# An app called "Getting out" grosses $4.99 a week, and the prison says it never got a single message · Mobile app

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/ios_6782858625.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> The name and subtitle were stacked on the official brand term, so searching "gettingout" in the store ranked it third. When the official brand renamed itself in October, old users kept searching the old name and landed here. The official brand already had poor reviews, so family members were willing to give an alternative a try.

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · iOS · written 11-6

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Getting out Messaging · JTCounty OU

# An app called "Getting out" grosses $4.99 a week, and the prison says it never got a single message

**What it is** A third-party app using the name of the real US prison messaging app "GettingOut / GTL," claiming it can help families send messages to incarcerated relatives, sold as a $4.99-a-week subscription.

**Why it took off** Its name and subtitle lean on the official brand term; searching "gettingout" in the store, it ranks third; October's official rebrand left old users searching the old name and finding it; the official app's reputation was already bad, so families were willing to try an alternative.

**E** **What you can take from it** Don't copy it. What's worth learning: when a big brand renames, use migration guides and official entry-point navigation to catch the search traffic left by the old name; or, as Ameelio and Pelipost do, build the parts of a monopolized, hard-to-use essential service that don't require impersonation.

Grade E: it makes money by having desperate families mistake it for the official app. That violates App Store impersonation and IP rules, and it could be pulled at any time. The rename vacuum is one-off, and within three weeks four or five same-name clones appeared, with later entrants already outpacing it. Chatter in small circles

Data (updated daily) · launched 2026-07-25 · US store rating 555 · charted in 11-08 of 4 stores

iOS · best category chart rank · by store

US store Peru Czechia

Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Lower rank is higher; gaps mean it wasn't charted that day

iOS · rating count · US store

Data 2026-10-28 → 2026-11-08 (12 days, 12 observations). Apple doesn't publish download counts; rating growth is a proxy for downloads.

On the US App Store's Social Networking free chart, at #63, is an app called Getting out Messaging, which claims it can help families message incarcerated relatives. It isn't made by a prison communications company; it just uses the old name of the official app. 2026 October's official rebrand freed up the "GettingOut" name, and its growth then rose about 6 times. This piece looks at why it took off, and why you shouldn't follow it.

### "I called the prison to ask"

In 2026 Oct 28, someone in the US App Store left it a 1-star review: the app showed her contact added and messages sent, even a reply received, but "I called the prison and they confirmed: I was not approved as a contact, they never received any message, and the other party never replied."

Reviews in the days around it share one tone. 10-22: "It connected me to the wrong person, and I think that 'person' was AI itself." 10-30: "You only find out which prisons it covers after you pay." 11-01: "It's riding the name of an earlier website/app ... charges you $4.99 every **week** , then hooks you up with a few AI personas."

At the same time, its store average rating was 4.33.

### What it is

The store page says: search incarcerated people by prison and ID number, add contacts, send via a "reviewed messaging system," plus AI-written messages. The free version gives 5 AI uses a day and 10 messages, and can only search "some" prisons; paid is $4.99/week, $12.99/month, $39.99/year, or a $59.99 one-time purchase (US App Store, 11-06). The subtitle reads "GTL Video Visit."

The developer is JTCounty OU, an Estonian company whose public registered business is road freight; the account has only this one app; the website is a template site for an event-planning app, and the privacy policy sits in a Google Doc. It launched in 2026 Jul 25, and hasn't been updated since Sep 29.

It imitates GettingOut: the official app of GTL (now ViaPath), a US prison communications operator, launched in 2014. It holds exclusive contracts with prisons, is free to download, and charges per message, about $0.25 for an electronic message. Third parties have no public interface that can deliver messages into these prisons. So the reviews saying "messages never arrived, and the replies sound like AI" most likely aren't a bug; that's how the app works (**inference, based on the reviews** ).

### Why it spiked at the end of October

Two things stacked up.

