April - Oil Painting by Number Reviews

by Zap578

The creators made the game free just to trick you. Right when you open April , it asks you to buy premium. Which is a 10 dollar a month subscription. Just to be able to get all the painting right off the bat. If you don’t do premium, you are forced to do the paintings in order, want to do a pretty dessert first? Too bad, you need to do pink flowers. And even after you do a painting, you need to wait 2 hours to do the next one. But you can go to the next one instantly if you buy premium! Stupid. Have fun emptying your bank account for something digitally when you can go out and buy paint, paintbrushes, and canvases for a longer project that you can display on your walls. And you don’t need to spend 10 dollars a month for a 3 minute project. Or wait 2 hours to make another painting. And you can make any painting you can think of, instead of being limited to a few weird blocky drawings you might not even want to paint. And the paint and paintbrushes will last longer. And that stuff isn’t that expensive and you could probably buy it all at a dollar store for decent enough quality. Anyway, I hope you now have changed your mind about wasting your time and money.

by Ipod Geek

April is weird. I downloaded it because April Store recommended it some time ago. Honestly, I think it's because of the $10 a month in app purchase. I think this is an art app, but it's more like a game. You randomly get stars, that you need to unlock coloring books, but only 2-4 pictures are unlocked per book. There is also another random occurrence that gives you gold coins, after watching some irritating ads. Those gold coins can be used to purchase the remaining pictures in the coloring book. But, for the monthly fee (which is insanely high) you apparently don't have these annoyances. For $120 you can buy a lot more real coloring books and art supplies (crayons, pens, pencils), especially if you go to the dollar store. I really wanted to like April. The controls are weird, am I coloring, or scrolling? April doesn't seem to know. Well, I guess I was near a section that needed to be filled in, so it seems to want me to do that instead of scrolling, but I wanted to be scrolling. The zoom level goes from super zoomed in (like a pixel in the painting is almost half the screen), to not quite far out. I'd like to see more on the page, but when you do that it shows you the picture with some animation, not really what I wanted. I downloaded April to help me relax, but I think it just gets under my skin. YMMV.

by Tiranish

I like April for the most part but it has some things I would like to change or see improved. It was hard to find an app that actually lets you “color” the sections rather than tap and fill it in. April lets you “color” but once you fill the section 80%ish of the way it fills in the rest. I kinda wish it wouldn’t do that, this is what I’m looking to do after all and I don’t want the help. Also, it really wants you to get the free trial and pay them, eventually, for more pictures to color. It has what looks like a coin system (I’ve been getting coins for completing parts of the pictures) so why can’t I use those coins or points to purchase more pictures? I have to wait for one to become available, usually when a timer is up, or I have to color a picture I’m not interested in coloring for another to be available, and even that one I usually don’t want to color. I don’t get to pick the pictures I want to color, it’s a “take it or leave it” situation. So I give April a 2 star rating because I think it’s pretty controlling on April developer side on what I can/cannot do, but I like that I can “color” the pictures.

by Knc3

I love the real feel to the coloring, and April is tons of fun! Just two recommendations for less frustrating fun. First, April would be a lot better if the screen would rotate to allow you to view the coloring pages in landscape mode. In portrait mode you cannot see the entire image at once. You only see the small area you are actively coloring. PLEASE, PLEASE give April the option of rotating to landscape mode so you can see the whole image while coloring. Second, the galleries you have to choose from are not really galleries at all. The “summer” gallery has everything from animals and landscapes to people. I don’t like coloring certain types of pictures, such as people, yet you can’t go past it without coloring them all. I’d rather have the ability to buy the pages using the coins you randomly earn. I wouldn’t even mind a flat fee purchase price in the beginning for April , but the monthly fees are much too high for something like this. I get monthly video streaming services for less!

by Mlorio

I did enjoy using April and paid for a three month subscription. However I am disappointed that subscription did not unlock all or even most of the puzzles. Even after subscribing you have to earn a pretty high number of coins to get to the next level to unlock more puzzles. It would take a long period of time work to level 200 so that I could access all the puzzles. Or I could purchase coins. Even with the free version you have to watch the ads twice to access puzzles you’ve already started on. I’m not deleting April yet but I am looking for something more reasonably priced.

