HomeWAV Reviews

I loved HomeWAV until the last update just a few days ago. I was able to see and hear the audio clearly, it lagged here and there but I wasn’t about to complain when I finally had the opportunity to see and talk to someone in jail over an app! After the update, I am no longer even able to stay logged in! It logs me out and has me unable to get any calls or notifications anymore and so I can’t even have a conversation anymore with the person I’m tryna talk to! EVERY time I gotta log back in. And every time it shows me the terms and conditions and I gotta confirm and accept it and then log back in again. That’s just insane. And a complete waste of an app that provides this service. I’m seriously fed up after a week almost of not even being able to talk to the person I’m tryna talk to! It really messes up with your emotions as this is never gonna be easy to deal with or easy to talk with a loved one that’s an inmate. So that whole oh-we-almost-have-it-working-and-up-again then it doesn’t work and you can’t see or talk to them, is a realllllllly messed up feeling that HomeWAV’s purpose should be to avoid from happening and help demolish entirely, and instead, connect you to the person instead of play with your emotions hot n cold like that! Please fix that! It was great otherwise BEFORE the update.

Up until yesterday when my app updated I was super impressed with HomeWAV. It allowed my family and I to talk to my brother-in-law and we video called every day multiple times a day, but now that you guys have updated HomeWAV , it rings and it doesn’t allow me to answer him, I hit the answer button and it just continuously rings sometimes instead of answering at all. 20 minutes ago, I FINALLY, after countless missed calls and getting kicked out of HomeWAV multiple times got it to answer the video only for us to be kicked off our video for failed communication FOUR times so we just completely abandoned HomeWAV completely and I paid to have him call me instead of being able to video and actually see him like normal. Please fix the issues, I LOVED HomeWAV until these problems started occurring and it really is helpful for the inmates and their families to still be able to see each other face to face in the comfort of their own homes daily. I’ll give it three stars for now, before the issues occurred I would have given it five. I would love to keep using this daily if the issues get resolved so hopefully soon it will be back to running as good as it was before it updated!

I don’t know what’s going on, however, being constantly kicked off and having precious funds taken because HomeWAV is malfunctioning is very disappointing. My husband is currently in the local county jail and for some odd reason, this app isn’t working the way it usually does. It keeps logging me out and kicking us off in mid-conversation, then not allowing us to re-login. I have noticed you have been receiving some really bad reviews lately and I don’t know if you need to update HomeWAV to get rid of whatever is causing these issues or what. The last update was over a month ago. My husband and I have a 3 year old daughter as well and I’m gets very upset when our video calls get interrupted and then we can’t receive calls for at least 30 minutes after getting kicked off. It’s also taking more money then it should when it happens. It’s $0.20/minute as of right now per call. We are tight budgeted as it is and for us to put funds on his account just to be constantly kicked off is a bit upsetting. Hope you guys figure out what’s going on and are able to fix this in a timely matter so that others like myself are able to talk to their loved ones.

Let me just start out by saying this app is probably one of the worst FaceTime apps there is! If I could give negative stars I would give a thousand. It feeds off the fact that there is no other way to talk to your loved one beside this awful app. It’s a terrible money scheme that uses horrible quality. this app is the only app I am able to use in order to talk to my family member yes it’s helpful but I wanna see the one I love in person I wanna touch there hand this video company has completely destroyed conjugal visits. The old this app was a little better but then it updated and now constantly cuts out and says “error” and then logs me out, the audio is scratchy, there’s this new user agreement that keeps popping up no matter how many times I’ve pressed agree on it every time I enter HomeWAV it just pops up again. HomeWAV is awful and I hate that anyone is actually forced to download this terrible app!
These little things that are so easy to fix would help a ton just go back to before the update so I can atleast have a phone call without it getting blurry (and my internet connection is fine before you ask!)

