in their tutorial or FAQ. The developer has been very friendly and responsive, btw.

by Ashnwillow213

I love this app so much it helps me get do much work done. I’m super screen obsessed so having an app that forces me to get stuff done by keeping me off my phone helps a lot. You can grow so many different types of plants. It’s completely free and you can of course get a monthly subscription where you do gage to pay, but you plant real trees at different rates depending on which subscription you get (there are different ones with varying prices). You can also pause your progress while your working on growing an in game tree, which will allow you to use your phone, but subtracts from the total focus time. If this feature gets you to use your phone too much you can actually turn it off as well! There’s also a to do list, and you can add the amount of time you want to spend on different goals. You can make these goals reoccur as well (ex daily, weekly, biweekly). I highly recommend!!

by Bible Study Reader

As the title says, Flora really IS amazing! Here are some reasons why:

1. It keeps procrastination at bay...if you have a big assignment and you’ve kept procrastinating, Flora helps you with many different tools, such as reminders and by letting YOU set measurable amounts of time to complete the task at any pace. And, you get little plant rewards for taking those steps!

2. It is FREE... Flora, unlike some others, doesn’t require any purchases in the main app. It only has an optional one, and the experience without it doesn't cost you to sacrifice app quality.

3. It helps others...if you chose to support Flora , you can help other other countries by providing trees by simply using Flora . Trees are essential for environmental and human health, and a small cost goes a long way (again, not even required!).

4. You can work with friends...not only can you be productive, but you can compete with your friends or just invite them into your “room” to do the task with you.

5. It motivates you to cut out distractions...the best part is that app doesn’t allow you to use your phone during your “session”. Although this may sound terrible to some, it really is beneficial, as it keeps you all the distractions that phones nowadays can bring to true productivity (social media, videos, games, etc). It helps you focus on one thing at a time; a good life skill.

Hope this helped!

by _cloudia_

I really love Flora; it’s helped me be so productive, haha. It’s simple but works really well. The Grand Tour feature is also really cool! Plus, I like how you can set goals and how many hours you want to focus on the goal, although it would be nice to be able to reset the goals like every week or something. Another idea is maybe to have an option where you can silence notifications from other apps while planting a tree, because I know those lock screen text notifications can be very tempting, haha. Also, it would be cool if a timer could be added to your phone’s lock screen while planting so you know how much time you have left. Or maybe a widget. Finally, I think there’s a glitch of what plants I planted? When I planted one orange, it somehow duplicated and replaced other existing plants so now I have three oranges instead of the just one orange that I planted. I don’t mind that much though, since it still looks very nice, haha.
Overall, I love the concept of Flora and how it lets me channel my inner focus!

by TACOS FOR ME!!!!!!

Stop reading download Flora right now then come read this review. Done? Ok let’s start.

I struggle with procrastination, lets be honest, we all do. As a high schooler , college student , and eldest immigrant daughter, it’s hard to motivate yourself. You have so much on your mind and you slowly sweep into this pool of emptiness. It’s hard to get back in track and keep pushing.

Flora really helped me with that. To push away pleasure from games and texting and just focus on work. We tend to avoid things when we are stressed, but then end up in regret right before a due date.

Flora rewards your studying (and good habits) and helps you get back on track. It’s refreshing to see your plant grow at the end of your progress.

The Friends feature is motivating. You get to see your friends progress and their little garden. The feature where both you and your friend get a shared time and if one of you goes on an app for too long... the tree dies. It helps keep both of you in check and be responsible. Quite funny when they kill the plant on purpose just for sh**s and giggles HAHAHAHAH!!!

Anyways, even if you aren’t a student and just want to just sit down read a book or work on a personal project, this is a great helper! It’s free download it and explore it yourself!