Follow up: The developers did respond to my posting which I appreciate. I still stand by my position that the subscription should allow you access to all the puzzles. I’m actually enjoying April more now that I don’t have the subscription. I can watch ads, earn coins, and purchase whatever puzzle pack I want

by Pooky254

This is the most enjoyable coloring app I have used. The picture are dynamic and take some effort to complete, similar to an actual paint-by-number kits you can by in the craft store. The controls are friendly to use and it’s easy to complete the paintings any way you want - finish each color one at a time, or portions of the painting as you go along. Of course I am not a fan of subscription models with apps like this. I am much more willing to pay a flat rate to gain full access. At least I can buy packs of coins to purchase portions of the collections, but the prices are a little steep for me.

UPDATE
I recently got an iPad with the Apple Pencil and thought that might be a good experience with April, and I was right. I like using the pencil as it makes it easier to deal with both very small and very large sections. Unfortunately I found a BIG missing feature. When I first installed April on my iPad, the images I had already colored were recognized on the iPad, along with progress rewards. I figures this means April syncs progress on iOS devices. Wrong. As I started coloring on each device, I noticed this isn’t the case at all. Given that iCloud makes this easy to do, and could even be set as an option in the settings, I had to take away a star for this. Very disappointing.

by Dudhrhrh

I love April, I love the oil painting feel to the paintings while I’m physically doing the motion to color in the pieces instead of tap to color. After using April for free for several months and watching all the ads I could to gain coins and buy new packs I want to color, I decided to try the free trial to maybe go premium. I was excited for the no ads and to be able to still build coins without watching the ads and to be able to buy packs I wouldn’t otherwise be able to. However, buying the premium or the subscription is not really as great and freeing as I thought it was going to be. It will not give me pop up coin options while coloring anymore so the ONLY way to get coins and buy packs is to watch ads. I’m also not allowed to buy the packs only offered to subscription members, I completely have to wait till I reach that level, which might take months. I just feel like for $9.99 a month or $50 a year I should be offered more options than just not having ads. I’m PAYING for April, I should have 100% access to everything if I pay out of my own pocket for a game

by Unamused Brony

this app Coloring is a very enjoyable app, even if you’re like me and don’t want to bother with a subscription. There is a pretty reliable way to collect in-game currency to unlock pictures otherwise barred behind the subscription service. However...
There is no quality control whatsoever going towards the ads you do get, or the length. What is especially infuriating are the unskippable 30-second ads, some I would rather close April over rather than watch. I have very strong opinions about weight-loss ads. I think they’re disgusting and exploitative and that it is completely unacceptable and immoral to feed off human insecurity as a moneymaker. These ads are in the unskippable 30 second format, and yes, I close April to reboot when I’m given them.
April is in serious need of quality control regarding the content of its ads, and unskippable 30 second ads should not exist. Period. Make it possible to forfeit your reward for skipping after 5 seconds. I will not tolerate abusive ads. I will force close April every single time I come across one if necessary.

by HolloarR

I do enjoy the coloring, in that it does actually let you color in the spaces, not just touch to fill the area with color. As I am on a budget I have not paid for a subscription. As you complete more pictures you level up to open more galleries. However, it will only let you color in a few pictures within the gallery before requiring you spend coins you earn by interrupting the coloring process to watch an ad. Sometimes you only have access to 2 of 10 pictures before the rest are locked. You then use the coins to open one picture at a time. After spending the earned coins to open a picture you then also have to watch an ad! What? I just paid my 50 coins and now I have to watch an ad too? There is also a daily picture in which in which you watch an ad to open, that’s fair, but then after the picture is open, you touch and another ad pops up! I thought I already watched the ad to open it, why does another one pop up?! The ads are popping up too often, I may not keep April. Edit, so many pro trump ads, what’s that about? It’s very off putting.

