# ORB Participant — user reviews > 106 indexed App Store user reviews of ORB Participant by The Duke of Edinburgh's International Award Foundation, rated 3.10/5 from 67 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/orb-participant/id1215719234/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/orb-participant/id1215719234.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 28 · 4★ 5 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 8 · 1★ 23 ## What do users think of ORB Participant? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - 👍 Easy to use interface for logging hours - 🚀 Convenient mobile access for on-the-go logging - ✅ Reliable for basic activity tracking - 📱 Simple and straightforward design - ⭐ Helpful for Duke of Edinburgh participants - 🎯 Effective for tracking progress **Cons** - 🐛 Frequent crashes and freezing - ⚠️ Hours calculation errors and inaccuracies - 🔌 Network error messages despite working connection - ❌ Limited editing capabilities after submission - 😤 Slow and laggy performance - 🚫 Missing UK/Great Britain country option - 📧 Email delivery issues for approvals - 🔒 Login authentication problems - 💔 Data loss and synchronization failures - 🖼️ Photo/media upload issues on mobile - 📝 Spelling and grammar errors in app - ⏱️ Hour logging only records 1 hour regardless of actual duration - 🔄 Cannot resend approval requests - 🎯 Progress bar not updating correctly - 🚨 Approval notifications get stuck **Commonly reported bugs** - Hours not accumulating correctly - logs multiple hours as single hour - Progress bar not increasing when adding logs - Network error messages appearing despite valid connection - App crashes when entering journey observations - App crashes when editing and resubmitting assessments - Login logout issues preventing re-access - Payment details field not accepting input during registration - Award leader change not persisting after switching schools - Confirmation buttons not scaling properly on mobile screens - Photo/link attachment not saving on iPhone - Copy-paste functionality only adding partial text - Long text input being deleted when submitting - Cannot delete additional activities even without logs - Approval emails not being received by assessors - Assessments getting stuck in 'waiting for approval' state - App not loading after login despite successful authentication - Persistent notification bubble that won't disappear - Inconsistent hour calculations across activities **Most requested features** - Ability to edit activities and submissions after approval - Resend assessment/approval functionality - Message/comment system between users and leaders - View approved evidence and journey details after submission - Edit activity names if misspelled - Support for 5-minute time intervals instead of 15-minute - Delete authorized awards option - Change major activity selection - Upload photos from files instead of gallery only - Edit overview and plan sections of adventurous journey - Clearer information about hour reset timing - Include Duke of Ed information within the app - Support for sub-submissions in log details - Resend assessment button on mobile app (exists on website) - Larger description text box with line break support - Countdown percentage for remaining award completion - Remove persistent notification badges ## Newest reviews (20 of 106) ### 2/5 — Some very annoying bugs *2026-06-09* It works ok except for 2 things which force me to use it on desktop instead: - sometimes (especially if I've uploaded a lot of photos) it doesn't save the log when I click "save", which is very annoying if I just wrote a whole paragraph and have to write it again. - the description section of the logs is way to small. It should be a paragraph text entry like it is on desktop, not a single line. (Edit: looks like someone already asked for this 7 years ago so ig not getting changed soon). If those are fixed it would make it so much better and actually make it useful on mobile. ### 2/5 — Slow *2026-04-26* Just a laggy, frustrating experience ### 3/5 — Why aren’t my hours increasing? *2026-04-14* The bar isn’t increasing even though the number of hours I’ve registered even exceeds the goal? ### 4/5 — Great app! *2026-03-24, version 2.4.2* The app works 99% of the time. Love the ease and convenience of logging it as an award participant. Sometimes the site does crash but will quickly recover. ### 2/5 — Ok *2025-12-05* If I wasn’t getting anything out of this I would have been mad because this app is horrible it always kicks me out and is just stubborn also it on,h records one hour even if I do 2 hours a day it records one.I asked my teacher about it and she says that’s how the app works.Its also hard to use.I just finished my bronze so I hope it’s better for silver. ### 4/5 — Not bad *2025-07-03* Overallpretty good and very convenient just lacks a few of the options you would have if you were to use a pc like editting acitivy description and stuff but honeslty youll be fine its so good to have it on the go also easier to upload media ### 3/5 — Transferring schools *2025-04-20* When I moved schools I was half way through my Bronze DOE. So I had to change my award leader to my new school, I tried to switch it multiple times but it didn’t change, it stayed the same as my old schools award leader. ### 