App Review: Macadam
Walking every day comes with its own rewards—but I’m always on the lookout for ways to add to those rewards with sometime more…tangible. I’ve tried a number of get-paid-to-walk apps (like my current favorite, Winwalk), but if I can find more worthwhile apps (and maybe even some that are better), I’m all for it. And that’s why I gave another paid-to-walk app, Macadam, a try.
Macadam works much like other similar apps: depending on how many steps you walk each day, you earn coins that you can eventually cash in for cash or gift cards. On Macadam, you can earn coins for up to 20,000 daily steps (instead of 10,000 on apps like Winwalk). Since you get 25 coins for every 2,500 steps, that means that you can earn up to 200 coins per day.
In order to track your daily steps, you can connect the app to a number of different fitness trackers. This can make tracking simple—without having to run a number of apps in the background—but that also means that only steps tracked by your phone are counted. Personally, I find that my phone-tracked steps are much lower than my watch-tracked steps—so I sometimes feel like I’m missing out on coins that I’ve earned.
Coins are then collected in 2,500-step increments. If you get under 2,500 steps in a day, you get nothing. If you get 9,900 steps in a day, you get 75 coins (which is the 7,500-step payment). You also need to remember to convert your steps at the end of the day. While there’s no ad viewing required to convert your coins, you must convert them manually. In other words, if you convert your coins after getting 10,000 steps but you end up getting a total of 15,000 steps that day, unless you go back in at night and convert your steps into coins, you’ll only get 100 coins—not 150.
You can also earn points (as well as earning crowns toward upgraded status) in other ways—everything from playing games to taking surveys to shopping to watching ads. Though I haven’t tried any of the games or the shopping links, I’ve rarely been approved for any of the surveys I’ve attempted—and, recently, the availability of ads has been unpredictable at best. While I used to be able to earn points for watching an ad or two every day, it seems that I’m now lucky to get enough steps to watch an ad every few days.
For a basic “bronze” member, the minimum cash-out amount is 45,000 coins for a $20 cash transfer. For higher levels, members can cash out for different gift cards at different levels, starting at 30,000 coins. Though I’ve been tracking my steps for several months, I’m still nowhere near my first cash-out goal—because, if you’re averaging 10,000 phone-tracked steps every day, it’ll take around 15 months to get to that bronze reward (unless you’re answering surveys and using the shopping links).
So is Macadam worth it? That’s entirely up to you. It doesn’t take a whole lot of extra time and effort to earn coins—and if you’re patient, you can earn a little bit of extra cash just for walking. But I’ll admit that I’m quickly losing patience with this one—because even though the time investment isn’t huge, the return on that investment seems too small.
Pros:
– Another way to earn a little extra from your walks
– Higher step threshold—earn for up to 20,000 daily steps
– Can connect to your phone’s fitness app
Cons:
– It takes a long time to earn rewards
– Coins don’t convert automatically
– Coins are calculated in larger increments
– Phone tracking often results in fewer steps, which means fewer coins.
You can find more information at Macadam.app – and feel free to use my referral code: 968WKM