**The name rides on the brand term.** In Nov 6, searching "gettingout" in the US store, the top two results were the official myViaPath and myViaPath Visits, and it was third; searching "GTL" it ranks 4, and "inmate messaging" 6.

**The official brand gave up the name.** ViaPath renamed GettingOut to myViaPath in 2026 October, and the official app shipped the renamed version on 19 and 20 October. But prison notices, court filings, tutorials, and what longtime users say all still say "GettingOut." Families searching that term in the store find an official app no longer called GettingOut, next to one that is literally called "Getting out."

The timing lines up: from its launch to Oct 28, over 95 days, it averaged about 3 new ratings a day; from Oct 28 to Nov 6, the rating count rose from 313 to 505, 12–34 a day, about 21 in total (US App Store). The exact day the acceleration began isn't visible, but over the same period, 7 Oct, 13 Oct, 16 Oct and 26 Oct brought 4 more same-name clones.

One more tailwind: the official app's reputation was already poor, with myViaPath at an average of 1.96, and a Reddit thread titled "The GTL Getting Out App sucks." Families were already willing to "try a different one."

Paid acquisition: not verified. Its TikTok videos don't show up in search, nobody mentions it on X, and it isn't in the ad libraries. Not finding it doesn't mean it isn't spending; it could be bidding on Apple search ads for the brand term, which can't be checked from outside.

### 4.33 stars and a screen full of "Scam"

Of the nearly 20 text reviews visible, almost all are 1 stars, with titles like "Scam," "Fake App!!!!," "Misleading," "Fraudulent App." Yet the average is 4.33. The likeliest explanation is that the app triggers the system rating prompt before users notice the problem, or that ratings were gamed (**inference, unverified** ).

### Where the money comes from

The paywall stalls at the "find someone" step: you have to pay before you learn whether your relative's prison is covered, and even after paying you may not know whether anything gets delivered. $4.99 a week, or about $21 a month, is dozens of times the official price per message.

Revenue is likely small: it doesn't appear in the US social top-grossing top 200, and has only shown up at #91 on Peru's social top-grossing and #175 in the Philippines (11-06). But for a shell company on a single template, the cost is close to zero.

### Who's competing with it: a row of clones already

| App | Developer | Launched | US rating count (11-06) | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| myViaPath (formerly GettingOut) | Telmate(GTL / ViaPath) | 2014-08 | 2,347, avg 1.96 | Official, actually delivers, pay per message |
| Get Now - Video Visit | LOTOS BALTICA SOLUTION (Lithuania) | 2026-06-29 | 212 | The four price tiers are identical, the app id is only about 6,700 apart, very likely the same people (**inferred** ) |
| GTL \| Getting Out Messenger | PROMSTAR SERVICE | 2026-10-16 | 253, Top Free #29 in Social | Puts GTL right in the title, and it's grown faster than the original in three weeks |
| Getting Out Pro | NEVIAX | 2026-10-07 | 1 | Nearly identical description |
| GTL: Getting Out Communication | Katharina Weber | 2026-10-13 | 2 | Landing page is getingout.site, missing a t |
| Sendline (formerly Getting Out: Inmate Letters) | Alina Karatnyk | 2026-10-26 | 43 | Rode the name first, then switched to legitimate ghostwritten letter sending, stating it has nothing to do with prisons |

On the other side are legitimate third parties that don't impersonate carriers: Ameelio (free video visits), Penmate (letters), Pelipost (photos), with US ratings between a few thousand and 15,000. They prove there's real business in this audience.

Someone is already warning people: a Facebook public page posted a text-and-video piece, "GettingOut, GTL & myViaPath", naming 5 knockoff apps including this one with their prices, and telling families to use the official myViaPath. Mainstream media hasn't covered it yet.

