# Spare the Air Bay Area — user reviews > 41 indexed App Store user reviews of Spare the Air Bay Area by The Bay Area Air Quality Management District, rated 2.50/5 from 25 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spare-the-air-bay-area/id441186308/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/spare-the-air-bay-area/id441186308.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 7 · 4★ 2 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 4 · 1★ 12 ## Newest reviews (14 of 41) ### 2/5 — Randy B *2020-10-08, version 2.3* Continues to be unable to fetch data from the server. This has been going on for weeks. Please fix the server. ### 2/5 — Useless *2019-10-25, version 2.2* No place to adjust setting or set up text alerts. Says it is not working. Needs updating! ### 2/5 — App conflicts with Spare the Air website info *2019-01-05, version 2.2* Love the idea of this app, but right now it’s telling me that there is no spare the air alert in effect when the spare the air.org site says there IS a winter alert in effect through Feb 28. I’ll just keep going to the site, as the app is obviously not reflecting the current situation. ### 2/5 — Crashes and full of bugs *2015-08-01, version 1.6.1* Fix this. Would love to use more ### 3/5 — Still has bugs! *2015-06-20, version 1.6.1* Looks like this version still has bugs. Every time I try to look at the air quality tab the app crashes. ### 2/5 — Needs some content *2015-05-24, version 1.6* So it tells me there is a spare the air alert. Fine. In the winter I know that means not to burn wood in my fireplace, or face a large fine. It isn't winter. So what am I being advised to do, or not do, during a summer spare the air? I already commute by bicycle, and have a small car that I share with my wife. Can I barbecue? Burn wood in my fireplace? Drive to the beach? If you want people to respond you need to provide more information. ### 2/5 — Meh *2015-01-03, version 1.5* Seems like an easy enough app for a Bay Area based organization to get right....but that'd be asking too much. Interesting that whatever the "Podcasts" button has is only available in the Chinese App Store... ### 2/5 — No alerts *2014-12-30, version 1.5* The only reason I have this app is for the alerts. ### 1/5 — Terrible *2013-12-27, version 1.4* Was this a competition to see how quickly I could delete your app? You got about 45 seconds on my phone before it was gone. Completely useless. I am a strong supporter of spare the air days and love the fact that pollution is so closely monitored and limited. With that said, I cannot think of a greater public relations failure than the Bay Area air resources management district. No one has any idea what you do, how you do it, or why. If you took even a small amount of time to actually communicate to the public about what you're doing and what the risks are if not doing it you'd gain massive support. Instead, the district and this app are a joke. ### 2/5 — Doesn't work *2013-12-25, version 1.4* The notifications that it is a spare the air day work well.... But when you click on areas of the map to check the air quality, the numbers are completely different than the website. App always shows the air quality is good and in the green, when the website says it is severe and red for the same area of the Bay. ### 1/5 — Nanny state app *2013-12-13, version 1.4* It's been f-n freezing here in the Bay for the last few days. And it was a STA alert in effect for a few days in the row. The app does what's expected. The regulation is stupid. No burn day? The electric and gas company execs are laughing all the way to the bank! ### 1/5 — Good grief. *2013-12-10, version 1.4* I'm downloading this app just so I'll know which days I will be illegally providing warmth for my children. ### 4/5 — Could save you hundreds of $$$ *2013-11-30, version 1.4* Could this app be a bit more slick, sure. Could we debate the need for spare the air days, sure. The bottom line is that you need to know when you are going to be fined for lighting a fire. This app does just that via push. Keep up the good work app makers. ### 1/5 — Data not updated or reliable *2013-08-18, version 1.4* Great concept but feed from website to app is broken. Lead screen shows spare the air alerts but clicking in the forecast shows some old data when air was clean. Use the web page instead, not sure how many days I let kid play outside due to bad info when I should have kept her inside. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Needs a serious update *2021-03-15, version 2.3* This app has been neglected for years and it really needs an update. It’s outdated a lot of it doesn’t fit the screen of a modern phone. ### 1/5 — This is my tax dollars at work? *2019-10-28, version 2.2* I didn’t think is could possibly be as bad as some of the reviews were making it out to be. I was wrong! It even has a biking tab on the app! To test it, I ask for a route from San Jose to San Francisco. It did absolutely nothing except put my location several hundred miles off of the west coast of Africa out in the ocean. App lasted for about 45 seconds on my phone. Don’t waste your time. ### 1/5 — Failure to log Yolo fire smoke, failure to alert *2018-07-01, version 1.9* Fails to convince. July 1 in SF we’ve had 12 hours of yellow sky, sunless overcast. This is how Pittsburgh PA looked