I hesitantly downloaded HomeWAV in mid January, despite the very poor reviews then. Fortunately, I ran into almost no issues I’d read about, for 5 weeks. There was an update early on which made the picture distorted and was awful, however, it connected & I could see and still talk with my son and vice versa. For the last week we’ve attempted to connect multiple times a day and had only gotten it to work once. I’ve deleted & redownloaded multiple times, reset my phone, added the plugin, deleted & redownloaded that etc. I’m beyond infuriated that there’s money I’d added and we can’t even utilize it to communicate. With 4 weeks left, I’ll be attempting to get the rest of my money back and deleting all HomeWAV and info. I would definitely recommend NOT downloading. These issues should be fixed before an app is even released. They offer no explanation, no possible resolution. I had no idea about the plugin until I went to download the main app. I’ve already spent over $200 and it just keeps sucking up what’s left and doesn’t ever load. Stick with the phone calls offered through the facility your loved one is in.

I have been using HomeWAV for about a month and a week and it’s been great in communicating back and fourth with my current boyfriend. UNTIL YESTERDAY. The inmate is able to send you a text message notifying you that they are online and would like to video chat. Once I go to open HomeWAV it sits on the home page and loads and loads and loads for about 15 minutes and never actually finishes loading. I have to close out HomeWAV and go back into HomeWAV only for it to sit and load and load and load some more. By that time it’s been 30 minutes and I never got to even video chat with my boyfriend. I am getting extremely frustrated with it. I have had to delete and re download HomeWAV SEVERAL times and even then.. It does the same thing. It needs to be fixed. It’s absolutely annoying and it’s frustrating to not be able to see or speak to your loved one all because HomeWAV won’t load. Myspace from 2006 loads faster than HomeWAV.

Up until HomeWAV updated Friday or Saturday it worked fine. I could talk to my family daily and be able to video as well. I wish there was a way to go back to the old version. I’ve google and searched and can’t find a way at all. Before, I could answer and have no problems with talking great signal and all. Now, the calls drop, it won’t let me answer, I keep having to log off and log back on in order to show availability. My family is saying they have to log off and log back on as well. It’s frustrating and even though society doesn’t care about an inmate their still human and if we in the free world are paying you to allow us to do this, when you’re taking the money and not providing the service it’s almost like you’re getting free money and we have to wait until Monday to report the issue. Not right and very disappointed. Please fix the bugs and issues going on with HomeWAV .

Original review:

Ok so being able to communicate with my inmate is great. So I appreciate that, but apparently it’s a different experience with iPhone users. Mine randomly logs out when running in background and does not notify me when my inmate logs on. So I have to constantly open and check if I’m still logged in. My cousin on the other hand, does not have an iPhone and gets notifications all day every time my inmate does. I’d like to see this fixed, but hopefully my inmate isn’t an inmate for long.

New review:

Okay, since my last review, things got way better for a about a month. Since then it’s gotten worse than before. Before I was able to check to see if I was logged in first thing in the morning, then I knew I was good when my buddy called me at 9-9:30 at night. Now my phone logs out within 10 minutes of my phone going to sleep. I see my buddy come online and I try to open it only to see the agreements pop up, followed by an error box, then I have to login all over again. By that time my buddy thinks I’m not getting online for his calls anymore. Please fix this. My buddy shouldn’t be incarcerated, but things are being drawn out because of covid… and he needs to know that his friends and family are still here for him. I’ve dropped a lot of money into HomeWAV since early June and I feel like we are not getting our money’s worth.

I appreciate having HomeWAV to use to visit my son instead of going down to the local jail where visitation is only two days a week and you have to make an appointment and it takes 24 hours to get your appointment this way I can talk to him whenever I want yeah it freezes up sometimes yeah it does take my money but it doesn’t take me long to disconnect the call when it starts to freeze up then he can try to call me again and usually it will work just fine we can usually get a short video call in even with the freezing up but as long as I get to see my son‘s face and hear his voice even if it is freezing up I’m good with that for now yeah they have a few quirks to work out but I’m sure they will but I’m thankful for HomeWAV so I don’t have to deal with the stupid local jail

HomeWAV randomly goes into a mode where it is loading and won’t pop out of it. The fastest solution I have found it to just delete HomeWAV and reinstall it. Please look into this. The latest version shows that a loading issue has been addressed, however I just uninstalled and reinstalled the all and it’s still acting up.