### If it were you

**Verdict:** Don't follow. It took off because worried families urgently trying to reach loved ones mistake it for the official app. This violates App Store 4.1 (impersonation) and 5.2 (IP), and it gets pulled once GTL files a complaint. The harm falls on the most vulnerable group. Four or five same-name shells appeared within three weeks, and the later ones have already overtaken it.

**Who it fits:** No one. This isn't a high-barrier opportunity, it's one you shouldn't pursue.

**Who it doesn't fit:** Anyone who wants to build a product that lasts.

**What you can learn:**

1. **In the weeks after a big brand renames itself, the old name leaves a search vacuum.** Long-time users, offline signs, and third-party tutorials still use the old name, but the store no longer has an official app by that name. The compliant play is content or tools like "rename guides," "migration helpers," or "official entry navigators" that send people to the official app, not impersonating it.

2. **Official monopolies with poor reputations for essential services leave room for legitimate gaps.** In prison communications, Ameelio, Penmate and Pelipost do what carriers don't do well and what doesn't require a carrier contract: free video, mailing physical letters, sending photos. Driver's license booking, immigration case lookup, and court documents follow the same pattern: users are in a hurry, the official route is hard to use, and they'll pay to save effort.

3. **The reverse demand.** Families are asking "is this app the official one?" A lookup page that tells you "which carrier your loved one's prison uses and what the official app is called" addresses a real need.

**How to get users:** If you build step 2 and 3, the people you need are in Facebook family-support groups, the Reddit subreddits for prison families, and searches like "gettingout" and "GTL app".

**Before the window closes:** a rename gap is one-time. Within a few months, search volume on the old name drops off, so for legit businesses like those in rank 2, there's no time to waste.

**What would show you've misread this:** If it's still charting in six months and still selling weekly subscriptions, Apple is clearing this kind of impersonation more slowly than expected. But that only means the window is longer, not that this is worth doing.

[iOS store page ↗](https://apps.apple.com/app/id6782858625)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| myViaPath (formerly GettingOut, Telmate/GTL/ViaPath) | iOS | 2014-08 | US rating 2,347, avg 1.96, Top Free #39 in Social | Official, with exclusive prison contracts, actually delivers, pay per message, free download. It only resembles the official app by name and cannot actually deliver. |
| myViaPath Visits (formerly GettingOut Visits) | iOS | 2018-07 | US rating 250 | Official video visits; this one piggybacks on "Video Visit" in its subtitle |
| Securus Mobile / JPay | iOS | 2016 / 2013 | US rating 65,909 / 13,281 | Official app from another monopoly carrier |
| CorrLinks | iOS | 2012 | US rating 815 | Official federal prison channel |
| Ameelio / Penmate / Pelipost | iOS | 2016–2022 | US rating 2,162 / 1,217 / 10,501 | Legitimate third party doing free video, letters and photos without impersonating a carrier |
| Get Now - Video Visit(LOTOS BALTICA SOLUTION, UAB) | iOS | 2026-06-29 | US rating 212, Top Free #115 in Social | Almost no difference: same pricing, adjacent app ids, likely another shell from the same people |
| GTL \| Getting Out Messenger (PROMSTAR SERVICE, SRL) | iOS | 2026-10-16 | US rating 209 (11-06), Top Free #29 in Social | A later copycat that puts GTL right in the title and is now growing faster than this one |

Where users come from

- **Verified** **Store search: brand-term hijacking (ASO name piggybacking)** : On the US iTunes store, searching "gettingout" ranks #3 (behind only the two official apps), "GTL" ranks #4, "inmate messaging" ranks #6. Name "Getting out", subtitle "GTL Video Visit"

- Inferred **Platform event: official GettingOut renamed to myViaPath** : ViaPath's transition page and wireofhope say the rename happened in October 2026 years ago; the official app shipped the renamed version 10-19/10-20. Its rating growth rose from about 3 per day over the first 95 days to about 21 per day after 10-28, and 4 new copycat shells appeared in the same period