For a new app, it is almost perfect. I’m quite excited to see what they have in store for us. I don’t have any problems with it yet! Enjoy~❤️

by JMAOO

I’ve used many different productivity timer type apps and even some that lock me out of my phone for the duration. I’ve stopped using all of those because it was either too restrictive or too lax. this app is the perfect happy medium - no one wants to kill a tree even if it’s a cartoon one! That alone seems to motivate me enough to not switch to any other app on my phone during a timed session, unless I absolutely have to take a call or something. I like that I can be flexible in the work time I choose, so as to not stick to rigid time intervals such as pomodoro timers. And it’s just so pleasant to “travel” around the world and plant different things. I have also opted to pay for the “plant a real tree” option for a certain number of hours worked. That’s so creative and inspiring! Thanks for designing an awesome app. I wish there was a short pause function instead of all or nothing with killing the tree, but this is minor and not worth taking any stars off for.

by Boom70388

ny time I am trying to study Are use the this app app and it can be used for anything and you can set reminders and your tree will grow and there’s also a premium where you can actually plant real trees it’s amazing and also this is how your tree grows you set a timer the lowest setting is five minutes and It goes all the way to ours so you can pick hours and minutes then if you go and open any other app then your tree will die and if you pause then your thing may not look at sk it goes all the way to ours so you can pick hours and minutes then if you go and open any other app then your tree will die also Florida is the best app you can friend people and you can grow trees together it’s amazing I love Flora so much but you do need to login with either Google Facebook or email but if you don’t wanna spend any money then you don’t have to it’s a free amazing app all the sponsoring Youtubers and stuff they were right everything they said was right by the way this review is not sponsored

by Yums3286

Thank you SO MUCH for adding other login options than facebook. I’ve been loving Flora so far, and I’ve gotten so many things done today. It’s cool how you added the Sign-In With Apple option, too. Now I don’t have to download a paid app to get all the nice features that Flora has. Thanks again!

I’ve been waiting to use Flora for almost a year now, since I’m only in middle school and can’t download the paid Forest app and don’t have a Facebook account to log in to Flora. It’s kind of annoying that when I found Flora I was like “FINALLY I’VE FOUND IT,” but then realized that I couldn’t even log in. Now it’s been 12 months and still you have not released another email option. Is it supposed to take this long? I know I’m being impatient, but you’re blocking out so many users because of the limit you put on them. You shouldn’t expect students to have Facebook, anyway. So many people are in need of Flora, and I’ve signed up for the email notification and everything. Please, please release this option as soon as you can. I’m almost in high school, and Flora will be so beneficial in helping me stay focused. Thanks!

by Eshermz

I started using this app in the middle of August at the beginning of my senior year of college, and apparently, I’ve studied/stayed focused for over 100 hours! Which is great because I was recently diagnosed w/ severe ADHD. Flora has been such a useful tool in helping me actually put my phone down and focus on my schoolwork. Not only that, but seeing exactly where my time goes when I do study via the convenient “tags” feature helps me to efficiently plan out my days so I know exactly how much time I need to spend on which subject.

However, my only questions/concerns are a.) can you only have 6 tags? I’ve tried to make more, but I can’t find a way to create a new tag or even delete old ones. Even just adding a section about this to the FAQs would be really helpful; b.) sometimes I’ll set a timer, and since this app has gotten me used to not checking my phone for 1+ hour(s) at a time, I’ll go back an hour or so later to check how much time I have left to find that Flora reset, and all that progress I made was lost! This can be very frustrating especially when I’m specifically trying to study a certain amount of hours per day.

Other than that, great app; thanks to the developers for helping me stay focused this year!!

by MissJubilee

I love how Flora encourages me to put down my phone and keep my hands off for a time. Also, a recent update lets me plant while offline. And of course it’s cool that o can plant a real tree with a donation. However, there are still a lot of bugs in the basic functions. If I plant offline and then turn the WiFi on, or vice versa, the finished plant doesn’t show up in my garden. And if I open Flora while offline, it often gives me a login page that requires me to turn the WiFi on again and log in via Facebook - which I’m usually not willing to do at that point, since my goal was to get OFF the phone and internet. Strangely, when I come back to Flora with the internet on, later, it doesn’t require me to log in again, but goes straight to the planting screen. I really don’t think an app about putting down your phone should require any login, internet, or other special steps to use unless the user requests to make it a social event for that particular time. (It also requires a social use to get past level 9.)

by Bo116

I do like the incentive to put down the phone & focus, BUT there are two main problems. First, it is dificult to navigate the "grand tour" because it MANDATES that you get a friend to play, and some of us don't like to prosyletize our apps (or "play" with friends in this way). Since I didn't invite a friend to play with me, it just stpped progressing, which was quite depressing. Second, sometimes Flora stopped counting down when my iPhone went to black screen. So I'd be focusing for 50 minutes, and over an hour later I'd check my phone (why don't I have a tree yet?) and the countdown clock would be at 48:33. I found that I had to keep the screen live the whole time sometimes just to get it to actually countdown - which was beyond annoying and really undermined the entire purpose of the focus app which is, after all, to focus AWAY from the phone. That glitch seemed to be fixed when I restarted everything, but still, quite annoying.

