Inkitt
Reviews and Complaints

I've been an avid Wattpad user for awhile now and, well, I really like wattpad. But that's not what I'm here to talk about (or, rather, write about). So far, I do enjoy Inkitt. I like the easy to use interface and the clean look. I also LOVE the rating system, it's allows people to see what others have truly thought of a book (unlike Wattpad where you can only judge a book by the number of 'Stars' and 'Reads' it gets). But, there are some drawbacks. I'd really love to be able to edit my profile settings from the app. I'd also love to edit my stories from the app. I don't always have a computer handy and it would allow me to make minor tweaks on the go (I absolutely hate full out writing on this tiny thing). My main cause for conflict comes from the limitations of the app. That's really it. I love it otherwise ^^

As a writer myself I find Inkitt's take on the manuscript culling process unique (and intriguing). Editors and agents do know their stuff, but more of a group think/multiple feedback approach can cast a wider net for talented writers.

I am more of a recreational writer, so being published has not always been so my number one priority. But when I do manage to edit one of my many first drafts I will post to this app first!

On to the application itself. Easy to navigate and the format of the novels are great. I liked the scrolling instead of tapping/swiping since if I miss something or want to re read a sentence or paragraph I don't need to page back to do so. It's more of a fluid user experience.

Overall very satisfied with the app and the writers so far (I was led to this by a friend who was promoting their novel).

When I first opened the app, I tried to login with my username instead of email. It gave me an error to use my email, but then loaded me into the app anyway in a “logged in” state without actually being logged into any account. After I realized why everything was having issues, I managed to “log out” (of my not actually logged in account). Once I managed to log in with my actual account it asked for my name and gender (didn’t I already have that on my browser account?) but I dutifully filled it out. After that it seemed to sync to my online username, but when I checked my profile it showed my profile’s wall, but not my profile picture/banner. It also didn’t show any of my stories or followers in the profile. The profile sync issues are really weird. I haven’t done enough reading to actually comment on the reading experience, but so far it looks like it might be decent.

Edit: It would be nice to add books to your library rather than just simply downloading them for offline purposes. Also, taking the books from the library would be a nice upgrade because it piles up over time. And a bug that needs to be fixed: some stories claim to have x amount of reviews but when reviewing the reviews, it’s not the number that it claims it has. It’s normally less than that.

So I have been using Wattpad for 4+ years and I’ve decided that when it was time to write that I should share my stories on multiple writing platforms to promote myself. I have only had Inkitt for two days, but I have to say that I absolutely enjoy the layout and the reviewing system. The star system is something I’ve always wanted Wattpad to try and now that I’ve find it with Inkitt I think I’ll enjoy it a lot. Also, the design of Inkitt is so simple and very pleasing. It’s easy to navigate and reading is fun. You can read books offline (this is one of the perks of the app considering Wattpad got rid of this feature)! Awesome! Although I have enjoyed this app in the few days that I have had it, I would like to make some suggestions to the app:

- Add a paging option when reading instead of scrolling. I don’t mind scrolling to read the text, but I prefer to turn a page because it mimics reading an actual book.
- Allowing writers to edit their writing on the app itself could prevent a lot of trouble. It would be easier for me to edit using the mobile app rather than a computer most times because I won’t always be able to use my computer. So adding a feature to edit your work on the app should be considered.

Other than that, I really enjoy reading on the app. If anything it’s more of a reading app than a writing app, but it makes it so easy to find a book to read. I love this app, and am not leaving it anytime soon.

