SharkSmart appears to be a legitimate app. The AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for SharkSmart is 95 out of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

SharkSmart User Reviews

Name: SharkSmart
Rating: 4.3 (282 reviews)

SharkSmart

NSW Department of Primary Industries

📚 Education

🌟 Lifestyle

Customer Experience

Positive experience26.3% of reviews

Neutral16.2% of reviews

Negative experience57.6% of reviews

~ Based on 99 written reviews from the US App Store.

What users say

Summarized from real user reviews of SharkSmart. Based on 282 reviews and a 4.3/5 average, it highlights the 7 positives and 10 negatives reviewers mention most about this Education app.

Positive things

📍Real-time shark detection and tracking
🎯Valuable safety information for ocean users
📊Comprehensive shark tagging data
🏖️Helpful for swimmers and surfers
👍Good app concept and design
🔧Responsive developer support when issues reported
📱Easy to navigate interface

Negative things

🐛Frequent app crashes and freezing
📬Excessive notifications from distant locations
⚙️Notification settings not persisting
🐢Slow loading times
🚫Unable to add/save favorite beaches
📍Notifications ignore location settings
🔔Alerts arrive too late to be useful
⏰Notifications ignore Do Not Disturb settings
🗺️Map data inconsistent with alert list
❌Limited beach coverage and receiver stations

Is SharkSmart Safe?

SharkSmart appears safe based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for SharkSmart is 85/100.

This assessment is based on 282 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.3/5.

Safety Analysis

80.1% of ratings point to a safe experience

6.7% of ratings suggest some concerns

13.1% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 282 App Store ratings for SharkSmart.

Is SharkSmart Legit?

SharkSmart appears to be a legitimate app. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for SharkSmart is 95/100.

Based on 95 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Most Recent Highest Rated Lowest Rated

Two suggestions

1. Monitoring stations alert when a tagged shark enters within 500m range, but doesn’t show when they leave the area… what’s the point of that… is it to maintain ongoing fear of swimming? The detection station at Sussex Inlet shows the same sharks repeatedly entering the area but never shows them leaving. This is keeping people out of the water in fear.
2. When i open the App while listening to a podcast on either iPhone or iPad, unlike other noiseless apps Shark Smart causes the podcast to pause. Why does the Shark Smart App capture my sound system when the App is silent?

Two more stars if you can address these issues.

;) meow

12 days ago

Hate

I hate this app

Wemonsjsjsj

a month ago

Please make it work

Almost perfect but sadly it’s the last 1% is what counts. Despite multiple times setting it to my local beach I get notifications from beaches 100s km away and not my beach. All most us want is an alert to our watch in real time to get out of the water?

The core value proposition of a safety app—providing immediate, hyper-local alerts directly to a wrist device for the exact beach a user is standing on—is completely failing.

Currently, the app fails to deliver on its primary utility due to critical functional bottlenecks:

Broken Geofencing & Notification Logic: Custom radius filters ("Around Me") fail to isolate immediate locations, frequently pushing irrelevant regional noise or missing local pings entirely.

Apple Watch Integration Failure: Background syncing and push notifications to watchOS are sluggish, unreliable, or fail to trigger in real time when stepping onto a specific beach.

Cluttered UX: Users are forced to sift through historical logs, data padding, and distant alerts rather than receiving an instantaneous, silent wrist vibration for their immediate coordinates.

To the Designers:
Fix the geofencing logic so it strictly respects tight radius parameters, strip out the background latency on watchOS, and ensure a true, instant push-to-wrist protocol for active local alerts. Right now, as a real-time safety tool on the water's edge, it is non-functional.

Alg2096

a month ago

Response from developer

Thanks for your feedback. This issue has been addressed in the latest version (v4.0.2). Please update the app and ensure your 'Favourite Beaches' are selected. If you're still receiving alerts for other beaches, please use the 'App Support' form in **Settings** so we can investigate your specific setup and assist you.

Frustratingly useless

Alerts continually come through as NSW north coast, when I have repeatedly input & saved
my area which is NSW far south coast. It’s frustrating. I am ready to delete as it’s useless for my area.

Narooma!!!!!!!!!!!

a month ago

What’s happened?

