PaperKarma for Android
First, you have to give out time to work and success rate is only about 90%. Easy to use. Have been using for 6 months now. At first, I was sending 3 to 5 per day. Now, I'm sending 1 or 2 a week. Anything related to the government cannot be unsubscribed, i.e. USAA. I have recommended to many people. Love that the junk mail is decreasing. Love it more because it's free. I don't know if it's saving very many trees, but many drops of water in the bucket will eventually fill it.
I have unsubscribed from more than 50 companies/organizations using PaperKarma. It's fast, free, and so easy... Open the app, take a photo of the mailing label, press submit, and you are done. Paper Karma even tracks my requests for me.
A careful review of all my submissions to Paper Karma has shown not one solicitation was stopped. I understand how tenacious mailers can be. All this did document how long I have been trying to stop the mail. But unsuccesfully in every single attempt.
I have moved three times and the garbage mail i had Paper Karma get rid of is still NOT coming. Yeah. Only one local group without a return address was not successful. One only had a logo but they got rid of it. And I love the sound of crunching up the mail when it is successful in contacting that co.
I absolutely love this idea. So far, every single piece of unwanted mail that I have snapped a picture of and sent to the PaperKarma team has been processed, removing me from the mailing list. Sometimes you have to be creative, but as long as the picture contains the sender's name, and your name and address, your picture will be accepted. Thank you for the creativity and ease of this application.
I've made it a personal mission to get my name and address off of mailing lists. I started using PaperKarma to help my son after he moved. The feedback letting you know that a request was successful makes using the app more rewarding. PaperKarma in now my tool for getting rid of junk mail.
Overall this is pretty slick. Easy to use and smart enough to know where you are so as long as this software really does what it advertises then the software should be rated probably a seven or eight. So far there isn't really a great way to test the software. But keeping my fingers crossed this should be rated well above a five.
Works well. The only complaint is that some requests that are for "new" companies are put into limbo. How long will they stay there? Why not just submit the request using the info I scanned and saved? Other than that I'm happy with the "successful" requests that I've been unsubscribed from.
Does this even work? I'm still getting tons of junk mail. Even more, I think. It is easy and quick to use, but is it even worth the effort if I still keep getting the same junk mail all the time? When I see a significant decrease I'll gladly change my rating to highest. Please make this app get better results because it's a great concept. Thanks!
This app was great when I downloaded it on my galaxy note 3 and now it won't accept my scan.I take a picture and it says try again or the picture disappears. Can you please fix it!! I am using a different phone now, LG Stylo Plus 2 every thing works fine now.
I like this app, but why does it need to run continuously in the background? It's using 7MB running 1 process and 1 service continuously. Even after a reboot of my phone and not launching the app, the background process and service is running. Can you please please stop this? Very annoying.
Takes a pic then says 'unable to use' or just loops back to camera. Uninstalled and reinstalled, changed camera settings, tried different types of junk mail, close ups & full page shots, signed out and back in. I'm out of ideas. Would be great if it worked. I get tons of magazines I never ordered. *sigh*
While the underlying service works reasonably well over time (years), the app has many bugs that have existed for years on end with no fixes in sight. Never mind the lack of support for runtime permissions which really should be adopted by all Android apps at this point.
Great app, and so simple to use. You take a picture of the address and 99% of the time, Paperkarma does the rest. (Sometime you have to type in the name of the catalogue or the mail, but only if they are pretty obscure.) Thanks, Paperkarma! Hope this reduces my snail mail load soon.
I easily submitted a bunch of credit card requests, and I hope the Paper Karma system works. There's really no way to know until I stop seeing so much junk in the mail. So far, so good!
It has been 2 weeks since I added bank of america, citi, travellers insurance and a few others for removal. The app continues to state the following "You're one of the first people to request removal from this company. We have it in our queue now, but figuring out other companies may take precedence". It is surprising that I am the first to request removal of junk mail from these institutions.
When it work's, it seems to be a very convenient solution and I would be willing to make a donation. But more than 50% of the time, I have to take 60 photos before one actually sticks and is recognized! Frustrating.
Works pretty good for commonly-known spammers. Lesser known spammers can take a really long time (and sometimes luck). I have some going on 6 months old, still no update. Others that say submitted still send junk. Also good for removing from duplicate catalogs, etc that you still care to receive. GUI needs some fixes, can't see the name of the company you're picking in the Search feature, and need to be able to rearrange address book and rotate pictures.