by Coloring Lover Dorever

So when you see that this is April of the day you think it’s great and then read reviews most people really like it but that’s because they have the premium and I’m a kid and I don’t have a lot of money and my parents don’t pay for stuff I want so when I’m going to relax I’m not allowed to even do the daily picture!!! There’s probably even more stuff because I just got it but let me tell you the good stuff
So I’ve never seen a color by number pile this so normally you just tap and that color cel is full but no this time when you tap the color cel you have a paintbrush and your getting the feeling that your actually painting. And that’s pretty much everything good to say but back to the bad stuff
So when your coloring when you leave April and come back let’s say someone calls you and you answer them when you come back you have to watch a whole bunch of ads for it to save your progress. Well since I just got it I don’t know all the things but thanks for reading this long review and I really want the developer to respond and can you put it do that you can see your finished work with the unfinished work and can you add less ads a cheaper premium like $2 a year or something and can you do challenges and last less things that need the premium thanks

They responded quickly and now I know what to do

by HokieHobbit

I love the variety of what we can color, even without having to get the subscription. One problem I have though: whenever I accidentally tap on a bottom corner of a picture instead of one of the color numbers, an ad pops up. Whenever I lock my phone with April still open, and then I unlock my phone, an ad pops up. Whenever I swipe up like I’m going to close April (even accidentally), but end up keeping it open, I see an app. That gets annoying especially when I do that while trying to swipe for a color. If I get a call while coloring, an add pops up when I see April after the call ends. Essentially, whenever something interrupts my coloring prompts an ad, though sometimes an ad just pops up when all I’m doing is coloring. I don’t mind ads when I open a picture or finish one, for example, but all these other little instances of an add popping up is really annoying.

by Midwestro

This is the first coloring app that I’ve actually kept on my iPad and used consistently. It honestly helps me to stay focused and listen more attentively in long Zoom meetings. Pros include 1) “natural” mechanics that make it feel a bit more like actually coloring 2) a good selection of pictures that are interesting to adults 3) excellent representation of different cultures/skin colors and 4) good support for the Apple pencil. My only gripe? There is apparently no support for landscape mode. Given that many of the pictures are wider than tall, this means that it is virtually impossible to get more than a portion of the picture in your screen without snapping out to the whole picture (where you can’t see the numbers) or too far in (where you can’t really tell what you’re actually coloring). Consequently, you have to spend an annoying amount of time panning around and carefully zooming in and out to try to find the numbers you want. Aggravating. Fortunately, this is my only complaint thus far about a truly pleasant app experience.

by SouthernBelle57

The pictures in this set are outstanding. What distinguishes it from most other paint -by-number type apps is the brush stroke method, allowing one to shade large areas of color without a lot of tedious, finger aching tapping. That’s the good side. The one big negative is that April will switch to a different color if one goes “outside the lines.” This can get annoying when one is working in an area in which many small areas of different colors are close together, especially if you happen to be someone who prefers to color the picture in by sequential color numbers as opposed to by completing objects or areas with several different numbers, e.g., an animal or flower (object) or grass, sky or ocean (area). A possible fix could be to make it so the color being indicated in the picture only switches when one pushes a different number on the color list but not when one touches a different number in the picture itself.

by Littlefox_13

This game is very calming, The premium doesn’t have ridiculous features, so you don’t HAVE to buy it for the game to work and everything works well. The controls are easy to figure out, and it’s nice how you actually get to color it in, instead of like in other apps where you just tap and the whole section is colored. Basically for me this game is incredible and worth it. Some other reviews say there are too many ads. I don’t understand this because it is a free game so of course there are gonna be some ads. And also, even if it feels like they are excessive ads, that’s not the case for every picture. Also, even if that were true, the game balances out that anyway. I like how the pictures that would normally just be premium you can actually buy with the in game coins. I love how there are so many different galleries to choose from and the pictures are very well chosen. Another thing that I like is how they make the pictures look like real life when you finish coloring them, instead of cartoons. The only thing I would like is maybe a little percentage thing around each of the colors like the circle for the total percentage done. I saw that suggestion in another comment, and I think it’s a good idea.