- **Verified** **"Try another app" driven by poor official reputation** : myViaPath averages 1.96 with an ICS of 1.36; a Reddit post is titled "The GTL Getting Out App sucks"

- Inferred **Paid acquisition / TikTok / X** : No hits in TikTok search or x-radar over the last 60 days; the ad libraries don't track it

- Inferred **Incentivized reviews / rating manipulation** : Average 4.33, while nearly all of the roughly 20 recent written reviews are 1 stars, which doesn't match

## Why Getting out Messaging (iOS id6782858625) got traction

> Research date 2026-11-06. Sources: our appstore database (US store, app_day, from 2026-10-28), iTunes lookup / review RSS, App Store web pages, Jina web search. Inferences are marked "inferred."

### One line

It didn't get traction on the product itself. It grabbed the name of the official prison messaging app "GettingOut" (GTL / ViaPath, developer Telmate, LLC), set the subtitle to "GTL Video Visit," and siphoned brand-search traffic for "getting out / GTL." In mid-October 2026 years ago, the official app was renamed myViaPath, freeing up the "GettingOut" name, and its growth took off. It makes money through a high-priced weekly subscription ($4.99/week) sold to families urgently trying to reach incarcerated relatives.

### 1. What it is

- Developer JTCounty OU is an Estonian company (inforegister.ee lists JTCOUNTY OÜ, registered for road freight). It has only this one app on the App Store. Its website jtcountyou1.com is a template site for an event-planning app, and its privacy policy is hosted in a Google Doc.

- Listed on 2026-07-25, current version 1.0.3 (2026-09-29), category Social.

- Store-page claims: search for people in custody by prison and ID number, add contacts, a reviewed messaging system, AI ghostwriting. The free tier is limited to 5 AI uses and 10 messages per day, and only searches "some" prisons. Paid tiers are $4.99/week, $12.99/month, $39.99/year, or a $59.99 one-time purchase (App Store page, 2026-11-06).

- Official comparison: myViaPath (formerly GettingOut) is free to download and charges per communication, with no app-install subscription fee (ViaPath transition FAQ: [www.gettingout.com/myviapath-transition/](https://www.gettingout.com/myviapath-transition/)).

### 2. Growth data

- Our database (US): rating count 2026-10-28 is 313,11-06 is 505,9 days rose 192 ratings, about 12–34 per day; in the last 7 days +143. By the late lookup on 11-06 it was already 526.

- Comparison: the first 95 days (7-25 to 10-28) averaged about 3.3 per day; after 10-28 it was about 21 per day, roughly 6x faster (inferred: the acceleration point was before 10-28, but the database has no data for the exact day).

- Rank: US Social Top Free 61 → 101 → 63 (11-06), the App Store page shows #65. Top Grossing only appeared at Social Top Grossing #91 in Peru and #175 in the Philippines; it never made the top 200 of the US Social Top Grossing chart. Judging by Top Grossing, revenue scale is limited.

- Average 4.33; roughly 20 recent written reviews retrievable via RSS are almost all 1 stars ("Scam", "Fake App", "playing off the name of a former website/app", "hooks you up with AI personalities", "connected me to the wrong person… the person is AI itself", "called the prison and they never received any of it"). The star ratings and written reviews badly mismatch (inferred: the in-app system rating prompt fires when users feel good, or ratings are being manipulated).

