Why we need to charge for radar upgrades

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One of our community members brought up the topic of economic discrimination regarding the in-app purchases on our free app and we wanted to share that discussion in case anyone else felt the same way and to bring clarity to their very valid concern. Please be kind with your comments. We want to keep this a safe place for those to share constructive criticism AKA kind-candor.

They commented:

“So charge those who wish to have ads removed, but don’t charge for radar upgrades and 15 minute interval radar reporting, which can save lives. The real story isn’t the potential for ad removal, it’s the buried story of economic discrimination.”

Our response:

“We would love to do that! Seriously, we tried. But once we ran the numbers of how much the additional, extremely expensive future-radar data that we purchase was vs how little revenue the tiny ad banner yielded that we place at the bottom of the app, we ended up losing quite a bit of money for every user. If we ended up launching the app that way, we’d be bankrupt by this point and we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Currently, users that keep ads actually cost us a little bit each month and that’s with only 2 hours of radar data. It’s only because of those who subscribe that we’re able to afford to pay for those who don’t.

With premium future-radar, we have to pay for every single radar tile and there is multiple tiles per radar and multiple frames per animation. It adds up very quickly, especially with many users on the app. Having said this, we do have plans to build our own future radar product and that will happen within the next two years. Once we do, we’ll be able to offer more to free users!

I really hope you can appreciate that this isn’t economic discrimination. This is simply a very careful pricing strategy so that we don’t go out of business. On a related topic, we offer everything on our Facebook and social media accounts for free and that will never change. We also often share the full 5 hour 15-minute radar animations on our pages for free for everyone to see. So basically, everything we do is ultimately shared with the entire community for free and we plan to keep it that way.

I personally grew up in subsidized housing and we couldn’t afford much. However, I’m so grateful my parents did everything they could to provide us with the best life possible and I wouldn’t change my childhood for anything. I’m certainly not out here trying to economically discriminate against anyone and I certainly haven’t forgotten where I came from. I am also so grateful that we’re able to offer all that we do to everyone for free.

I really do appreciate you taking the time to discuss this and I sincerely hope I’ve shed some light on exactly why we need to charge users that are able to afford to upgrade to get slightly more than what we already offer everyone for free. - Adam”

Thank You to Those That Have Subscribed

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Just wanted to give a huge thank you and virtual hug to all those who have subscribed to Upgrade Radar & Remove Ads!

Your subscriptions are the reason we’re able to offer the app for free to everyone else! The small ad banner at the bottom of the app helps a bit but it definitely does not pay for the premium weather data we purchase, expensive servers, constant development, and constant upgrading.

We realize not everyone can afford to subscribe and we completely understand! This is why we made the app free and thank you so much for using the app and telling your friends and family about it! Virtual hugs for you too!

Either way, your support means the world to us and allows us to continue raising awareness about tornadoes and severe weather .

And for that, thank you, thank you, thank you

- Adam

ALL FIXED!

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Hi! We had an unprecedented amount of new app users last night which caused our servers to be overwhelmed. This issue has been addressed and will not happen moving forward. We're also planning on upgrading our app server today and this will definitely improve notification speed, loading speed, etc! Thank you so much and our apologies for the downtime.

NEW SUBSCRIBERS: If you have subscribed to Upgrade Radar and Remove Ads but you're still seeing the free version of the app, please follow these steps:

1. Open the "Remove Ads" page in the menu (top left of the app)

2. Click the green "Restore Purchases" button down the page

3. Restart the app and/or restart your device

If this still does not work, please try tapping the "Restore Purchases" button several times. Also, please ensure you have upgraded to the latest iOS version 13.5.1 or the latest Android software for your device.

Additionally, if the top of this "IMPORTANT NOTE" alert bar is white and not green, please update your Instant Weather app to version 1.0.480 by visiting InstantWeatherApp.com and choosing your device type. Then click "Update".

Thank you and if you still have questions, please email help@InstantWeather.ca

Thank you so much!

- Adam & the IW team

Remove ads, subscriptions and TMA

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A few Text Message Alerts subscribers have asked if the removing of ads on the app is included with their text subscription.

To clarify, our Text Message Alerts are a unique product from the app. TMA is also significantly more expensive for us to operate.

We’ve been considering raising the price of TMA (we haven’t raised the price since it began in 2015) but we’re going to try to keep it the same price until we start losing money on it.

Our app requires an in-app purchase to remove ads and based on the rules from the app stores, we’re not allowed to have users pay for it somewhere else (like our website).

So, removing ads will be $5.99/year or $0.99/month and only available as an in-app purchase. This will also improve radar from 5 to 12 intervals.

Our Text Message Alerts remain the most reliable method for alerts in a dangerous situation like a significant tornado when it’s likely that the internet will stop working because towers are overwhelmed, wifi goes down because power is out, and if anything will make it through, it’ll only be basic SMS text messages. Our app requires internet access so most of the time it’ll work great. However, during the most dangerous times when getting information is extremely important, text is easily the best option.

I hope this makes sense and thank you for your questions! And thank you to all those who subscribe to our Text Message Alerts. Without you, this app would be another year away or more as we’ve used the slim profits from TMA to build the app faster! ❤

Adam

(posted to the Facebook group on November 23 2019)

Remove Ads + Upgrade Radar

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I'm now realizing that some may not know you can upgrade the radar to 5 hours by subscribing to a "Remove Ads" subscription. We should probably rename it to Remove Ads + Upgrade Radar.

Additionally, some have mentioned they don't mind the ads because seeing them provides us with revenue.

While we appreciate that thought, just to be clear, the revenue we receive from a subscription is drastically higher than what we receive from you seeing a small ad banner at the bottom of the app. Without subscriptions, ad revenue would not even come close to paying for data, servers, development, etc.

A huge thank you to all of those who have subscribed! You're the reason we're barely breaking even at this early and critical stage. 

Adam