Is SlideJoy App a Scam or Easy Money Unlocking Your Phone? – Review

What Is SlideJoy?

Overview

SlideJoy, in a nutshell, is an app available for android devices that allows users to earn money by viewing ads on the lockscreen of their phone... which they can then cash-out via PayPal or even donate the money they've made to charity.

Upon first impression everything looks pretty good. It has tens of thousands of ratings on Google Play with an overall rating of over 4 out of 5 stars...

... and as mentioned, it has been featured by many different media outlets including the Wall Street Journal, CNBC, TODAY, CNET, Business Insider and more.

On a more negative and concerning note... their Twitter account hasn't been active since 2016 and their main Facebook page no longer exists.

Background Info

The company name is SlideJoy Inc. and they were founded in 2014 by the parent company Buzzvil Co., Ltd., which is a mobile advertising company.

They are located in New York and are not BBB accredited, but do have an A+ rating, not that it means all that much...

You can also see above that their contact number is (917) 836-2426. The reason I point this out is because on the official website (www.getslidejoy.com) they don't provide any contact information that I can see. So if you do need to get in contact with them this is one option.

How The App Works

How it works is the app will show you ads/promotions on the lockscreen of your phone and you will get paid for viewing them. But you don't get paid in cold hard cash right away. You earn system points, which they call "carats", that are later redeemable for real money and gift cards.

• You get paid to see news and promotions on your lockscreen
• You are credited with "carats" the next day
• You can redeem these "carats" for cash and gift cards

How Is This Possible?

It may seem a bit strange and even like a scam if you aren't familiar with how it all works.

This is nothing more than good ol' fashion advertising in an innovative new way.

SlideJoy is an advertising platform. They get paid by advertisers to show ads and this is how they make their money--passing a small portion along to users of their app who are the ones viewing the ads.

Think of it this way: You are renting out advertising space on your phone and SlideJoy is the middleman that provides the platform for advertisers to reach your lockscreen.

Types of Ads Shown

The types of ads you might see can be all sorts of things. Maybe you will see an ad/promotion for a new car, a new promotion McDonald's has going on, some clothing, a news story of some kind, political announcements, etc. 

They have "hyper targeting" first-party data that allows advertisers to show their ads to certain groups of people based on demographics, content browsing behavior, location, what kind of device they are using, and more.

This is good for both parties... because if I'm not into politics I don't want to be shown political news... and I won't be (once they get to know my behavior enough anyhow).

Their algorithm will learn your behavior. So you might be shown some ads you are completely uninterested in at first, but over time it will improve.

A Win/Win Situation?

Is SideJoy a win/win for both sides?

The promotions are displayed on your lockscreen. So what are you really missing out on? Not much.

I guess what it all comes down to is whether or not the money you will make with this is worth the extra bit of what some might call annoying ads on your lockscreen.

*I'll get into how much you can realistically make in a second.

Setup Process

Step 1) Get The App

The first step is to download the app of course, which is free to do on Google Play.

After downloading you will be able to signup with Facebook, Email or you have the option to "use without signup"--but I have no idea why you would use it without signing up... because I don't think you can get paid this way (maybe just to test it out I guess).

Step 2) Set Payment Options

After creating your account you will have the option to choose "Hero Mode" or "Normal Mode". 

• Hero Mode - If you select this mode your earnings will automatically be donated to charity every month.
• Normal Mode - This is the default mode and allows you to withdrawal your earnings to PayPal, buy gift cards, or donate to charity. Here you have control over your earnings.

After choosing your account type you are good to go. You don't have to setup your payment option right away, which may include PayPal depending on where you live in the world.

A Look Inside The App

The Lockscreen

On the lockscreen of your phone SlideJoy will display ads and you will have 4 options and the way you go about choosing these different options is by swiping a different direction... up, down, left, or right.

Option 1: Swipe Up

Swiping up will bring up new content. So if you don't care for the ad/promotion you see, but want to see what else there is, you can swipe up.