by Asdfghjkl-/:;()$&@""

I’m going to be real, I really enjoy Flora. It makes me feel terrible to kill a tree, so I can focus more instead on getting assignments/studying done. I also like how you can categorize the time you spend not on your phone- I use it to keep track of how many hours I’ve worked/studied for each of my classes, and it helps me balance out the hours for each subject! There are a few bugs though, sometimes when I set a timer and turn off my phone, Flora will stop, and refresh. Then the timer will be completed, even though it is not. It gives me free time on Flora , but I didn’t actually earn those minutes. I think another feature that would add to the experience, could be a log of each week’s total hours. I know you can scroll through your feed to see it, but if you did a lot of sessions, scrolling can take a while to see these summed up. Overall, would recommend!

by Meloan

I like the idea, and it works well for what it is. It has helped me control my impulse to use my phone. One time I left Flora without even thinking about it and then freaked out and reopened Flora . Luckily because I hadn’t entered another app, my tree survived :)

The reason I took off a star is the in-app purchases. I thought I would be able to plant real trees without paying, but I was wrong. That isn’t a big problem, but I wish I could help while still being a starving student. I also do not want to participate in the paying section that involves putting money on your ability to stay off your phone.

Overall I use the free parts and like it. The tags are cool because I can see what I’ve worked on. I think I’ll be using Flora in class too because I have a bad habit of checking my email instead of paying attention.

by Dawookoo

This is a great app, there are very affordable plans if you want your focus time to actually contribute to planting real trees in the world.

The only issue is when you want to study with friends who have this app. The only issues I have with Flora are:

1) The timer starts as soon as you send a request for your friends to join your study session. This means that time is wasted until they can all actually join rather than all of us starting at the same time.

2) Inviting friends is very old school and clunky. If you request for a friend to join your study session directly through Flora , it’s a hit or a miss. Sometimes they’ll get the invitation and sometimes they won’t..so that’s more time wasted (keep in mind the timer has already started)

3) The only reliable way to make sure your friends get the notification to join the study session is to text them a password/key to join the session. Now they have to wait for the text, get the password/key, type it into Flora (you can’t copy-and-paste), and you’re friends are finally joined...oh and the timer has already finished a few minutes...why can’t there just be a link that friends can click on and automatically join the study session?

by Lily28s

Planting a tree if you kill the tree in app doesn’t make sense, because the more trees planted means more people killing their trees in-game. I think the this app care plan is better or more effective for planting real trees because you plant a real tree only if you succeed. It is a better incentive because you are rewarded for your focus and the more time you focus using Flora the more trees are planted encouraging you to keep growing the tree in game.
Also, the timings on the front page don’t make a lot of sense, 25 minutes should be half an hour 50 minutes should be one hour etc. Please allow us to set the time for focusing to a longer time, up to 24 hours because I like to run it while I’m at school since I can’t have my phone out at school and I have to reset it after three hours

by Rose19Cactus

I love this app! It’s just the most amazing focus timer app I have. I have trouble concentrating but I’m a very driven student and I constantly have to study. I love plants and I love “traveling the world and growing their native plants” in Flora. It’s just the most rewarding experience in my opinion. I downloaded Flora last week and I’ve already completed 22 hours! That’s a lot considering it’s summertime right now and I only have one online class. I also really like the fact that I can take a break. Things always come up when I study and I have babysit my brother when my moms at work so being able to pause to do my chores and etc is a wonderful feature. I highly recommend you get Flora and actively use it to focus if you are a student!

by Pannyker

The reason why Flora is awesome is because it actually helps you, scientifically if you understand why. The use of it is simple. When studying you can’t just sit for hours upon hours and retain the knowledge. Our brain naturally stops focusing around 25 minutes. If we take a step away from our work for as little as 5-10 ten minutes to tidy up, talk a walk, go on social media, or play games etc... and go back to study our brain is refreshed and ready at peak effectiveness. The incentive and the little Forrest you develop is really cute and gives you more reason to stay on Flora while doing your work. Also the fact you can donate money by your hours of focus is also an incentive to work hard so you can give back to the world! Love it!