You are currently viewing UPDATE: The Most Pointless App Ever Made? An In-Depth Look at 1Q (Mobile App)

UPDATE: The Most Pointless App Ever Made? An In-Depth Look at 1Q (Mobile App)

UPDATE (12/27/20): For the first time in the year-plus since I used it, 1Q has become more useful than ever…but I think I might have ruined it by messing with a single setting. This review was originally published in May, 2020; updated comments are add in italics throughout the original review below.
1Q Logo
WHAT IS IT? 

“1Q” (which stands for “One Question”, in case you were wondering) is a mobile app that pays you immediately to answer single questions. That’s right, you get a quarter deposited into your Paypal account right after answering one simple question. Sound stupid? It is. Sound like a waste of time? It….well, let’s not throw around adjectives until we dig in depth a little bit more, shall we?

NAVIGATION

Well, there are apps that are pretty easy to navigate, and then there are ones that are virtually foolproof; 1Q falls into the latter category. Outside of the initial setup, where you have to input some personal information about yourself, the main answer page consists of one page. You open the app, and any questions that are active and available to answer are right there. There’s literally nothing else to check or look into. That’s it. Even your dumb grandma could get the hang of this with no problems.

This is the main screen, and pretty much the only one you’ll ever need.

Of course, there are other things you can do (although, outside of referrals, none of those things are paid) and those are available from a pulldown menu at the top left side of the screen.

ANSWERING QUESTIONS

The entire basis of 1Q has you answering single questions for a quarter. Outside of that, you can refer people to sign up, which will net you another quarter per referral. Unlike other sites that offer a few ways to raise your balance, this is it; there’s no need to check your dashboard or go to any other screen, because you ain’t gonna find anything. On the one hand, it’s kind of stupid, but on the other, its mind-numbing simplicity and complete pointlessness is, in a way, also kind of refreshing.

In order to maximize your earnings, the app strongly recommends that you enable location settings, which will supposedly net you more questions. I never do this (unless I absolutely have to), so I can’t say for sure if this is true. However, your dashboard will also notify you of any questions you miss; after having the app for about a month, I successfully answered two questions, and missed one, presumably from not having location services enabled. It was about this point that I deleted the app, citing it as too pointless, even for me.

They’ll send you questions via text now!

Then, about year later, things got a little more interesting.

One day, two months ago, I got a random text message from 1Q that was a multiple choice question. I was going to ignore it, figuring it was just a “reminder” that I hadn’t used the app in a while, but decided to answer the question. Sure enough, I was paid a quarter. Then, a couple days later, another question came through text, and another. Moral of the story, I don’t even have the app installed on my phone at all, but I’ve made more money in the last month than the entire previous year. Granted, that amount has only been a dollar (for an entire month plus), but for just answering questions with a single letter via text? Can’t really complain too much about that.

The only downside is that you have to be pretty quick on the draw: I answered one about 45 minutes after it was sent to me (my phone was silenced) and it had already reached its response limit and was not available; according to others, this usually happens within the first 5-10 minutes they are sent out. But assuming you have your phone by you more often than not—and who doesn’t these days—and can take literally ten seconds to read and answer a question, then why not? I’ll continue to answer the questions as long as they keep sending them over text.

WEB APPLICATION

As can probably be expected, there is currently no PC functionality with 1Q…all questions must be answered from a mobile device. You can, however, sign up via the website, and also make changes to your personal information if you need to update that.

HOW MUCH CAN I MAKE?
I’m usually against sharing balance info, but this is what I’ve accrued. Over one year in.
Virtually nothing. And that’s no exaggeration: over a year later after installing it, I’ve made a whopping $1.50. Users in other forums report similar (and sometimes even worse!) results, so expect this to be more of a rule than an exception. I always mention on any of these GPT sites that you’re not going to make anything resembling a living wage, but generally you can make at least $10-20 a month with a modicum of effort. Not so here: you can probably find more money going through your couch cushions at the end of any given year. But in that scenario, you technically haven’t “made” anything; you’re just re-finding your own money that you lost. So I guess look at this as finding money in someone else’s couch cushion. I guess that’s a little more worthwhile, right?

Granted, I never enable my location settings, unless I have a need to (such as navigating through GPS), so maybe I missed out on a few. But according to my dashboard, I’ve only missed two, with one of them being the text I was too slow to answer. Meaning I’ve actually only missed one in over a year’s time because I didn’t have location services enabled. So really, it doesn’t seem to make all that much of a difference.

UPDATE (12/27/20): 1Q really seemed to explode in the 4th quarter of 2020, as I was getting regular questions…without the app even installed. I received dozens of text surveys starting sometime around September, and up through I made an apparently fatal mistake in December (that’s where greed gets you). My balance is now up to $15.50, with over $10 being made within the past three or four months. It still won’t be a worthwhile amount for some, but it sure beats getting $1.50 in one year.
 