Option 2: Swipe Down

Swiping down will simply take you back to the previous content. So if you swiped up to go to the next content, but regret your decision and decide you are actually interested in the first content, you can swipe down.

Option 3: Swipe Left

Swiping left will take you to the ad/promotion. If you are interested in learning more about the content you see, this is what you want to do.

Option 4: Swipe Down

This is what you do if you aren't interested and just want to get into your phone. It will take you to the main homepage of your device.

Opening Up The App

When you open up the app you will have 3 main menu options (Account, Exchange, & Feed) and you will also see a notifications and settings icon in the upper right corner.

Account

In your account area you will be able to see what mode you are in (normal or hero), the total number of carats you have, and the carats that are redeemable right at that exact moment.

The total carats are those that are redeemable now and those that will be next month... while the 'redeemable now' ones are obviously only those that you can redeem right then.

*There is a 1 month wait period between when you earn carats and when they can be redeemed.

Exchange

If you go to the Exchange tab you will be able to see your options for redeeming your carats. These options will vary depending on where you are located.

Right now as I am writing this for some reason all I have available is to redeem for Visa USD, which is all I really need, but I'm wondering where the PayPal option went.

Feed

The Feed area is where you can get your referral link if you want to make some money referring others to join and where you can see the leaderboard of all the top earners...

Rewards

As mentioned above, my only option for withdrawing money at the moment is Visa.

PayPal and gift cards may be a choice for some, but for some reason they are not for me right now.

*PayPal is currently disabled. This appears to be temporary.

That said, if you do have PayPal as an option it is probably your best choice because you can withdrawal funds with as little as $2.

When you click on one of your withdrawal options you will be given more details. I clicked on my Visa USD option and as you can see I need a minimum of 5,250 carats to redeem for this and it is only $5...

*Note: This Visa prepaid  card is only valid for 7 months... what a bunch of crap! Something like this shouldn't expire.

How Much Can You Realistically Make?

This app is often promoted as a simple way to earn an extra $5 a month. No one is claiming that you are going to be earning absurd amounts of money... but is even earning $5 in a month's time realistic?

Well, yes. You can definitely earn $5 a month and there are people that do, but generally speaking it seems that the average is less than that.

I would say anywhere from $1-5/mo is more realistic.

If you read some older reviews you might see that they say you can earn up to $10/mo... but this is no longer realistic. Unfortunately the earning potential has dropped and SlideJoy doesn't pay out as much as it once did.

1000 carats = approx. $1 and apparently they used to be worth more than this, as I'll go over in the complaint section.

How Much Will You Make Per Ad?

Is there any way to estimate your earnings? If you unlock your phone 50 times a day, how much will that earn you?

Well, unfortunately there is no good explanation offered on this.

I imagine that different types of promotions/ads will pay out different amounts and it will also vary with advertising demand for your demographics, location and so on. This is how it works with any good advertising platform.

So for example, if you live in India you likely won't make as much as someone in the US, due to their not being the same advertising demand.

But again... there is no good explanation offered on all of this.

Will You Make More By Viewing Ads?

If you think you can just click the ads every time to make more money then you are thinking wrong... although I thought this would be the case when I first came across this app too.

In order to prevent people from clicking every ad imaginable just to make money, they pay equal amounts regardless of you swiping left (to view the content) or right (to unlock your phone and dismiss the ad).

Additional Earnerers

1) Referral Program

If you have a big social media following or a website that receives a lot of traffic related to making money and whatnot then the referral program is going to likely be the best option for you to make money with this app.

Like most apps, you are provided with your own unique referral link that you can share to refer others to join and make money doing so. 

You will be able to earn 20% of what your referrals earn in the first month... which isn't that great but if you are able to refer boatloads of people it could add up.

2) Paid Surveys

Paid surveys are also available within the app. This is a more recent addition. The surveys you have available, whether or not you have surveys at all, and how much they pay will vary depending on location.

