YouTuber Marques Brownlee’s new wallpaper app draws criticism for steep price

YouTuber Marques Brownlee has launched a new wallpaper app that was criticised for being too expensive.

YouTuber Marques Brownlee, also known as MKBHD, has been criticised for a phone wallpaper app he launched, called Panels, on iOS and Android. 

Available at $11.99 per month or about $49.99 per year, Brownlee has personally curated digital wallpapers from artists on the app. 

Immediately after the announcement was made on X, he started to receive a wave of backlash on the social media platform over the high price and data privacy concerns. 

Brownlee responded to the negative comments later on a post. 

“Part of building in public is getting mass feedback immediately, which is pretty dope. Almost exactly like publishing a YouTube video,” he noted. 

He then went to say that he would fix the “excessive data disclosures,” and admitted that people were right to bring it up. 

The app asked users to track their activity across other sites and apps. It also shows up as using location data. Brownlee commented on these, saying the data disclosures were “likely too broad” and that they would never actually ask for details about user location and internet history.