### 3. Competitors (doing the same thing)

| Product | Where | Launched | Scale (US rating count, 2026-11-06) | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| myViaPath (formerly GettingOut, Telmate/GTL/ViaPath) | iOS/Android/web | 2014-08 | 2,347, avg 1.96; Top Free #39 in Social | Official, with an exclusive contract with prisons, actually delivers messages into them; pay per message. Renamed in mid-October, freeing up the "GettingOut" name. |
| myViaPath Visits (formerly GettingOut Visits) | iOS | 2018 | 250 | Official video visits |
| ConnectNetwork by GTL | iOS | 2015 | 326 | GTL's top-up / phone app |
| Securus Mobile, JPay | iOS | 2016 / 2013 | 65,909 / 13,281 | The official Securus prison app, from the other monopoly carrier |
| CorrLinks / CorrLinks Text Chat | iOS | 2012 / 2024 | 815 / 252 | The official channel of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) |
| Ameelio Connect, Penmate, Pelipost, TextBehind, Inmate Photos | iOS | 2014–2022 | 467–15,538 | Legit third parties: free video, mail and photo sending, without posing as the carrier |
| Get Now - Video Visit (LOTOS BALTICA SOLUTION, UAB, Lithuania) | iOS | 2026-06-29 | 212; #115 on the social free chart | **Priced exactly the same as it** ($4.99/$12.99/$39.99/$59.99), subtitle "GTL Messaging & Visits", app id 6782851928 sits about 6782858625 away from the 6,700 one. Probably another shell from the same group (inferred) |
| GTL \| Getting Out Messenger (PROMSTAR SERVICE, SRL) | iOS | 2026-10-16 | 10-31 runs from 1,11-06 to 209; #29 on the social free chart | A later copycat, with "GTL" right in the title, now growing faster than it (30–47 new ratings a day) |
| Getting Out Pro(NEVIAX L.P.) | iOS | 2026-10-07 | 1 | Copycat, with nearly identical description (wallet, review status) |
| GTL: Getting Out Communication(Katharina Weber) | iOS | 2026-10-13 | 2 | Copycat; the landing page uses the lookalike domain getingout.site, missing one t |
| Getting Out: Inmate Letters → renamed Sendline (Alina Karatnyk) | iOS | 2026-10-26 | 43 | Rode the name first, then went clean: repositioned as a legit "letter writing and printing" service, stating it has nothing to do with prisons |

### 4. Where users come from

- **Store brand-term search capture (confirmed)** : searching "gettingout" on the US iTunes store, the top results are myViaPath and myViaPath Visits, and it's third. Searching "GTL" ranks it #4, "inmate messaging" #6. The name "Getting out" plus the subtitle "GTL Video Visit" sits right on the official brand term users are looking for.

- **Platform event: official rename (event confirmed; its role in the growth is inferred)** : ViaPath announced GettingOut is being renamed myViaPath (the logo on the transition page was uploaded by 2026/09), and the official app shipped the renamed version 10-19/10-20; wireofhope wrote "GettingOut was renamed myViaPath in October 2026". Long-time users, prison notices, and court documents still say "GettingOut", and when they search the store they find an official app no longer called GettingOut, next to one called simply "Getting out". Its rating growth jumped about 6x starting late October, and a batch of new shells (10-07, 10-13, 10-16, 10-26) launched in the same period, which fits the timing.

- **The official app's reputation is poor (confirmed)** : myViaPath averages 1.96, ICS 1.36, ConnectNetwork 2.25. Families were already unhappy with the official app, so "try a different app" is a natural reaction. One Reddit thread is titled "The GTL Getting Out App sucks".

- **Paid acquisition** : no evidence found. Searches on TikTok for "gettingout" and "getting out app" turned up none of its videos; x-radar has not mentioned it in the past 60 days; the Meta and TikTok ad libraries don't track it. Not finding anything doesn't mean it isn't advertising.

- **Review manipulation / incentivized ratings (inferred, unverified)** : average rating 4.3, yet almost all the written reviews are 1 stars.

### 5. Why people are willing to pay

- Families are desperate and don't know the ropes. The store page says the free version only searches "some" prisons, and users report that "you only find out which prisons are covered after you pay". So the paywall sits at the "finding the person" step, and whether the message can reach them only becomes clear after payment.

- Messages most likely never get delivered: ViaPath has an exclusive contract with the prisons, and third parties have no public interface. User reviews say messages don't reach the recipient, the contact status is fake, and the "replies" look AI-generated. In other words, what users pay for is the feeling of "communicating" (inferred from reviews).