by Fullmetalangel795

I love April. I spend too much time on it. I had a few suggestions for play and ease of use. One is to let us choose to either scroll with one finger or two. If I could scroll with two fingers it’d be easier to get the small spots to color. Since you both move around the page and paint with only one finger, if you don’t hit a small spot just right you’ll end up flinging yourself across the page. Or when there’s a large area of one solid color and you want to color it fast, sometimes it just moves the page rather than paints. The second suggestion is to let us save galleries or specific paintings in a favorites area. The galleries page is so long now with all the galleries added every week and it’s becoming difficult to find the paintings I want. It’d be nice to save them as favorites or divide them up according to subject (people, places, animal, etc.)

by Ppap Pen Pineapple Apple Pen

This game is one of the best color by number apps I’ve ever downloaded. It’s what I’ve always wanted in the sense that you swipe to color instead of tapping. You can also tap on a section to switch to the color that section is supposed to be colored, which is really handy. The pictures are also always absolutely beautiful. The only thing I don’t really like is how long it takes to level up. It takes 650 xp to level up, and you only get 50 xp per finished picture. That wouldn’t be too much of a problem I guess, except for the fact that I once saw a picture you had to be level 205 to color. I also wish you could get coins a little easier

Overall it’s one of the best coloring apps out there either way, and it’s not littered with ads like a lot of games are now.

by Scmi2r

Thanks for your prompt response. I had been logged in via my Apple ID as suggested when I observed the syncing (mis)behavior. I’m going to start a new drawing on my iPad and see if it shows up in my portfolio as in progress on my iPhone. Stand by …

Result: stars instantly synchronized, but not the progress on the drawing (July 30th’s drawing of the day). This accounts for the odd star total I’m carrying - when I started a drawing on my phone I partially completed it (17 stars’ worth), but since that progress didn’t carry over to my tablet I recolored the same drawing for the full 50 points but received the 17 from the effort on the phone.

Don’t know if this is a feature or a bug, but it occurs to me that I could start a drawing on one device, get 49 stars in and then redo the drawing on the other and gross a total of 99 stars on a single drawing. I consider that cheating, but just a heads-up if anyone else reports odd star counts.

by 223cool

When I first downloaded April, I was looking for a game to play when I’m bored and have nothing to do. I started playing and I couldn’t stop. I absolutely love April and how much it has done for me. I always have trouble focusing and have anxiety and OCD. April relaxes me and makes me calm. As an artist, April has shown me how much I enjoy art and has fueled a new desire for me to paint. I can’t stress enough how helpful April is for those who get stressed frequently. April is always my go to when I need to take a break. April has also helped me so much with patience. I’ve never been an impatient person, but April has truly changed my perspective. I do yoga once a week, and always have trouble with the meditation aspect, but April has helped me stay focused on the task. A few months ago, I wouldn’t be able to write a long review like this one. Ever since I downloaded this app Coloring, I feel more self confident and accepting. I highly recommend April to everyone, regardless of emotional stability.

by BronwynL

In search of some new zenful art apps I downloaded April yesterday, but was immediately frustrated by the fact my Apple Pencil didn’t work. While April worked okay with my finger, there are some very fine details in the pictures that are a bit clunky with a finger, and I prefer to use my pencil with art apps anyway.

I wrote to the company and within MINUTES I got a response, very kindly apologizing for the problem and asking for some more information, which I was able to provide. Today, not 24 hours later, they’ve rolled out an update that fixes the problem! They also followed up to make sure it worked for me! I’m so impressed!

