"Almost Doesn't Count" received a positive response from most music critics, who called it one of the album highlights, with major praise for Norwood's vocal performance.

The accompanying music video for "Almost Doesn't Count," filmed by Kevin Bray in the Lancaster area, depicts Norwood as an unnoticed wedding guest in the backyard of an expressway hotel, following the breakdown of her car in the Mojave Desert.

Norwood performed the song in the 1999 made-for-television musical drama film Double Platinum, directed by Robert Allan Ackerman, and starring Diana Ross and herself.

[1] Inspired by a powerful but unfruitful on-again, off-again relationship she had with a man in her college years,[2] Peiken recalled her emotions during a writing session with Roche decades later when she "dug up that laundry list of all the 'almosts' I felt we had, and we put it into the song.

[4] In his review of parent album Never Say Never, Shaheen Chughtai, editor for The Daily Star Lebanon, wrote that "Brandy does have a fine voice, drenched in sex-appeal, and in good form on tracks like 'Almost Doesn’t Count'.

"[5] San Francisco Chronicle's Lee Hildebrand described the song as "haunting" and added: "Brandy takes her time with the ballad, wrapping her warm, melismatic alto pipes around their melodic contours with womanly nuance.

"[7] Billboard editor Chuck Taylor wrote that "breezy, sensual, straightforward, and drenched with those gorgeous harmonies that are recognizable in an instant, Miss Norwood serves up a tasty slow jam about letting go of love.

"[10] Music Week labeled the song a "smoochy ballad" with "its typically Smooth production, Spanish guitars, Lazy groove and Brandy's breathy vocals.

[14] In addition, the song earned Norwood her third nomination in the Best Female R&B Vocal Performance category at the 42nd Annual Grammy Awards, though she lost to Whitney Houston's "It's Not Right but It's Okay.

In March 2000, American country music artist Mark Wills released a cover of the song as the second single from his third studio album, Permanently.