4/5 — Works well I had a problem but I fixed it *2025-01-16, version 2.3.7* I had the same problem with the logs not being counted in but after reading some reviews all you have to do is make sure that every log is a week apart otherwise it won’t count. I just fixed mine and now the count is back up to where it should be. Works well over all really easy to use :) ### 2/5 — Ok *2024-06-27, version 2.3.7* This app is really useful to log in my Duke of Ed hours, but when I put in sessions that are more than 1h, it just counts it as one. Like, I’ve done all the hours for skills, but it says that I haven’t, which is really annoying. ### 4/5 — 8/10 Good App *2024-06-13, version 2.3.7* Amazing app when it comes to functionality it provides helpful details about all aspects of the Journey. Unfortunately one thing i would like to see change is being able to see the evidence part of your adventurous Journey after it has been approved, right now it just says congratulations i would like to look back and see what i wrote about the journey. But overall pretty great App!!! ### 2/5 — Spelling errors *2024-01-24, version 2.3.5* The app in itself is easy to navigate. However, the whole thing is riddled with spelling errors! Specifically, most appeared before I had been assigned an award leader. Hopefully this can be fixed in the future. ### 3/5 — Keeps crashing *2023-11-08, version 2.3.4* Randomly crashes when being used ### 3/5 — Hours not adding up *2023-07-26* I’ve been adding my hours up and it has not been adding them correctly For my major I did my volunteering which I have done 24 hours but it is only saying I’ve done 13 hours which is very annoying 😡 ### 3/5 — Deleting awards *2023-03-07, version 2.2.9* Good app, wish you could delete awards that are authorised. ### 4/5 — Great app overall! *2022-12-27, version 2.2.9* Pretty easy to use and quite effective for what is needed to prove my different stages but some of the confirmation buttons don’t scale to my phone and have to be dragged over and awkwardly held in pace to ‘click’ or done on the web on a proper computer instead ### 4/5 — Great App-Attaching photo is an issue though *2022-12-20* The ORB App is an incredibly useful, convenient and effective tool, but when attaching photos and links for evidence on an iPhone it often simply doesn’t work and usually won’t save or display the change ### 3/5 — Gets stuck waiting for approval *2022-10-07* I’ve found the app easy to use for both my sons who are now on Gold level. But it’s frustrating when it gets stuck on “waiting for approval “. If the Award leader is slow or can’t find the email there is no way to resend it. **Developer response:** Hi, thanks for the tip, they are actually not getting any emails, the approvals are waiting for them in the system or they get a push notification when they use the app. Unfortunately there is not much you can at this moment than wait. ### 4/5 — Great app.. room for improvement *2022-09-08* Overall an extremely useful resource for anyone completing any stage of Duke of Ed. Would be really useful and be a better resource for hours logging if: The Overview part of Adventurous journey section could be edited after submitted, or if your leader doesn’t accept it and submits it back it doesn’t allow you to change the details of the trip. Plan and prep section of adventurous journey - same thing - would be useful if after initially submitting could Change the dates of the selected (green switches) things have been initially entered in - could enter sub submissions in the details of logs - - allow comments to be attached when making submissions to your supervisors and leader and vise verse them be allowed to, especially when they don’t except a submission would be helpful to allow comment and message attachment in logging Would also be helpfull if you actually included some information about duke of Ed in the app itself, obviously all the info on the web page is very helpful but would be good to have some of that info all in the same place ### 3/5 — Registration final stage not working? *2022-07-17, version 2.2.9* When I go to complete my DoE next stage registration (gold) I can fill everything in except the payment details (which says is a required field but will not allow us to enter anything). Is it an app problem and can you fix it? ### 4/5 — Photos/gallery *2022-03-19, version 2.2.9* Any chance of uploading photos from files and not the photo gallery? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Terrible *2025-07-20, version 2.4.1* Terrible app holy so frustrating to use ### 1/5 — Bad *2024-04-30, version 2.3.7* Y’all better fix this fr like damn js give me my hours, I have over 140 hours logged on one of my activities and only 15 counted!!! ### 1/5 — Can’t count *2024-02-09, version 2.3.5* The UI isn’t bad by any means it is more just a pain to actually log hours and do things on it ### 1/5 — Rubbish App *2022-02-23, version 2.2.9* I have sent in my assessment to the assessor’s and some don’t receive it. And those that do receive it have some other trouble with approving it. We have asked multiple times how to get it to work and they have sent back ways to do so. But all the ways either tell you to press a button that doesn’t exist or just link you to another page that also tells you to press non-existent