Review Insights · Google Play
SharkSmart
NSW Dept Primary Industries & Regional Development · 723 ratings · ★ 4.0
4.0
★★★★★
723 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 64 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"beaches"
18 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "typical government app that constantly provides alerts but takes you to a screen with massive data across Australia despite having selected my local beaches only for alerts." - R Maher
2
"save"
11 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "doesn't work. it won't save beaches. gives no info." - Garry Thompson
3
"useless"
10 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "not working totally useless" - George Dimos
4
"alerts"
9 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "typical government app that constantly provides alerts but takes you to a screen with massive data across Australia despite having selected my local beaches only for alerts." - R Maher
5
"shark"
9 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "clunky. it's annoying that I'm observing a shark sightings details and the screen switches (too sensitively???) to another screen and then I can't get back intuitively to the main tagged shark details." - Tracy Chapman
6
"favourite"
9 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "March 23:After a year of providing feedback, basic App functionality was finally fixed. How it was ever released without proper testing is still a mystery (bugs included no feedback,no push notification, no selection of favourite beach).Ove…" - Mark
7
"notifications"
7 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Does not deserve the label "smart". Poor design, forgets my settings, notifications don't work." - Gerard Dunning
8
"work"
7 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Does not deserve the label "smart". Poor design, forgets my settings, notifications don't work." - Gerard Dunning
9
"beach"
7 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "typical government app that constantly provides alerts but takes you to a screen with massive data across Australia despite having selected my local beaches only for alerts." - R Maher
10
"favourite beaches"
7 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "March 23:After a year of providing feedback, basic App functionality was finally fixed. How it was ever released without proper testing is still a mystery (bugs included no feedback,no push notification, no selection of favourite beach).Ove…" - Mark
📋 All 64 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
typical government app that constantly provides alerts but takes you to a screen with massive data across Australia despite having selected my local beaches only for alerts.
Can't add beaches
doesn't work. it won't save beaches. gives no info.
Data is out of date.
it won't let me add my beaches
not working totally useless
it does not work
this app is a mess and dangerous
will not save favorite beachs and not sending alerts
cant download the beach i want .then it goes world wide map so dorsal for me
4-5 alerts per day? Very unlikely that this provides full protection. There would be 100s of thousands of sharks near hunan-used beaches every day.
Worst app I've ever used. But could be a life saver. Location doesn't work. It shows the whole NSW coast. The location button makes it worse. Location in app permissions is allowed. And Ettalong beach doesn't exist apparently.
says showing yesterday's alerts.... shark sightings twice today at manly and no alert/ notice on the app. unreliable safety apps are worse than no safety app.
Having given up on this app 18 months ago, I revisited to see if it had improved and bugs fixed. The app has location settings enabled ( in settings you can actually see that location was accessed), yet alerts near me show no beaches. I am right next to one. So still buggy, just new bugs compared to 18 months ago.
It has stopped working
Installed and it locks on the opening black screen or on the following green screen. Removed the app, restarted the phone then reinstalled the app. The same problem occurred. I have tried 4 times, each time with the same result. Samsung Galaxy S10 5G. Android 12. With the latest updates 5th January 2025.
Use my taxpayer money better you clowns. Hardly ever works.
slow glitchy app,waste of time!
Real TIME Area notifications UNABLE to be activated . Useless to use if in the water for instant warnings. Typical Govt app!
I can't see ANY alerts on the map??
March 23:After a year of providing feedback, basic App functionality was finally fixed. How it was ever released without proper testing is still a mystery (bugs included no feedback,no push notification, no selection of favourite beach).Over the last few days, it has again dropped my favourite beaches. Even when re-entered, it is pushing notifications for events in all areas. Yes, my settings are correct. I've pretty much given up on this app. Please let me know if the development team changes.
Map is useless
no information in this app waste of time
Just installed it. Seemed ok, but now when I open it, it takes me to a map of South Africa. If I move the map to show the east coast of Australia, it doesn't show me the net or shark info like it initially did. Think I'll stick with Dorsal. This one is a waste of time. Doesn't deserve even 1 star.
Bad
With all of my tax payer dollars you would think this app would work. Please fix it I am paying for it.
Seriously hate drumlines and nets of any kind. They are counter productive and problematic. The majority of sharks drown before release its absolute madness
shark has had breakfast,lunch and dinner before alert
confusing to use
Absultly rubbish don't really on this app ,today a men snapped to 2pises at little bay NSW and this app was sleeping tell after the incident ,stop westing taxpayers money on something that is a joke and not working and ,this is what happens when U move a shark nets and portacting a killer wit shark 🦈.
This could be useful and safe lives but instead is missleadin and looks like is been done by a 10 year old. Waste of time.
Not upto date you only have to look at history and what year there has been loads more sharks My opinion don't bother use dorsal much better app and gives more accurate tags This app is useless if I could give no stars I would going to uninstall.
App shows no data at all for NSW. Waste of time. WA at least puts out data.
So I was using this at at surf beach none shark spot.The app said everything was all clear, got in the water and within about 15 min a big ass shark popped up next to me. This app suck balls and is going to get someone hurt
Unintuitive, difficult. Cannot even add favourite beaches as the app seems to be incapable of doing so. Alerts come in, how I don't know! Frustrating. Needs a lot of work. Well, after contacting the developers and hoping for some improvement, I downloaded and installed it again today 20 Jan 2020. Nothing has improved. Uninstalled it again.
keeps shutting down
Useless app. Cannot save favourite beach so get useless alerts which are not sorted from the latest alerts at the top. Useless to know a shark was in the area a month ago. This app was a waste of taxpayers money and could do more harm than good because vital up to date information may not reach the user.
Clunky, unintuitive , can't save favourite beaches
Can't save any beaches - it's a key feature and broken. This basic feature needs to be fixed to earn anything more than 1 star. Useless without it. Uninstalling.
Confusing and can't be accurate
App keeps crashing when setting DND time.
This app has one of the worst user interfaces I have ever seen. Demanding that the user go to Android setting to turn on location, instead of requesting it directly like other apps? Typical of what you would expect from a government app. They really need to shake up how they build things, this definately was not UI tested, but likely built in a rush (or alternatively, with a massive Gantt chart and inflexible requirements). On top of that, the map for me took over a minute to display.
Cannot save favourite beaches
dead. can't find any beaches to save.
useless
Useless. Totally agree with Rob Carr's review of May 2019
Installed, but app closes itself down moments after the appearance of the welcome screen !
Does not open.
Does not save location, favourite beaches does not work, aerial detection icon completely wrong. Nice idea but useless. As a Surf Lufesaving Patrol Captain, I was hoping that the app would be useful to us. Awaiting for a proper apo developer to work on this, but as it's a government department, I'm not holding my breath.
Does not deserve the label "smart". Poor design, forgets my settings, notifications don't work.
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Sentiment summary
72%
Positive (4-5★)
6%
Neutral (3★)
22%
Negative (1-2★)