Someone setup an account on HomeWAV with my email address, which I have since found out is one letter off from their address. I was getting emails multiple times a day from the inmate intended for family so I reached out to the company and asked for my email to be removed from their system. They refused. Please keep in mind - I can use my email address to reset the password, but I don’t want to disrupt the communication between this young man and his family.

With the name of the inmate and who they were reaching out to - I was able to get personal information about the inmate, including where they are in jail and why, but I was also able to get information about the loved one - how old they are, where they live, how many children and step children they have.

HomeWAV deals with very sensitive, very personal information and they do not take that responsibility seriously.

Honestly should start taking the money until the video connects . I’ve wasted so much money for the video/audio to not even connect . I feel robbed. My sons trying to see his father . I put a bit of money on so my son can see his dad and it wouldn’t even connect for us but took the money anyways like we seen or spoke to each other . And I’m upset cause I don’t have that much money to be spending for nothing. My son got his hopes up and was sad to not be able to see his dad like he thought he was going to. We poor over here an I’m doing what I can to take care of my son an instead of putting a bit of money towards something he wants like a cheap toy or something , I put it towards him being able to see his dad that he hasn’t seen in about 4 years and he’s about to be 5 .... Cashapp- $TCrazyCash if you happen to read and feel enough to donate a dollar or something would be appreciated.

If this were a competition I imagine the developers would strive to improved he app but you have no choice if you want to see them while you talk. Like most things these days the developers/ designers never use or try their creations. Most of the time the video freezes. Sometimes the call will drop. You need to log in continuously. What’s with HomeWAV not remembering my user name this is one of the most basic things a app should be able to handle. You can only use it in one orientation, if you flip your device over HomeWAV isn’t even aware, another basic function HomeWAV is unable to do. Money wise they must be sons of politicians or big businesses reaching into our pockets and grabbing as much $$$$$$ as possible. I would give it zero stars but it won’t let me do that.
After reading other reviews it’s oblivious the developers don’t give a #@$& about their work. I’m out.

So it was great for the first month or so, but suddenly it became frustratingly (and expensively) problematic.
I log in, and within seconds it tells me I have to be logged in to use HomeWAV . I click ok and log in again, and again it says the same thing!
When I did have enough time to receive a call from my incarcerated friend before HomeWAV told me I wasn’t logged in, we were able to start the call but then shortly into the call it booted me again! Truued again with same result.
Therefore, so far, this glitchy app has cost me the price of the calls I attempted, but moreso I have nearly $50 of paid credit on here that o can’t even use, and a friend who has no way to use this system to communicate with me!
If you want the burden of being the only way for families and friends to communicate visually with their incarcerated counterparts, you really need to be on top of fixing glitches and bugs as soon as they surface.
It looks like someone else (May 19ty review) had the very same problem, and that was more than 2 months ago!! I hope this issue hasn’t gone unresolved for that long!
Otherwise it is a fantastic concept, and has great potential as long as you can make it bug-free.

If I had other means of talking to my inmate face to face, I would use it. Unfortunately, this app is the only service at his facility, so it’s HomeWAV I have to use. The sound and video CONSTANTLY lag. Our conversations suddenly end because HomeWAV crashes. I get charged for minutes that run by even when there’s no video or sound.
Besides the horrible user interface, it’s obnoxiously expensive. $6 for 20 minutes is absolutely ridiculous. That’s not even including the processing fee ($2 every time you add money to your account), or the refund fee ($7 if you want your money back).
HomeWAV stinks. And if you’re using it, your life probably already has enough struggles as it is, considering you’re trying to communicate with an inmate. I’m sorry for everyone who has to use this forsaken app.

I’ve been using HomeWAV since 10/20 and the update in January made it work great. It was such a relief to be able to see each other. More importantly so my son can see his father daily. I’ve spent a lot of money with app and it’s extremely frustrating that the newest update 3 days ago just made it completely impossible to talk to each other.