Now on to what might have been the “fatal” mistake: even though I was getting frequent questions through text, I decided to try reinstalling the app, which promises even more opportunities. The app claims in order to maximize your revenue, you must keep location services on at all times…something I refuse to do (not so much out of privacy concerns, but out of battery concerns…and also because it feels pointless to keep location services on all the time for something that only sends you questions once or twice in a typical week.) I figured they would send surveys over via text still, with the app functioning as kind of a backup. Nope. I missed four questions within a couple of days because I didn’t have location services permanently on…and haven’t received one at all, either in-app or via text, in the three weeks since.
 
Is it the end of the road for me? Or will the questions pick back up again in the future? Hard to say for sure, but regardless of the outcome, earning ten times what I made altogether in the first year, in just four months makes it somewhat more worthy of a recommendation. 
 
However, keep in mind that my results won’t necessarily be indicative of others, as things like geography, age, and other demographics play a role in the questions you will receive. While that technically does mean you could earn less than the meager amount I did, it also means that if you’re open to leaving location settings on at all times (which I think a lot of users – like my wife – do without realizing it), or are just in the right demographic group, you could also earn more. And since it doesn’t cost a thing, and takes mere minutes to sign up, then why not?

GETTING PAID

Unlike other GPT sites, where you have to build your balance up to a certain amount (usually in the range of $3 on the low-end, but sometimes up to $30…I’m looking at you, InboxDollars) before you can claim your earnings, 1Q does it all for you, depositing a single quarter into your Paypal account almost immediately after you answer a question. That’s it.

Expect this almost immediately after answering a question.

On one occasion, there was a random issue with depositing the funds, to which I received an automated message that they would retry to deposit the money the following day; sure enough, they did, without me having to follow up at all. Outside of that one time, though, the money has been deposited within five minutes. I guess, in some way, that’s kind of impressive…right?

So I guess the only drawback here is that you have to have a (verified) Paypal account in order to sign up and get paid. But considering they’re free, I don’t see that as too much of a bad thing. And if you don’t have one, or have no intention of ever getting one, then at least in this case, you aren’t missing out on a whole lot.

When their referral system is active, you can get an extra quarter per person referred. Feel free to use mine!

SUPPORT

I have never needed support, and surprisingly, a quick Google search hasn’t revealed any big issues with payments; the main gripes people have are the infrequency of the questions. However, should you ever need to contact them, they can be reached via email at support@1q.com, or via a contact form on their website.

OVERALL

PROS (+):
+Paid $.25 immediately (via Paypal) for every question answered.
+Referrals pay out $.25 each…not much, but better than nothing. (Feel free to use my link.)
+Questions also sent out via text…even without app installed.
+Can also donate your earnings to charity.

CONS (-):
-Payment only $.25 (down from $1 when it initially launched in 2013).
-Must keep location services on at all times in order to maximize questions.
-Must answer quickly (i.e. typically within 5-10 minutes) or they expire.
-Lack of other paid activities or opportunities for increased payouts (aside from a quarter for referrals).
-Must accept payment via Paypal (or you can donate to charity if you’d rather).

Ultimately, this app is ultra-pointless; there’s really no way to refute that. I mean, what’s the point of keeping an app around that only does one thing, but does it so infrequently that people forget they even have it installed? Beyond that, most questions reach their answer limit within 10 minutes, meaning you have to answer quick to even get your quarter—you’d think it was gold bullion or something up for grabs.

If you get bored, you can also answer questions for free!
And yet, there’s also something almost endearing about its mind-numbing simplicity: I deleted the app after about two months back in 2019 (after going 2-for-3 in questions answered) and rarely thought about it again–until I started receiving questions via text, even without the app installed. And I still get the immediate quarter payment via Paypal, as if the app was still on my phone. In fact, I’ve answered more via text within the last month than all of last year combined.

Recommending this (or not) really feels more like a psychology lesson than anything else: On one hand, does anyone need a quarter that badly that they should sign up? No, not at all – even the poorest of people won’t make enough to do anything using this app. On the other hand, the payouts become some of the highest in the industry when you factor in the minimal effort involved: read a short question—usually about product preferences, or something equally simple—and pick an answer. Some are even multi-question surveys, which pay you out per answer (meaning if you answer four questions in one survey, you get $1, not a quarter). Most can be done in well under a minute, but even assuming a minute average per question, you’re looking at a wage equivalent to $15/hr. You may never make that figure even over the lifetime of this app, but the way I see it: why not give it a try?

Or then again, with the potential for so little up for grabs, why even waste your time trying it at all? Dammit…I give up. It’s out of my hands now.

UPDATE (12/27/20): All of my previous observations technically still apply, but I went from answering 6 questions in all of 2019 (good for $1.50), to answering enough to make $14 in just four short months toward the end of 2020. Of course, keep in mind that demographics, location, and other things can play a role in how many questions you’ll get, so you may get less or more. But I would consider making $15 in a few short months worth it, given how little you have to do to make it, so I’m recommending it a little bit more.
 
Another downside, though, is that once I re-added the app in an attempt to get more questions, I actually got fewer questions because I refuse to keep location services on at all times…and the text questions stopped altogether, too. Hopefully they’ll pick up again, but that’ll teach me to ruin a good thing.

RATING: 5.5/10 (+0.5)

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