parkrun Virtual Volunteer User Reviews

Top reviews

Difficult to focus on recent iPhones

On an iPhone 15 Pro it’s hard to scan barcodes, you have to hold them at least 20 away which for small barcodes is hard to scan.

Technical detail - on the iPhone 14 Pro Apple increased the minimum focus distance for the main camera. Instead at short focus distances the app needs to switch to the ultra wide camera.
Show more

Sound control

Volume control changes the ringer volume not the normal app volume e.g. music. Can it be changed?

Time keeping bug.

Quite often, when time keeping, the App picks up position 1 when starting the timer!!
The app just needs a slight delay before it can register the first time position between starting and timing. Not sure many people can do a 5k run in 0.03 seconds.

No longer vibrates when barcode scanning

I've just done barcode scanning for the first time in a few weeks. I think the last time I used the app it was version 2.0.11 I used 2.1.0 today. The first thing I noticed was that the phone no longer vibrated whenever a barcode was successfully scanned. The lack of feedback made the job very difficult. I took my phone off silent, at which point a quiet ping was just about heard on every successful scan.

On the plus side I noticed that it scanned barcodes more accurately and the green boxes shown round barcodes when they'd been identified as such helped - except such box was also shown for a barcode that hadn't scanned correctly - so I initially thought it had. Luckily I noticed the problem in time.

I see my vibrate issue was probably caused by the "Haptic feedback" improvement made in 2.0.12. If I switch on System Haptics in Settings > Sounds & Haptics then phone does a little vibrate when a barcode is successfully scanned.

The only problem with this is that I don't want system haptics switched on for my day-to-day phone use.

So could the app again vibrate on successful barcode scan when the phone's set to silent please.

This is on iPhone 13 mini, iOS 17.5.1
Show more

1st time volunteer usage

Hi volunteered today for the 1st time and was the timekeeper for the event. I found the app was very easy to use & to also the “submit results” so generally I think the app is pretty good with a fairly nice UI. The only improvement I think you should consider to reduce false times is to reduce the size of the touchpad to an area that covers the “Stopwatch” icon, say about 2-3mm above & below & 6-8mm on both sides & use a contrasting (maybe bright green button icon) colour to mark the touchpad. I only logged 1 false time when I accidentally brushed the touchpad close to the edge of the screen, otherwise all was good! 😀👍
Show more

App correction

Hi, this simple app is user-friendly and in general works well. I would just like to alert the development team of a problem that needs correcting. On my iPhone 11 Pro adjusting the volume button also records a time. For example, today I wanted to increase the volume so that I could better hear when I have recorded a time, but that resulted in about 10 additional “people” being recorded!

Hope this can be fixed.
Show more

Turn WiFi off

As said before. Some Parkruns are in town and just turning to airplane mode is not enough. To stop interruptions, turn WiFi off as well. So phones are configured to log on to local hot spots. It caused us problems in Whitstable. Please take note. Main HQ seem unable to comment. Thank you. Phil Hadler.n
Show more

Doesn’t work with iPhone 15 pro max

Won’t engage the macro lens so nearly impossible to scan anything. Caused issues when i tried to volunteer for barcode scanning role!

Great app but can be better

Hi, I think the app is simple and great. One thing I noticed today was that the volume up was adding extra times in, which I wasn't expecting. I was actually trying to increase the volume so I could hear the beep louder. This caused the results to get messed up. It would be great if we could hold down and delete an accidental time with a confirmation. That would allow us to quickly fix errors as they happen and provide more accurate timings.
Show more

Great app but please add a swipe to delete option

The app works really well for most things but really needs a “swipe to delete” option on the timing part - when it rains, raindrops hit the phone and cause false presses/times.
Sometimes on starting the timer it will also add one or two false times at 00.00.01 or 00.00.03 seconds throwing all the other times out! “Swipe to delete” or at least “swipe to flag as incorrect and not upload” would be massively useful to fix this issue.

It would also come in handy for when non finishers walk through the finish funnel multiple times - our finish funnel is really narrow and even though we try and stop this, people still walk through and occasionally get recorded by mistake by the timers messing up the results.
Show more

Still glitches on timing

We were hoping the update may solve the problem of the app counting a run time when you initially just want to start the timing. It hasn’t so be aware that you need to do a couple of test runs once in airplane mode to make sure. Hope it hets sorted soon as a nightmare.

Simple, reliable, easy

Love this app for volunteering! Barcode scanner reads all different formats (paper, screens, cards, wristbands), and it does it quickly. Timekeeping is easy to tap, plus the volume-down button option for rainy or cold days. As a volunteer, I appreciate how easy this is to use and all the work that made it that way. Great job, and thank you for a great app!!
Show more

Bad

Bad

Does the job

Feature request: allow users to volunteer directly from the app. Allow them to choose event, date and preferred role, the app can then send off a pre-filled email.

Still missing obvious features

Pretty please parkrun HQ: - allow user to type their barcode in rather than only scan it. Often volunteers don’t bring their barcode if not running/walking. Please allow users to store their barcode to use when participating in the actual walk/run! It might encourage people to volunteer if they have the app installed to hold their barcode! 🤞😉
Show more

Brilliant

This app, some volunteers, high-vis vests, and a few signs and you’ve got yourself a parkrun! And it’s free, forever!

Timekeeper

When using the timekeeper function, can the volume Up/Down buttons be disabled. If these are pressed it rapidly records multiple finishers which causes problems in the results.
Haptic feedback on each click would also be a great help.

Massive bug in timing with volume buttons

If you start the app and then change the volume before starting the timer, tapping the screen to start the time will add additional times. If you then use the volume buttons to log times it will occasional add or no times;

Up -> 1 time logged
Up -> 0 times logged
Down -> 2 times logged
Down -> 1 time logged
Down -> 2 times logged

This can mess up results horribly!
Show more

Sound effects bug

When opening app as an iphone, if audio is off when starting app, audio doesn't work for the entire time app is open despite turning volume on. Please fix this.

Multiple clicks removal

I’ve timekept a lot of parkruns. The older watches were more tactile and less prone to multiple or accidental clicks than phones.

Given this, I’d ask that a feature is added to allow timekeepers to slide over an accidental entry and remove it. I know the results processor can sort this out in post, but keeping in sync with the tokens and fellow timekeepers is important.

Note that I had emailed parkrun HQ a while back about this and had no response.
Show more