April itself is well designed and easy to use, and the images are beautiful. I like coloring apps where you have your own choice of color, but sometimes I need the slightly more meditative experience of a paint by number, and this perfectly fits the bill. Also, now that April is updated, my Apple Pencil works very well!

by Veronica2311

Update to my below review: first, thank you to the developer for responding so fast. I did as suggested and removed April and reinstalled it. Hallelujah! It works like it did originally and I’m once again totally addicted. This is the best coloring app out there! I love the feeling of actually coloring and I can color for HOURS. I do still want more pictures to come out each week, but I can be patient 😉

When I first started on April I became addicted! I couldn’t stop coloring. I got through every available picture and even started re-coloring. BUT... April has been super laggy, not responding after several attempts on one section, and sometimes it will randomly jump to another section. When I try to move it back, it doesn’t respond. Also, new galleries only come out once a week and the number of new pictures varies. This week only one gallery is released (10 pictures). For the subscription price, all of these issues makes it not worth it. Oh and I do use the Apple Pencil and still have these issues.

by Sangeo24

When I subscribed to April I did it for a full year with full confidence that I would enjoy it as much at the end of the subscription as I did when I started but one day there was a new look and with it came a severe decline in availability of pictures I could color. I use to be able to get pictures based on points (750 point) and you you got a new 10 to 12 pack of pictures, now that feature is gone. I use to be able to buy and use “ coins” to buy packs of pictures, that feature is gone. Now every 7 days you get 20 pictures to color, I can do that in 2 days. I got April as part of therapy to work on my wrist after a fall crushed the bones that required reconstruction surgery. The coloring helps gain and maintain flexibility so what you have done is killed my therapy! I will be canceling April at the end of the year because you will not refund my money for the remainder of the year, this is, in effect, a bate and switch and it is a horrible thing to do to a person on disability!

by LilRihRih

Nice app, very fun to do. Two things that I do not like about April is that it takes FOREVER TO gain a new level, there are sections that will not open at all until you reach a certain level, no matter if you are paying for April or not, it’s not happening. I feel that is not fair and there should be an option for that or make it possible to reach those levels, you literally will have to color all day long for several days to reach a new level, it’s taken me two weeks just to get to level 2😩😩...ridiculous. Also, it would be nice to have a separate tab that shows all the ones you’ve completed in one location, instead of having them all over the gallery. This is why I take away two stars, too hard to level up and no organization. Other than that it’s a nice way to pass some time, the pictures are beautiful and easy to do.

by I Like Minecraft 🙂

I really, really like April. I’m not allowed to purchase things on my phone, so the subscription is a little annoying, but other than that I love it! I’m so glad that it’s not little pixels that you have to color individually, that’s always irritating. Also, the pictures are beautiful and most of them are free to purchasable with coins, which are not hard to get. And when you buy galleries with coins, all the pictures are free. But the thing that I’m most happy about, which is a personal preference, is that the cat gallery is free. The dog one, too. Last thing, it’s amazing that you guys really care about the feedback you get! It’s so great that you guys read through them and respond to a lot of them. Thank you! Keep this app great!

Edit: Thanks for the response! I do have one suggestion - can you make a way for people to redo pictures? And if that’s already an option, I want to know know how... I’m almost done with the cat gallery and want to do more kitties! Thank you!

by Simple Is Easy

But, I’m not going. Which means after I finish this review, I’m going to delete April .
It’s fine for what it is. Since I don’t have an Apple Pencil, I don’t know how well it works with that, but for “finger painting”, it’s okay. My biggest frustration was having April switch color selections while I was trying to move to another area. Once more is filled in, this diminishes significantly. The other big frustration was trying to not have the picture move, while trying to fill in tiny areas. If there was a method to reliably freeze the picture location while filling in colors, I didn’t find it.
For a free while it lasted app, it was okay. Not certain that it was that calming, given the frustrations I listed above, but it was a terrific time waster.

by Voidsspace

This is one of the better colour by number apps on the appstore, and it’s obvious why. The pictures are very neat and satisfying to finish and the art style is very cute. It helps me relieve stress and anxiety to colour in all the parts of the picture. The only complaint I have is that you don’t get any coins when you level up, which is why I gave April only four stars. You can do pretty much everything April features without premium subscription if you don’t mind a bit of hard work, patience, and ad viewing. It is a bit frustrating when you need to constantly redo old photos because you need to earn coins to unlock new ones, so that’s the only thing I’d change. Include awarded coins when you level up. Otherwise a great app!