I used to be able to access sharks along the East Coast of the US . Now all I hear about is Australia and there’s no way I can see to fix this

Ladhume

2 months ago

Response from developer

Thanks for your feedback. SharkSmart focuses only on **NSW, Australia**, as it is the official NSW Government shark information app. The app does not provide shark alerts for the US East Coast or other regions. We appreciate your feedback and hope this clarifies the app's coverage.

I only swim in pools

I am going to buy shares in swimming pool companies

RCQLD

3 months ago

Deleted

Have deleted as it is just too many notifications despite turning off notifications. Tells me about beach’s not in my area

Adventurella

5 months ago

Best App For Phobias Of Sharks

I am loving this app as I am afraid of sharks

People have used all nicknames

5 months ago

I’d like this available in qld

Great app - but no use for us in qld

Doc2861

5 months ago

Good app but …

I think the app is a great idea however, I have saved my beaches in the first set up process they aren’t listed on the bottom my beach tab and I am being notified about all beaches in NSW. I just want to be notified about the ones I frequent. Can I fix this?

Kazza2165

7 months ago

Response from developer

Thanks for getting in touch. Please make sure you're on the latest version of the app and try adding your beaches again in the 'My Beaches' section. Notifications for favourite beaches are based on the beaches saved there. Some users have reported receiving notifications for beaches outside their selected 'My Beaches' locations, and we're currently investigating this. We're also working on improvements to the notification experience in future updates. If the issue continues after updating and re-adding your beaches, please contact us through the 'App Support' link within the app. This will allow us to look at the exact behaviour you're experiencing and work through it with you directly. Thanks again for your feedback.

Recent updates have improved usability

Very helpful- would love a feature to be able to set a name for local sharks. I’m starting to recognise their tag numbers but naming them would be fun and would help to alleviate some of the anxiety if you knew it was just Becky swimming by for the 5th time this hour lol

Hannah8649

7 months ago

Response from developer

Thanks for the feedback. We'll review this suggestion and take it into consideration for future updates. We appreciate you taking the time to share your ideas with us.

No data other than beaches

Needs to be able to report up stream in rivers and harbours as well

GregBBA1977

7 months ago

Excessive notifications

To many notifications up to 300km away

Loong Tao

8 months ago

Annoying

I keep getting push notifications for beaches hundreds of kilometres away, despite having set up notifications for only 9 local beaches.

Annoyedshark2025

8 months ago

Not targeted to location

I have to turn it off as it beeps non stop, not targeted to my actual location which is being tracked by the app

corinnecampbell

8 months ago

App half works

Good design simple enough but seems to crash and not load data, too slow

Vicstar100

8 months ago

Too slow loading

The app is generally great but when you get an alert notification it takes up to 1 minute for the content to load. Barely anyone will wait that long. This need to be fixed.

BenBaa

8 months ago

A Million Alerts

Despite saving settings within ‘Manage My Beaches’ multiple times, I get alerts CONSTANTLY about EVERY beach. This is a repeated complaint it seems, looking at the other reviews - spanning months, so I don’t know why developers have not fixed it. Am now turning off ALL notifications which means the app is useless. Very poor form, considering the Govt is spruiking this app to the country.

LacieHodges

8 months ago

Flakey- no pun intended.

Opened and found zero shark events ever. Now there are drone and listening stations icon but no detail when you click through. Also some dead ends with no clear exit in the site navigation.

they're dreamin'

8 months ago

Response from developer

Thanks for the feedback. We've released a number of updates since this review, including improvements to event visibility, map interactions, and navigation throughout the app. We also have an upcoming release that addresses many of the UI and UX concerns raised by users, with a focus on improving navigation, reducing confusion, and making key information easier to access. If you're still experiencing issues in the latest version, please contact us through the **App Support** link within the app and let us know the exact steps you're taking so we can investigate further.

Irritating

Far too many icons telling us things we don’t want or need to know. Filtering isn’t by event type but for some reason it’s by notification source instead?? Endless alerts from far flung beaches because filtering doesn’t work. In its current state it’s a liability as it doesn’t do its core job of simply telling us which beaches are currently open and safe.

AndsOff

8 months ago

Response from developer

Thanks for the detailed feedback. We understand your concerns around map clutter, filtering, and the relevance of notifications. We're actively working on an upcoming update that takes this feedback into account, with improvements aimed at making important information easier to find and reducing unnecessary distractions. We appreciate you taking the time to share your experience, as it helps us prioritise future improvements to the app.