The platform and app itself cannot be considered ‘user friendly.’ Thus it would certainly benefit from some improvements. For one, when addressing Analytics, it is rather hard to fully comprehend the calculations that go into the reads a writer garners and moreso to understand the statistics that we are provided. Furthermore, it would be highly beneficial for readers and authors alike to have some form of insight into how many reads/views each chapter in a story possesses as well as in total, seeing as how this is not really taken into account when one opens a story and really the only insight we are given regarding this, would be the likes a story has accumulated. In addition, the likes themselves are rather limited, as readers are only allowed to 1 like per story and this in itself does less for interactivity as writers are not able to recieve quick feedback on the reader’s take in each chapter, if they do not physically submit a comment that is. It would also be nice for the developers to implement some form of in-line commentary, as comments can usually only be seen when you scroll to the bottom of the page in a story. Another aspect of note, is that there is no way to send private messages to other users and as such when attempting to reach out to a user, the only way to do so is to post a message on their wall which is another downside. Lastly, while there is some form of tag system, it would be nice if one could physically input the tags when searching for a book rather than only being able to choose from the ones that are listed in whatever genre the tags fall under—which brings me to the tagging of books themselves:
From what I’ve gathered, when adding tags to our novels, you are only allowed to choose from pre-existing tags and you are not allowed to create your own. Which is why I believe it would certainly be a plus for us to be given wider berth when it come to the tagging of our works. Another thing I’d like to point out, is that there is no way to filter works that have been completed and those that are in-progess. There also remains the fact that when filtering for books that have been updated within a certain amount of time, you are only given a very short range of up to the last thirty days, as opposed to giving you the option to choose from categories that list those updated in the last week, month, or year.
Now I understand wanting to stand out from other platforms, but Inkitt could have so much potential if they’d only take a moment to address some of these concerns. For what it’s worth though, both the app and website are decent enough.

I honestly loved this app and used to use it all the time. However, Inkitt logged me out and, when I logged in, all my reading lists disappeared. I lost all of the books I had read and there were a lot of them. I honestly have no interest in reading on this app further.

The idea of this app is good. The only really problem I have with it is that it glitches and won't let me open my books. Now I understand that everything is not perfect so I could deal with this if it was every now and again but this happens everyday which makes me sad because these are good books on this app. It is a shame no of us can view them.

It is perplexing that you would make an iPad and allow for it to be as big to take up a whole iPad screen but not allow for horizontal orientation. It doesn’t really make a lot of sense and it is not that much of a feature to add. For the time being it’s just frustrating. Not to mention the fact that it doesn’t sync the reading on the different devices.

I normally don't write reviews, but every time I try to change the info on my story like changing age restrictions and stuff it kicks me out of the app every time and it's annoying. I would just like to write stories without any problems. If possible please fix this problem. I would also change my two-star rating to a five-star rating when this is fixed.

Thank you for your time.

I’ve had a few issues with the app as well as the desktop version. Their customer service is non-existent. I’ve emailed the help link several times and have NEVER once gotten a response and because of that I have been locked out of Inkitt for weeks now. I’ve even messages their FB page and ha w gotten no responses. Kind of annoying when you’ve actually developed a following and have stories you can’t complete.

Inkitt won’t get out of portrait lock, so I have to have my device a certain way in order to read. I don’t like it. Reading on a reading app should be easy. I like to have my device sideways because it is easier, but Inkitt isn’t updated for that. And I know it isn’t my device locked in portrait mode, because I am typing this review with my device sideways. I would be happy to rate this app 5 stars if I could use mode besides portrait. This app is a very nice app in all other aspects.

Seriously wish they’d stop poaching all my favorite authors off of Wattpad. Like get your own authors! I know it’s a good opportunity for them but it’s just a hassle for everyone else. That’s like the fourth book for me this week that’s been out on here. Now I can’t freely read books that I’ve really enjoyed reading as much. I have to wait seven days more than I’ve already waited for. Most of these books I’ve read from the very beginning of the authors journey. I don’t need or want to download a whole new app when I already have one that I can’t even read them on!

Many of the features of this app are very nice - such as fast customer support, night time reading, font size etc. However,
it is constantly shutting down. I have deleted this app and reloaded many times so I can complete the story that I've started. But unfortunately after every two chapters - it shuts down. Finish one chapter choose the button to move to the next chapter and boon I'm back to my phones home page. I can't even go on the website to continue reading because it diverts me back to the app. I really wanted to love this app. Customer service responded to my complaint but nothing was rectified. This app has wasted my time and caused me frustration. Bye bye Inkitt!