by Koko.the.rabbit

The graphics are nice. Probably one of the better color by number apps when it comes to the artwork and the process of filling in the spaces but it’s just so covered in ads. Whenever you go to download a gallery or a pack, there’s an ad. Whenever you go to download a singular picture, there’s an ad. But there’s another problem that I’ve been having that’s kinda been annoying. Sometimes after I’ve let the picture download and sat through the ad, as soon as the picture pops up on the screen April closes. I’ve tried a couple times going back into April and picking the same picture but it keeps crashing. Other than these inconveniences it’s pretty good.

by Brandonmck11

I love April! It had been my go to whenever I’m bored or just want to relax. Perfect app for those boring college classes, because you can still listen and understand while keeping yourself preoccupied, haha. Such diversity in the pictures and I love the landscapes in April !

I do have one suggestion that might be cool. So maybe at the bottom where you pick the colors, each one has it’s on personal progress bar around the perimeter of the circle. This would allow you to see how close you are to completing that color. It could be similar to the main percentage circle in top corner. I don’t know how feasible that is, but you guys ask for suggestions so there’s mine lol.

Also one question, when you purchase a picture pack (with coins) that you have not yet reached its level, does it also unlock the premium ones inside it (that you could normally spend coins to unlock)? Or does it simply just unlock the whole pack sooner and you still have to progress through by waiting the 2hrs and paying coins?

by Agandstuff

I love April. I’ve tried almost every coloring app out there and this is the only one I keep coming back to. I love that you can unlock new paintings and gallery’s with coins so most of the images are available without a subscription, and the way that it paints instead of fills is very satisfying. The pictures are all very beautiful as well.

The one small thing I don’t like is that during painting the small circle that pops up to watch ads for coins comes up frequently and is a bit annoying when I’m trying to color. If they can put that at the top with the other information such as currently accrued coins that would be better for the interface in my opinion. That is the only thing I don’t like though, April is amazing.

by Keilinger

The coloring aspect of April is a lot of fun and there is a lot of content. However, April crashes about 50% of the time when opening or changing apps or trying to look at a picture because it tries to open an ad with a bug or opens an ad where none of the buttons (even to open the advertisement) work. I have a brand new iPad Pro that’s up to date. I’d remove ads but the only payment option available is $15 per month subscription. I don’t need all other content right now while I’m just trying out April so it would be nice to have a no ads only option. I don’t see any other way to make April not crash and be a huge hassle to open.

by Vee19694

I was having problems with April crashing, but this new update fixed that!!!! Restarted my membership because this really is the best “coloring” app out there. I do have a suggestion for the next update. I know it can be done but not sure how, that’s why y’all get paid for this stuff. I use to have a jigsaw puzzle app that we were able to (as paid member) upload our pictures to April and it made them into puzzles. What about the same concept but in “coloring” of either our choice, or generated based on the colors in our pictures. I would actually pay a little more for this ability.

Again, thank you for the update and no more crashing app when finished with a picture. ☺️☺️☺️

by WatsonAxel

I am really enjoying April, and I even bought the annual subscription. Thanks, too, for responding to comments! I took advantage of the discounted price, as the $99 felt too steep. There isn’t a lot by way of instructions so I have some questions.

I’ve been collecting stars but I’m not sure to what end. After level 1 my stars disappeared and I started over at level 2. I thought maybe I could use my stars to unlock another level before reaching it but that didn’t work. So do I have to pay more dollars to open a level that’s out of order?

Also, I occasionally like to uninstall an app to delete data. I know I can restore my purchase, but will I have to start at level 1 again? Thanx!

by Brogans424

Awesome app and customer support! I posted a review late yesterday because after the most recent update, April stopped loading. It was frustrating. The developer posted a reply quickly that explained there was a problem with the recent update and they hoped to have it fixed soon. The fix has already been done and I updated my app. It works fine and I didn’t lose any progress. I like that I can watch ads to get coins and I don’t have to pay a subscription. (I would be open to paying one set price to get premium features, but I don’t like subscriptions) Thank you for the quick response and the quick solution!