- How the money comes back: the weekly subscription is $4.99 (about $21 a month), dozens of times the cost of a single official electronic message (about $0.25). Its signal on the Peru and Philippines top-grossing charts is small, and it doesn't make the top 200 on the US social top-grossing chart, so total revenue may be modest, but the shell accounts cost almost nothing.

### 6. Differentiation

The product itself has no differentiation. "AI ghostwriting" and "Face ID lock" are just packaging. Its real edge is twofold: it looks more like "GettingOut" itself than the official app or the legit third parties do, and it isn't bound by prison contracts, so it can charge subscriptions from day one. That's why it took off, but this model depends on users mistaking it for the official app, not on product value.

### 7. How many people know about it

It's circulating in small circles. A Facebook public page (id 61583057973622) posted an image-and-video piece, "GettingOut, GTL & myViaPath", naming 5 lookalike apps including this one and their prices, and warning people to use the official myViaPath. A CNET download site also listed a similar fake (using mixed Cyrillic letters, "GТL: Gеtting Оut Messaging"). No mainstream media coverage found, no major accounts on X found, revenue not disclosed. Copycats are already numerous (see table above), and a later entrant (PROMSTAR) has already overtaken it.

### 8. What to borrow

- The pattern: when a major brand renames or retires an old name, the old name leaves a search traffic vacuum. Old names persist in long-time users' heads, offline notices, and third-party tutorials, but the store search no longer returns the official brand under that name. The compliant move is to capture that traffic in this window with a "rename guide / migration helper / official entry-point navigation", not to impersonate.

- In services dominated by one provider with poor reputations (prison communications, driver's license appointments, immigration status checks, court filings), high-emotion, urgent users like families will pay for "convenience". Ameelio, Penmate, and Pelipost show that legit players can get big without impersonation (ratings counts of 2k–15k).

- Risk: this playbook violates App Store 4.1 (impersonation) and 5.2 (intellectual property). One report or a complaint from GTL and it gets pulled, and it harms a vulnerable population. Not recommended.

### 9. Still unclear

- Exactly which day the acceleration started (the library only has data from 10-28, so this is extrapolated from the average over the first 95 days).

- Whether 4.3's average rating is incentivized or manipulated.

- Whether it can actually deliver messages to any prison, or is fully simulated; whether the "AI replies" are deliberately designed.

- Whether it and LOTOS BALTICA's "Get Now" are run by the same operator (inferred from identical pricing and adjacent app ids).

- Whether it buys Apple Search Ads on its brand terms (cannot be checked).

### Sources

- App Store: [apps.apple.com/us/app/getting-out-messaging/id6782858625](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/getting-out-messaging/id6782858625); iTunes lookup / search / review RSS (2026-11-06)

- ViaPath rename notice: [www.gettingout.com/myviapath-transition/](https://www.gettingout.com/myviapath-transition/); myViaPath store page [apps.apple.com/us/app/myviapath/id907226423](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/myviapath/id907226423); wireofhope [wireofhope.com/courses/mastering-prison-email-systems/lesson…](https://wireofhope.com/courses/mastering-prison-email-systems/lessons/myviapath-tutorial/)

- Impersonation alert: [www.facebook.com/61583057973622/posts/gettingout-gtl-myviapa…](https://www.facebook.com/61583057973622/posts/gettingout-gtl-myviapaththe-information-is-not-an-independent-finding-of-fraud1-/122138816889101932/)

- Developer: [www.inforegister.ee/en/11964698-JTCOUNTY-OU/](https://www.inforegister.ee/en/11964698-JTCOUNTY-OU/); [jtcountyou1.com/](http://jtcountyou1.com/)

- Lookalike landing page: [getingout.site/](https://getingout.site/)

- Our appstore library app_day (us, 2026-10-28 to 11-06)

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.