Sunday, July 21, 2019

Ancestry to Discontinue We're Related Mobile App

I received this information from Ancestry.com via email two days ago:

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At Ancestry®, we are committed to offering you the best possible experience to empower your journey of discovery. To do this, we frequently evaluate our products, tools and apps to ensure they are providing the most value to our customers. Sometimes this means discontinuing functionality to make way for other exciting, new innovations.

As of August 1st, 2019 the Friends feature in the We’re Related app will no longer be available and as of August 15, 2019 the app will be discontinued fully. Starting on that day, the app will no longer load when opened and you won't be able to access information in the app.

Thank you for being part of the Ancestry family and helping us learn and continually improve our products. We look forward to sharing new features and exciting updates with you soon.

For additional assistance, please visit https://support.ancestry.com/s/article/Discontinuing-the-We-re-Related-App.

Thank you for your continued support!

                         ==============================================

Randy's Note:  I wondered if this might happen once we started getting reports that the mobile app wasn't in the Google Play or Apple App Store any longer.

Although I had some problems with it listing wrong ancestors of mine, I liked the app because it was pretty good family bait and blog fodder.  I loved telling my grandkids and daughters that they were related to Barack Obama, Abraham Lincoln, Paul McCartney, Henry Thoreau, Cate Blanchett, and many others.

As we've discussed before, I believe that the BIG Ancestry tree was used for their longevity study the We're Related app, and the AncestryDNA ThruLines, and may be used again for some other feature.  Or it could be junked.  Maybe Ancestry will tell us one of these days!

Disclosure:  I have had a fully paid Ancestry.com subscription since 2000.  Ancestry.com has provided material considerations for travel expenses to meetings, and has hosted events and meals that I have attended in Salt Lake City, in past years.

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13 comments:

Cormac said...

I'm glad that you had a good experience with it, but I thought it was a big joke.

Jacqi Stevens said...

While I never used the app, myself, I did enjoy reading your running comments and critique on each new discovery, Randy. And I really think there is a place for some sort of program that could connect genea-people, say, at conferences.

Unknown said...

Is there an easy way to save any of the possible relatives? I would like to save them all to check out later? Thank you

Randy Seaver said...

I think the only way to save possible relatives is to take screen shots of the two screens for each relative - the first of the relative with the relationship, and the second showing the common ancestor. It is difficult to take screen shots of your line back to the common ancestor and your "relative"s line back to the common ancestor because most of them are long strings that will require several screen shots.

Most of the famous persons are already in Geni.com and FamilySearch Family Tree, and you can use their programs to find common ancestors. However, they won't provide the thing We're Related does - say "hey, you and Bruce Springsteen are 8th cousins 2x removed."

The We're Related mobile app is supposed to go away on 15 August so screen shot away if you want to.

Unknown said...

I enjoyed this app greatly has it was fun going through researching the different famous people I was related to even if they were distant cousins it was fun just knowing. Now all that information from my app that I was slowly working on verifying in my tree is gone...all gone. The level of frustration is high. I am downloading my tree from ancestry, cancelling my membership and deleting my tree. That's it, I'm done with them.

Karen Badea, Author said...

I so enjoyed this app and could kick myself for not screen shooting all that I could. Does anyone know if Ancestry will have another similar app or does anyone else have an app as good as We're Related seemed to be for my tree? Wow, I can't believe this.... I almost came to tears when I checked it a few days ago and it was gone. Does Ancestry do this 'change' and 'dump' often? It seems that I remember losing a ton of info when they switched several years ago on a software program. I will, INDEED, miss We're Related!!!

Unknown said...

I enjoyed the app immensely and captured all the suggestions for my use. I was very disappointed when this announcement was made.

Unknown said...

Are there any other apps that do virtually the same thing for you? I enjoyed it and would like to keep doing the same thing.

Groucho-Marxist said...

I guess they didn't want to risk losing out on $$$ by people using the app without a fee.

Ancestry depends on users submitting content so they can charge people to access it. If they can monetize a feature, they definitely will. Notice they don't really give a reason other than a weasel-worded statement.

Bohemian Home & Garden said...

I'm so bummed they discontinued it before I went in and took screenshots for further research. It offered names etc that might have been useful for making some progress on my paternal side.

Rootstock411 said...

I love the app especially the one where you open up to see relatives around you. I happened to be sitting next to a gal reviewing her husband's family history that I completed with his 10 brothers and sisters. We opened up that app for the first time went to the relatives around you page and discovered we're were cousins. it was pretty amazing I'm very sorry they took the app away.

Unknown said...

I found out I was a Mayflower descendent from this app

Xolie Morra said...

I found out that my friend Mary was my 9th cousin. It was pretty fun. I wish Ancestry would at least add a Facebook feature so that dna relatives could find out if they are already connected via Facebook.