If you are familiar with survey sites like Opinion Outpost, Swagbucks, etc. then you know how things work... not really worth the time. But it is another option.

Drawbacks/Complaints

1. Slower Phone

While most people likely won't notice any difference, you may be see your phone being a little sluggish at times when this app is running.

Some people even claim that it causes their phone to freeze

2. Battery Life

The last thing you want is to be charging your phone a bunch just to make the little money that is possible from this app.

Unfortunately, as with any app that runs automatically like this one, it is going to affect battery life, although not much.

This then brings up the question... is it really worth it for such little pay?

3. Long Wait for Withdrawals

After getting credited with carats you will have to wait 30 days until they can be withdrawn, which is pretty ridiculous in my opinion.

4. Not as Good as It Used to Be

One type of complaint I've seen several of is this kind...

... which claims the app used to provide better earning potential.

I never used this app years ago, so I can't personally confirm this, but it seems to happen with a lot of apps like this so I imagine it could be true.

Upon digging around more I found an older review that claims 100 carats used to be equal to $1... which is 10x what they are worth now (now 1,000 carats = $1).

5. PayPal Problems (hopefully temporary)

As I'm writing this the PayPal option apparently isn't available to anyone, which explains why I didn't see it. There are a lot of people pretty upset about this because it was by far the best withdrawal option... not only giving you cold hard cash, but also letting you withdrawal with only $2.

However, there are still some strong supporters that are well aware of this problem... 

It appears that the team at SlideJoy is working to fix the problem. 

What exactly is the problem? I have no idea... there is no information about it really.

Privacy Concerns

When it comes to apps/programs that collect user data there always seems to be some concerns.

The truth is that SlideJoy is monitoring your behavior. The algorithm learns about what you like and what you don't like based on your activity, it knows your name, where you live, etc.

However, it's not like this app is some spyware that is going to look through your photos and documents on your phone. It collects data only from the information you provided upon signing up and how you interact with the ads it shows you.

You can read SlideJoy's privacy policy here if you want to, but as far as I see there isn't anything "shady" going on here.

Pros/Cons

Pros

• Passive earning potential
• Very easy--brainless earning
• Your lockscreen wasn't that important anyhow... so ads shown there aren't much of a nuisance
• Free to use
• Good withdrawal options

Cons

• Very low earning potential
• Drains battery to some extent
• Might cause your phone to lag

Is SlideJoy a Scam?

Well, there are certainly a lot of upset users calling it such...

... and there are some review sites like MouthShut where it has a horrible overall rating by users (2 out of 5 stars on MouthShut), but is it really a scam?

The answer is no. It isn't.

I know the earning potential is low, and there are problems with the app, but calling it a scam is taking things too far.

Also, the reviews on MouthShut are almost entirely from Indian users, which probably earn less compared to users in the US because, as I explained briefly earlier, the demand for advertising in India isn't as great as it is in the US.

Conclusion - Worth Your Time or Not?

SlideJoy is a legit app where you really can earn some extra money by simply unlocking your phone, but is it really worth it?

Is the extra couple dollars that you might earn each month even worth the battery drain and the extra money you will have to pay in electricity to charge your phone more? (a very good question)

SlideJoy apparently used to be much more worth the time. This is how it usually works. Earning apps like this will be awesome in the beginning, gain a lot of popularity, and then the owners either get greedy or realize they can't afford to keep paying so much... either way it leads to disappointment.

I guess the app still could be worth it to some people. Just don't expect much and remember that earning potential likely varies with demographics, location, etc.

If you want some other ways to earn money with apps you can check out this list of 40+ apps you can make money with.

Alternatively, my top recommended option for making money on the side is to use this program, which I've been using since 2015 to make thousands of dollars.

I hope you enjoyed this review and found it helpful. Let me know what you think about SlideJoy in the comment section below. I like to hear back from my readers 🙂