It takes 20 minutes plus for it even able to refresh to then sign me out of HomeWAV . It erased all my information I had saved. When we finally got to use HomeWAV it cut the video because call failed out of no where.

Please fix this problem. Using HomeWAV is so important for our family.

You don’t have a choice in who you use when wanting to connect with an inmate. I was disappointed not so much by the ridiculous fees/pricing model, but really in using HomeWAV . It logs me out constantly. Even if I get notifications that my contacts are online, it shows me as offline unless I can immediately sign into HomeWAV when I see notifications. I contacted support to see if they could change it to never logging a user out. Nope. I don’t think they have any FT devs. Feels like they built it in a hurry a while ago and since we don’t have a choice on services to use, they figure they can keep making money with no ongoing app development. I will be happy the day I can delete HomeWAV.

I’ve used HomeWAV for 2 days to contact a loved one out of state. Each call my internet and WiFi have been excellent. For some reason we can only complete a portion of a call before it disconnects. Each time a 15 minute call disconnects you lose the remainder of the time and money. Today we reconnected 3 or 4 times but I went from 79 minutes to around 30 minutes remaining. Each call ranged 2 minutes-12 but we never completed a single call. Topics of conversation weren’t anything to question. Talk of basic needs, kids, family, and ways to contact with a more reliable platform.

I’d love to give HomeWAV zero stars but it did allow me to see my loved one even though it scammed me out of time and money.

HomeWAV has the most going on it’s great to talk to loved ones but at the same time it has entirely too many unnecessary updates!!! I’m an beyond tired of closing HomeWAV and opening it back up and closing it down and uninstalling it and downloading it to continue to load for a entire B.C period and for it to not open up at all. Inmate can request the call but I can’t sign on to see or talk to him and then the system will crash. Out of all this money I’m spending I feel like this should be a perfectly working app being that they are putting it in jails and for it to still not work properly. FIX HomeWAV ASAP OR I PLAN TO UNINSTALL IT PERMANENTLY!!!

This is very annoying and doesn’t allow you to sign in to receive a call without accepting the agreement. The same agreement you just scrolled down for a full minute to accept 15 minutes ago. Why aren’t there competitors??! When there isn’t any competition some companies are lax in their customer service accommodations. I’ve complained as well as many others about this same issue. I’m constantly signed out and I have to accept the agreement even mid call while they’re calling. This is a GGREAT way to communicate with Loved ones BUT ABSOLUTELY WAY TOOOOO EXPENSIVE NOT TO ENJOY YOUR VISIT BECAUSE OF INTERRUPTIONS OR ANNOYING AGREEMENT POPUPS😢if I accepted it before, It should be suffice for every call.

WHEN and IF you can actually get it to work it’s fine, but then there are other times(never just once or twice) where I feel like I spend more time on the phone with their customer support team than I do visiting with my boyfriend.... they will try to tell you the problems are due to poor internet connection, but I have perfect connection and strong signal when I’m online... so I know it’s not me... and then it crashes or keeps logging you out saying “session expired” and makes you log in over and over again. Or it just freezes and keeps counting down and takes your money... good thing they have phones at the jail.... guess I’ll be using their service from now on... never had any problems there. Geez. Get it together this app. It’s almost not worth it anymore. Not only do you charge .20 a minute, but you charge to load money on too and over half the time you can’t have an uninterrupted conversation with your loved one... but of course it’s never their fault THAT THEIR stuff doesn’t work.... yeah, okay... 🙄😐🤔

Side note... the people that say “this app is the greatest thing” and what an “amazing blessing” must have been paid to say that.... there’s a reason HomeWAV has such low ratings....

The try to blame my internet connection on the video freezing but my WiFi connection is superb . Soon as I accept the call it freezes & take a dollar of my money . I’ve called & nothing was done besides blaming my connection . I’ve turned my WiFi system off and on , uninstalled and downloaded HomeWAV over just to ensure it wasn’t any issues on my side . Every other app I use works fine so I’m not sure why it’s constantly freezing, it must be a problem on their side . I’m disappointed in the robbery ! It has used all my money from just accepting the call & I have not even been able to speak to the inmate from it freezing up .

