# WaterNav — user reviews > 61 indexed App Store user reviews of WaterNav by River Canal Rescue, rated 3.20/5 from 6 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/waternav/id1554872132/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/waternav/id1554872132.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 3 · 4★ 0 · 3★ 0 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 2 ## Newest reviews (12 of 61) ### 2/5 — New upgrade loses functionality *2026-05-29* I’m on iPhone 16 pro max iOS 26.5. Route search never finds anywhere and I keep getting asked re icon size but I have no icons at all. Only usefulness is route which does work with pin. Otherwise reverting to other apps ### 2/5 — Unusable *2025-08-20, version 1.6.5.1* Can’t use the route planning function as you have to sign up using an email address. But the email address box only allows letters and numbers, no @ or . can be entered. ### 2/5 — Unable to download region *2025-07-17, version 1.6.5.1* Had to reinstall the app but after doing so am now unable to download the region. Used to use it all the time but is currently unusable. ### 2/5 — ? *2025-01-19, version 1.6.5.1* Can’t register because the “@“ doesn’t appear for entering an email address. ### 3/5 — Crashes every time *2024-07-13, version 1.6.5* Great app when it works but soon as you try to make an account the app crashes ever time. Ive reached out to the devs but no email back. Gutted to be honest. ### 2/5 — Less useful now *2024-06-22, version 1.6.5* 'Major rewrite' is much less usable. Cannot focus on things that matter, its ugly, slow to load, paints slow. For example i want to turn off places on interest and only focus on canal stuff - water points, locks, services- but it never saves that preference. RCR part works well thus two stars. Map is zero stars ### 3/5 — Good keep at it but crashes *2024-05-31* Cannot login to RCR on iPad. Crashes back to Home Screen. Keep working on the search screen make results more eeditable and no need to tell it to search or cancel twice. Apart from that, good stuff keep it going. ### 3/5 — It’s an ok app *2024-04-01* The app itself is good and has great functionality. However something that I find frustrating about it is that you cannot say you want to do a circular route I.E Cheshire ring or 4 counties ring without having to force a via point in several places ### 2/5 — Good, when it works *2024-02-29* Gives great info re journey planning, but often freezes on home screen of app and won’t load; this bugginess makes it a very frustrating choice compared to others available. ### 2/5 — Good but frustrating *2023-08-24* I like the App but every time I come back to it I have to delete because it won’t load no matter how long you leave it Just very frustrating Delete than reinstall and login again ### 3/5 — Great in principle *2023-08-19* A really useful app and one that has the potential to be so powerful for those navigating inland waterways. However, it often fails to get past the loading stage and crashes at this point. The live journey tracking is also inadequate and fails to keep up with boat movements, leading to missed turns and stops on unfamiliar waterways. Please sort these simple issues as when it’s working it is a genuinely great app! ### 3/5 — Good when it works *2023-08-03* Fed up of deleting and reloading every day I use it and sometimes whilst using. The GPS isn't always accurate but I find it useful when approaching locks and locking for a mooring. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Unusable *2025-11-04, version 1.6.5.1* The app requires you to sign up but that is impossible as you can only use letters and numbers, there is no option at all to choose the @ sign ### 1/5 — Broken but good when working *2025-07-14, version 1.6.5.1* Asks you to download the relevant data pack then the button just doesn’t work, needs fixing asap ### 1/5 — Not user friendly at all *2025-03-02* Loaded this app and went round the mulberry bush several times to try and use it, I shall now delete it to rid myself of the frustration of trying to get anywhere. It may be useful once you have figured it out but not interested in wasting another hour going round and round ### 1/5 — Poor and out of date *2024-08-25, version 1.6.5.1* I have seen this app advertised at several shows so I thought I’d give it a go. I can’t even create an account because the app can’t accept that my name and hence my email address contains a hyphen. I used have this problem with banks in the 90’s but not now. I’d love to try and use this app but you (the developer) has to accept that some names contain hyphens! ### 1/5 — Horrendous UX *2024-07-21* As a user experience designer I find myself so frustrated on so many journeys inside this app. The most frustrating is the ‘forgotten password’ workflow. You enter your email and there’s no button to submit it so it’s an impossible task to complete, leaving me permanently unable to use this as a logged in user. The select region button doesn’t work, the login pages don’t scroll, so when a keyboard overlays the UI it’s impossible to input data below the visible fields. I could go on, or if you have any UX jobs going I’d happily help you to solve these for you. ### 1/5 — Something very wrong with this app… *2024-03-01, version 1.6.5* The app appears to work ‘ok’ until you sign-in… the it crashes on next load… This app really needs to be thoroughly tested before each release. I will now reinstall it and use it minus the sign-in features. ### 1/5 — Useless *2023-10-25, version 1.6.4* Crashed within 5 minutes of creating account. Can’t get it to work in spite of reinstalling it a few times. ### 1/5 — Rubbish *2023-08-27, version 1.6.4* Map and info is poor to fair. Calculate route red button and the app just crashes every time !!! iPhone 12 iOS 16.6 ### 1/5 — Not possible to create account *2023-07-21, version 1.6.4* I filled the boxes, and submit. A message pops up telling me to select country/flag associated with my account. There is no option to do this. ### 1/5 — Crashes *2023-06-28, version 1.6.3* Crashes when getting distance between two dropped pins. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Much better *2026-05-05* Downloaded the latest version and there were issues, contacted app support and with in two days a new patch had been released fixing the issues. The app is now much better than it originally was. An essential tool for anyone on the UK Canal network. ### 5/5 — Great app but…. *2024-06-11* This is a great app but still needs much work. Some of the times and distances for journeys are way way out. ### 5/5 — Hi *2023-06-05, version 1.6.3* The map is amazing. ### 5/5 — Great app *2022-08-23* Waternav is a new, fresh app that really thinks about what the customer wants from an app. The route planning is great and I am always told when updates are needed so I always have current data. The app is easy to use and has a simple, clean design. I would recommend this app to anyone. **Developer response:** Thank you for the review, we hope you keep enjoying WaterNav. Feel free to contact waternav@rivercanalrescue.co.uk if you think of any new features you think would be beneficial for everyone. Thanks, Brandon ### 4/5 — Very useful, needs W3W *2026-07-15, version 3.0.17* The app is very useful but I would encourage the developers to add What3Words location info as this is now preferred by the emergency services. ### 4/5 — Great for short trips *2023-08-04* Great update & good for short trip planning like a lot of the features. But some tout planing needs work as often does not take the correct route atherstone to hawkesbury is only 7 hours ish 40 miles but kept going round Birmingham Warwick & rugby rather than the few locks .. kept up the work . Maybe add a via option ### 4/5 — Very useful app when it opens *2023-07-10* It’s a great app when it works, it often crashes on opening though which does get annoying, sometimes when deleting the app and reinstalling it does open. Running on iOS 16.5.1, if this glitch could get sorted, a satellite overview option and the ability to drop a pin like on google maps I think this would improve the app ### 3/5 — No downloads *2026-06-22* Im trying to download England and wales for planning a route but the download stops at 40% consistently. I have decent cell service with 3 bars of 4G. Surely that should be sufficient. Without a download the app is completely useless as far as I can tell Also I’m sure I had downloaded at one point and have no idea it went away until I launched the app again to demonstrate. UPDATE Now that I have a boat I’ve been using the app more. I think it’s biggest drawback is the need for RCR membership to add notes and whatever other options are available. I mean, it’s the app I’m interested in not the RCR (no offence) A modest fee for the full app usage would be appropriate. ### 3/5 — Decent *2026-05-06, version 3.0.8* Hmmm is this meant to work or is it one of those “”beta”” versions? ### 3/5 — Not good *2025-06-15, version 1.6.5.1* This app will not let me create an account as cannot get the @sign up to put in my password. Not sure why this is. It will only bring up numbers with letters underneath like on a really old mobile. --- *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 2026-08-10.*