Of 1,355 App Store reviews of one Reels and Shorts blocking app (February 1 to September 6, 2026), 466 gave one to three stars. In those low ratings, the most common complaint was that the app was slow, heavy or crashed: 143 reviews, or 30.7%. The complaints most tied to a low rating were rarer: no way to switch between several accounts, Screen Time restrictions reaching unrelated websites, and login problems. In a wider set of 1,405 reviews, the most requested feature was posting Stories and making calls (110 of 266 reviews that asked for something).
I'm Ayumu Kitabayashi. I build a similar app, so I have an interest here; that is disclosed at the end. Below is the data, how I counted it, and what it can't tell you.
What was read
- App: SocialLite – Block Reels&Shorts (iOS). It is one of the larger apps in this category, so it had enough written reviews to count. All numbers are about this one app.
- Store: Apple App Store only, all countries in the export. US 600, Canada 148, UK 112, Australia 91, Germany 61, and 54 other countries (59 in all).
- Period: February 1 to September 6, 2026. 1,355 reviews, no duplicate IDs, none deleted.
- Stars: 5★ 671 / 4★ 218 / 3★ 166 / 2★ 105 / 1★ 195. Average 3.79.
- Wishes: counted later on 1,405 reviews (the same 1,355 plus 50 from September 14 to 18).
Complaints in the 466 low ratings
I read all 466 one-to-three-star reviews in full and tagged each with every category that applied, so one review can count more than once. The last column compares how often a complaint shows up in low ratings with how often it shows up in four-and-five-star reviews. A high number means people who write it almost always rate low.
| Complaint | Reviews | Share of low ratings | Low vs high |
|---|---|---|---|
| Slow, heavy or crashes | 143 | 30.7% | 1.4× |
| The core job needs payment (e.g. hiding suggested posts) | 51 | 10.9% | 3.7× |
| Long, repeated or pushy onboarding | 48 | 10.3% | 5.7× |
| Too expensive, dislike of subscriptions | 46 | 9.9% | 8.8× |
| Things aren't hidden or slip through | 41 | 8.8% | 3.4× |
| Posting or other features break | 36 | 7.7% | 1.3× |
| Notifications don't arrive | 25 | 5.4% | 1.5× |
| Screen Time limits affect unrelated sites, or can't be removed | 20 | 4.3% | 19.1× |
| Account flagged, suspended or "suspicious login" | 18 | 3.9% | 8.6× |
| Can't log in, or logged out | 15 | 3.2% | 9.5× |
| No switching between multiple accounts | 12 | 2.6% | 22.9× |
| Asked to write a review before using the app | 8 | 1.7% | not in high ratings |
Two things stand out.
Speed is the most common complaint, but it doesn't decide the rating on its own. At 1.4×, people who liked the app also mentioned it. One reviewer wrote: "Took 5 minutes to open instagram … I understand that the point is to slow down, but 5 minutes is excessive."
The rare complaints are the ones that come with one star. Account switching (22.9×), Screen Time side effects (19.1×) and login trouble (9.5×) are each under 5% of low ratings, but people who hit them rarely gave more than three stars. One reviewer described an unrelated website being blocked in their normal browser; another spent "an hour on the phone with an Apple Specialist" to get access back.
What is free also split the ratings. Low ratings said the free tier still let them scroll because suggested posts came up in the feed. In the later 50 reviews, several five-star reviews praised the opposite: that the main features worked for free.
What people asked for (1,405 reviews)
266 reviews (19%) contained a request. 65% of them came from four-and-five-star reviewers, so they read as "one more thing" rather than anger.
| Request | Reviews | Share of the 266 |
|---|---|---|
| Post Stories, make calls, send voice messages | 110 | 41% |
| Notifications for DMs | 61 | 23% |
| Sleep timer or background playback | 27 | 10% |
| Dark mode | 24 | 9% |
| More services (e.g. Pinterest) | 19 | 7% |
| A one-time purchase instead of a subscription | 17 | 6% |
| Multiple accounts | 14 | 5% |
| Opening the official app sends you to the blocker | 13 | 5% |
The top two have the same cause: these apps open the web version of Instagram, which has no Stories posting, calls or push notifications. One four-star reviewer put the notification problem plainly: tapping an Instagram notification "opens instagram and not this app, then i start doomscrolling again."
In five-star reviews, the word "friends" appeared 99 times, 8.5 times the rate in one-and-two-star reviews. People don't want to leave social media. They want to keep their friends and lose the feed.
How it was counted
- The reviews were exported from a review-tracking service as CSV, then merged and de-duplicated by review ID.
- All 466 low ratings were read by one person. Keyword search was used to find candidates, and each was checked by reading. Keyword counting alone missed whole groups, such as the Screen Time cases.
- Reviews in German, French, Italian and other languages (about 7%) were read in the original, not translated.
- The "low vs high" ratio is the share of low ratings with the complaint divided by the share of high ratings with it.
Limitations
- One app. Other apps in the category may have different problems.
- Written reviews lean negative. On September 20 the app showed 4.76 stars from 7,317 ratings on the US store, while the written reviews averaged 3.79. Far more people tap a star than write a review.
- One coder. The categories are my reading. I haven't published the per-review coding sheet, so the counts can't be checked line by line yet.
- App Store only, iOS only. Nothing here is about Android.
- Only low ratings were categorized for complaints. Request counts come from all stars.
Disclosure: what I do with this
I'm the developer of minulo, an iPhone app that opens Instagram, YouTube and other services with Reels, Shorts and suggested posts hidden. It is the same kind of app, so read this section with that in mind.
- Hiding Reels, Shorts and suggested posts is free. Pro is optional ($9.99/month or $39.99/year in the US).
- You sign in on each service's own page, so minulo never sees your password.
- It shares the top request's limit: Stories posting, voice messages and calls don't work inside minulo. "Take a break" opens the official app for the minutes you choose.
- Notifications: while minulo blocks an official app, that app's notifications don't arrive. Instagram DM notifications are a Pro beta exception.
- It is also a web-view app, so speed is the complaint I watch most.
The full category table is on this page.