HomeWAV has been such a true blessing and I have never had such incredible customer service by anyone as I have from this app. I have got to talk to some very incredible people who are always very kind and understanding and go way above and beyond to help me. They truly care about their customers. Thank you so much Denise for helping me today you are a true blessing to those people out there struggling with not being with their loved ones!!!!

Tried to have an on-site visit with my loved one today. I was logged in on the monitor. He was logged in on the monitor but for some reason we were not connected. By the time I received a response from personnel our allotted time was up. Staff said I needed to come back on Monday between 8:00 and 5:00. Just so happens I work those hours which is why I was visiting on the weekend. The facility should have use both systems together for a month to get the bugs worked out. That way there would be an alternative if the this app system is not working properly. These types of problems are what cause low detainee moral and behavioral issues.

There has been a recent trend of jails getting rid of physical visitations entirely in favor of video ones using apps such as this. If you’re here downloading HomeWAV, you likely have no other choice to talk to your incarcerated loved one. As such, the company has the power to make their service as poorly functioning as they please, and they absolutely take advantage of that. Frequently dropped calls, expensive rates, overall taking advantage of people in a tragic situation. Horrific that they can get away with it.

This ain’t bad at all you pay 10 dollars and get to talk for like two or three weeks FaceTime and text is a good way to save money better then the tiger correctional services everyone that is wanting to contact someone there jail I’d advice you to go through the this app you can down load HomeWAV on your phone pay $10 and your good to go!

I have used HomeWAV numerous times, and never have I had the issue I’m facing tonight. I open HomeWAV , if I’m lucky, I get to see my loved one is logged on, and at that point, I receive an incoming call. But when I go to hit answer it’s as if it’s on a delay to connect us, then BAM logs me out. Says session expired please log in again. If not that message, then it says someone has logged into your account. Twice I got a page that said technical issues. This has me and my loved one so mad I’m so disappointed in HomeWAV and will not be recommending it to anyone I know. Get it together !

HomeWAV is terrible. It constantly kicks me out of it, saying the session has expired and I need to log in again. Like every 10 seconds it does this, making it near impossible to even utilize it. If I do manage to stay in, it keeps sending annoying disruptive messages every 2 seconds (so and so is available!), to the point that I can’t get through HomeWAV anyway. Between all this, I’ve gotten to send a video only a small percentage of the time that I’ve tried. Terrible.

I love the price , and the test they allow you to do to test your system, but HomeWAV freezes like crazy ! Every time I log on I have to restart my phone and I have the latest iPhone Available!

I added money three times but only registered once and I’m not the only one. If I see those charges show up, rest assured my personal attorney (and friend) at Barnes & Thornburg will be getting a call.
Our judicial system is a joke, making it nearly impossible for the people that have actually been rehabilitated (and ready to contribute to society) to earn their life back, ascertaining even the slightest bit of normalcy! All the while, WE PAY corrupt cops to walk the streets and run racquets of their own... BS!!!

I HATE HomeWAV FOR ALL THOSE THEY STOLE FROM. ONE DAY I HOPE this app WILL HAVE TO PAY UP.

• I did the registration.
• I was verified.
• I put money on my account.
• I made one video and it sent it to where my son is held.....
• Later that same day, I received a text for me to login because my son was waiting. Odd I thought!! Because several days prior, I checked often in HomeWAV for him to be on. Not once did I need to login. I was to always be logged in!!! It’s an option!
• I entered the correct info- message response: “user not found”.
• To reset the account I tried every email address possible to recover my account, as I was thinking maybe I entered the wrong password. Again, “user not found”.
• No info on who to contact for help.
• Q & A offer no help.
•••Low Ratings For A Reason!!!!!!!

It’s a neat idea and I’m glad they gave you a couple of free minutes to start out so you can try out the service.
In my experience is not very reliable. I left a video message that was never received. When I made a call the audio was intermittent and unintelligible; this was very upsetting to my contact and used up all of my credit; I have submitted a request for my credit to be reinstated and will update this if I have a satisfactory result.