in the 70s - dirty yellow. SFGATE reports “red flag” air pollution. The app still gives a green flag and “NO SPARE THE AIR ALERT”. ### 1/5 — Notifications *2017-01-31, version 1.6.5* Main reason for the app is to receive STA notifications which it doesn't provide ### 1/5 — Crashes *2015-11-14, version 1.6.3* I checked your app & it showed green. I went out to walk and my asthma started acting up. Checked the app again. Still green. Asthema got worse. My friend suggested I go to your website and there it was: not green. In fact 70 out of a range between 51 & 100 (green is below 51). So your app is not syncing or up to date. Whats the point if having it? Delete. ### 1/5 — Report smoking car doesn't work *2015-03-25, version 1.5* I've used this app to determine air-quality in the bay area for a while now and it's faster than going to the site. However, when I went to use the report smoking car feature for a horrible smoking vehicle, it totally doesn't work. Spent the time to take a picture of the license plate and write down where I was and the submit button never goes active. ### 1/5 — Unreliable at best *2015-01-15, version 1.5* App does not update each day, said ok to burn, then the next day it said it was a spare the air day for the same day!! If you are going to put out an app such as this, make it reliable! I don't think it is right that we can get fined because your app gave wrong information. ### 1/5 — what does it say????? spare??? no spare???? *2015-01-02, version 1.5* spell it out! is it a spare the air or not? changing to an ambiguous symbol is of no help when checking the burn status. ### 1/5 — Notifications not working *2014-12-28, version 1.5* The notifications do NOT work and the lack of content makes this app worthless. I'll now delete it and just hope to hear about sta days on the radio and/or news. ### 1/5 — Still no alerts! *2014-05-14, version 1.5* I have everything set to include STA alerts on my iPhone but none appear. It is unreasonable to expect me to check the app each day. Once in the app, it’s OK at best. Check Air Quality? I’m in the Bay Area — the map comes up in Medford OR. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — It is a good app *2026-06-29, version 2.6* The app does the job it is designed for. More than ever citizens here need to be on board with air quality monitoring and regulation. For the sake of children, the elderly, sick people, people who are sensitive to it. California is near the worst in the country in terms of average air quality, if you’re against steps being taken to remedy that then you are choosing to put vulnerable people in harms way for the sake of your own day to day convenience. ### 5/5 — App does just it’s supposed to do! *2021-12-25, version 2.3* You tap to launch it and it tells you whether or not it’s a spare the air day in the Bay Area. Not sure what the negative reviews about. ### 5/5 — Ignore the ignorant *2018-11-19, version 2.0* App does what is expected, poor reviews seem nuts or grandpa is upset at being told not to burn wood in fireplace. ### 5/5 — Works pretty well *2016-12-21, version 1.6.5* This is a simple application but useful and doing its job pretty well ### 5/5 — Burn or No Burn *2015-01-06, version 1.5* Perfect for what I need... ### 5/5 — A huge improvement *2014-04-03, version 1.5* Feels much more like an iOS app than the previous version. The air quality index actually seems to work now too! ### 5/5 — Politics aside, it does what it advertises. *2013-02-12, version 1.4* I've seen a lot of reviews bashing the spare the air policies. I respect that we all may have differing opinions, but this app does exactly what it promises: you open it and right at the top it says if it's a spare the air day or not. What else did you expect this thing to do? Sure it claims to have push notifications, but there hasn't been a STA day since I got the app so I can't comment on that. It claims to give the least smoggy bike routes, my experience has it being accurate enough. It lets you report smoking vehicles and see a forecast, but at the end of the day it has only one job: tell me if its an STA day or not! Now, if you got this app thinking there would be a button to change civic policy or thinking that this app would allow robust and meaningful discussions surrounding a cost benefit analysis of various region wide air quality interventions, then I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news. This app is to tell you if it's a spare the air day or not. If you want more than that, in all sincerity, please write your senator and convince them to change the policy, not a bad app review to convince people that this app doesn't tell you if it's an STA day or not, because it does. ### 5/5 — Does what I wanted! *2012-11-17, version 1.4* I just wanted a quick and easy way to check if it was a sta day before lighting a fire...this does that! Sure there could be more bells and whistles, I guess, but it gives me the key info I'm looking for quickly. ### 5/5 — Paul Burd is a Lame Bird *2011-07-30, version 1.3* Why Paul gotta hate on all the Spare the Air apps? Listen Li'l Burd, an app is only as good as the RSS feed that supplies its data. ### 5/5 — Nice! *2011-06-08, version 1.0* Now I check air quality AND text in smoking vehicles!!! --- *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 2026-08-12.*