buttons. Submitting “Logs” is the only thing that works fairly smoothly. ### 1/5 — so old *2020-08-11, version 2.2.3* Bruh it’s annoyingly annoying because it can’t do math, I recorded 6 accounts of 2 hours and it said I did 7 hours total ### 1/5 — App crash *2020-06-16, version 2.2.3* I have been having trouble accessing the website version of the record book as it crashes due to it being an unsecured website with possible viruses. I then moved onto the app to see if this would change, however as soon as I try it log in, it crashes and says that it is not secure and can not make a connection. This is not a problem due to my internet connection as I have tested other websites and apps, which work fine. ### 1/5 — Terrible *2020-05-29, version 2.2.3* Both the app and the website have so many errors and my parent/guardian never got an approval email ### 1/5 — Not sent back *2020-05-25, version 2.2.3* My assessor sent back my qualifier to write a more detailed report but it never arrived back on my record book so I can't finish submitting it ### 1/5 — Feedback *2020-03-15, version 2.2.3* The app submits when the screen is not complete Locks with messages such as “awaiting approval” While waiting no information can be seen to check, for example the email address it was sent to. Impossible to edit and resubmit No updates or notifications on how approvals are going ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work anymore *2020-01-11, version 2.2.2* Worked for about two months in the spring, then it just started saying “network error” and “swipe down to refresh” and hasn’t starting working again no matter how many times I redownload the app. I’ve had to go on the website on safari or just use my laptop instead, which is a bit frustrating. It’s been 8 months since I originally downloaded the app. Response to developers’ comment: no it is still not working at all. I’m able to sign in fine but after that nothing loads and that’s when it gives me the error. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Duke of ed *2026-02-22* This app is really good and makes it really easy to log your hours and things that you are doing!! ### 5/5 — Rigid *2025-05-05* Despite the occasional error, the app is really stable to use. This is also a simple app on the surface, probably part of why. ### 5/5 — Duke or egg *2025-02-27, version 2.3.7* Yeah I passed bronze and about to do silver gang ### 5/5 — "Lo, the Bane of Mine Existence: A Cursed App Most Foul" *2024-09-09, version 2.3.7* OJ Simpson did not die for this! I am left with naught but regret for ever downloading this wretched app. What once seemed a harmless tool hath become a blight upon my days. The user interface is a labyrinth most confounding, riddled with bugs and errors that vex even the most patient of souls. Promises of ease and efficiency are but empty words, for this app hath wrought nothing but chaos upon my life. Updates, instead of mending these grievous faults, doth only worsen the plague. Data lost, tasks undone, and endless frustration are all that remain. Avoid this accursed creation, lest ye too find thy peace and sanity devoured by its malevolent grip. Woe unto me, for I was deceived. Let this be a warning to others—this app is truly the harbinger of misery. ### 5/5 — Great app *2023-05-08* I recently used this app for my Duke of ed silver, this app helped me progressed through my entire journey and has little to no glitches, although I would prefer to know when times reset so I can track my hours. ### 5/5 — This app is great *2023-02-22* Overall this does what you need it to do, yes like everything else there are some things that are better to do on a computer but for the main part every bit of this app works, I have not had one problem with it yet, now if there where one thing that I could change/ improve on is to add the resend assessment to assist button that is on the website but for some reason it’s not on the mobile app. But besides that one little thing that you would be able to work around this app does everything that you would need ### 5/5 — Glitch in adding activity *2022-08-01* The activity progress bar is not increasing when adding logs, neither are the hours. **Developer response:** Hi, the basic principle of the Award is that only one hour weekly is counted to your progress. Hence the progress bar increases only once per week ### 5/5 — great app *2021-10-27, version 2.2.8* I’ve heard this is a great app I just have a suggestion… on reading the reviews it appears that most people think this is for the UK DofE? I know it says International and has a different name, but maybe you could write somewhere clearly that this is not for the UK?? I did download the DofE app but as this came up on the search I assumed it was part of the same. However, I read the reviews before using so there’s no problem, but for those that don’t… you’d save yourself a lot of time and frustration having to reply to so many with the same message? It is an entertaining read lol, but your ratings are suffering because of it?! Thank u ### 5/5 — amazing app *2020-12-12, version 2.2.6* this app is ver easy to use and it’s got all you need to access for your Duke of Edinburgh Award levels. ### 5/5 — Very good *2020-01-11, version 2.2.2* Very useful app. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-01.*