Excellent app, easy to use and does what it says. Occasionally it encounters mail it can't unsubscribe you from, but in those cases it explains why and what to do about it. (Tends to be local banks, at least that I've seen.) Very thorough.
This app truly works! I've been trying to get rid of my Mom's junk mail & this is the fastest, easiest & cheapest way. I was mailing things back which got expensive with stamps & all. Not to mention time consuming. We saw results in a timely fashion! Thanks Paper Karma!
Works but could be better. 1) seems that I have to have the screen rotation on before taking a photo of the address in landscape in order for it to save and not cause an error. 2) easy to add multiple addresses but I have yet to figure out how to delete old ones that no longer apply 3) the auto search for the company based upon your picture takes way too long and it's just easier to type in the name and flooded find the company based upon what you type in
Galaxy S5 - App crashes. Taking pics of mail rarely works. I used to get very little junk mail, since using it I get a slew and some keep sending it to me after reporting to PaperKarma.
I cannot get passed taking a picture - instead of prompting or moving to the step after taking the picture, it just forces me to take another pic, then another, etc., and it's not storing them or anything for me to later go back and try to submit the pics. I've uninstalled an reinstalled; doesn't work.
It takes a while, but the credit card offers have slowed down significantly. The only problem is that I have to try talking the picture a couple dozen times before it will upload.
This really works! It's fast and easy. I'm still getting the catalogs I want but, for the most part, those I've submitted to be stopped have stopped. It's so much better than the foot of catalogs I used to receive every week.
Pictures never work. I take one, it brings me right back to the camera. Problem 2: doesn't accept like any picture I take 3. Just got a new error while trying to take a picture...no access to picture or something along those lines. Also crashes immediately after taking pics sometimes. Just let me type the address in or company ...until you fix your camera issues.
It's been working so far. Bug issue: When I take a picture I am never taken back to the confirmation page. I get stuck in my camera app and need to repeatedly push the Back button to unsubscribe (probably 10 times quickly in a row). HTC One M8. T Mobile.
I've been able to cut down on the amount of unwanted mail we receive considerably with the help of this app. The app itself runs smoothly and I've never had any issues with it.
Takes a pic then says 'unable to use' or just loops back to camera. Uninstalled and reinstalled, changed camera settings, tried different types of junk mail, close ups & full page shots, signed out and back in. I'm out of ideas. Would be great if it worked. I get tons of magazines I never ordered. *sigh*
As a professional organizer I am frequently dealing with tons of junk mail that my clients receive. I introduced them to paperkarma so that they can reduce the amount that comes into their mailbox and reduce the amount that might not make it into the recycling bin and clutter their home.
Take a picture of the letter, sellect the sender, then say goodbye to junk mail from that sender forever. It is that easy. My junk mail has decreased to a trickle after 2 months of use.
This is the easiest service I have ever tried. It has been very successful getting my unwanted mail reduced. Thank you PK!
Great way to stop junk mail. Kudos. I am here because your app won't stop spamming me to rate the app when I already have... Can you guys fix that please?
This is a very convenient way to get off mailing lists. It really does seem to work, judging by the reduced volume of junk mail I receive.
I've been using the app for a few months now and the service is great...when the app works. It seems more often recently that I have to open and close the app multiple times to get it to accept a picture from the camera. Sometimes I just wish I could skip the camera part and just search their database directly.
I have a 'hangup' about junk mail...despite going to "DMA choices", etc, I still get some. This app is wonderful and super simple. Just make sure when you snap a pic of the offending mailer, that the return address is included. Some junk mail won't include their address so you may have to Google it to be sure you have the correct offender. This app just makes it so easy.
If you are sick and tired of receiving catalogs and mail that you don't want this is the App to have it is a necessity. I am talking about catalogues you requested but no longer require.
A few of my submissions have not been found but, mailers are tenacious & this has been very helpful in the ongoing battle against junk mail.
Works about 75% of the time. My only complaint is you cannot turn off the saving of pictures to the phone camera roll (option in settings does not appear to work on my phone).
by K####:
The app looks great and is easy to use. However -out of the 13 companies that I submitted to PK ( ten that actually went thru) the vast majority still send me mail. I have waited 2-3 months for it to stop, but it continues. In some cases they still send it but put "current resident" instead of my name. Grr. This is no fault of Paper Karma, but understand that your mileage may vary.