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. 

He also accepted feedback on the steep subscription price, saying it will be a challenge for them to deliver the value for the money. 

“I’ll also be dialing back ad frequency for the free experience,” he added. 

Users can still access a more limited selection of wallpapers for free but they can only be downloaded in standard definition, and users have to watch a couple of ads first. 

Brownlee included the announcement around the app on his iPhone 16 review video, which normally tends to have a large number of views.

Earlier in April, his review of Humane’s AI pin ruffled features for being too harsh, according to some viewers.