Watch to 5K－Couch to 5km coach

295 source reviews · 100% labelled · 30.8% with a specific topic

4.4

of 5, across 295 reviews

Corpus profile, not the current store rating

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★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Terrible. This is by far the worst running app I have tried. Don’t waste your money.
★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions
Very Disappointing. After a long break from running, I was excited to try this out given the positive reviews. Unfortunately there were egregious bugs during my first run. 1. The walk and run timers consistently freeze at zero for minutes at a time. 2. A voice announcing when it’s time to transition between running/walking was advertised. I listened but heard nothing, though there was a faint, easy to miss vibration. I had to stare at my watch the entire time (even more frustrating given the timer was usually stuck!) I’m a software engineer and I’m usually understanding of bugs, but how do you mess up a timer this badly, especially when it’s the core feature of your app? Is there just no QA happening whatsoever? Rival apps like “Just Run” are free and just *work*. I’m on the latest version on the latest iOS edition. At best this is a new bug that will be patched, given the other positive reviews that are presumably real, but I want a refund.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Can’t install on kid’s Apple watch. I would love to use this but have spent countless hours and can’t get it onto my child’s watch. This makes it pretty useless and a waste of money. Probably an Apple issue more than an app issue but I hope Apple can make it easier to set up devises for children without making them have their own phones.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
No Audio, No Feedback. Highly disappointed in this app. There’s no audio. It seems you need to connect directly to the watch. WARNING: Does not work with audio played from phone! This is very poor design choice. The haptics are also very very subtle. I can’t even feel them when running. The app is basically worthless. Waste of time and money.
★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions
Wish there were a refund option. Nice to have something built for the watch, but it’s simple to the point of useless.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Poor. Woman barely says anything, no encouragement and can’t get volume high enough. Sometimes can’t hear her speak and especially if listening to music.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Very unstable App. I have used this app a couple of times now, it used to be great but more recently it is so unstable. For instance my last run (week 7 day three) all went well, I was notified I was halfway by the American voice trying to sound Scottish, and then nothing, no notification of the end of run or warm down. When I got home I took a look at the data on the app and nothing was recorded, it appears to have just shut down mid run. I think I will have to swap apps as I cannot rely on this one anymore.
★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions
Fundamentally broken. Installed this on my (reasonably new) Apple watch and went for a run but it a number of issues that make it totally useless. 1. The app wouldn't keep the watch awake so the watch would repeatedly go back to the main time display (unlike the Apple Health workouts which stays on-screen). This means I had to to stop running, press the crown to get the app list, navigate to the app and re-open it (with my nose, it's cold and I have gloves on). 2. When doing this the first few times I got a music control page, this was confusing as I don't play music while running. It took me a while to work out that this was in the watch to 5k app as I've not selected that view myself. 3. The app claimed it would warn at the half-way mark so I could turn round, it didn't, leaving me with a 13 minute walk home (I figured out it hadn't warned me at half-way after a while) in the cold. 4. The app kept stalling at the end of the walking section. There were sometimes pauses of ~one to two minutes where the walking timer stayed at 0 and there didn't seem to be anything I could do to shift it. It eventually recovered each time, but it was significantly disruptive. 5. The developer begging for "tips" after charging for the app is distasteful. This app is fundamentally broken as it stands, I'm going to see if I can get a refund from Apple because it's so bad I won't be using it again.
★★★★★data, history or progress disappears
Crashed after 12 minutes. Started out well (set was easy), then around 12 minutes in just stopped, and lost the data! 1 and out!
★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions
Very Disappointed. I have had exactly the same experience as another reviewer so I have copied their review, and yes, I have paired my watch to my AirPods using Bluetooth as per the app instructions. Not had a good experience with this app. Thought it was worth a go considering it's a paid app so assumed it would be built better than all the free apps. Also main driver for getting it was the Apple Watch integration. Unfortunately the most important, most basic watch functions don't work. Like most people I listen to music when running, but the spoken 'coach' feedback (cues to start/stop running etc) only play out of the watch speaker. After I FINALLY managed to get them to play through my AirPods, they only play when the music is not! As a result I needed to rely on the haptic feedback, which only happens occasionally, and when it did the vibrations were very, very weak meaning I frequently missed the cause of when to start running.
★★★★★subscription and paid restrictions
Would like my money back. Not had a good experience with this app. Thought it was worth a go considering it’s a paid app so assumed it would be built better than all the free apps. Also main driver for getting it was the Apple Watch integration. Unfortunately the most important, most basic watch functions don’t work. Like most people I listen to music when running, but the spoken ‘coach’ feedback (cues to start/stop running etc) only play out of the watch speaker. After I FINALLY managed to get them to play through my AirPods, they only play when the music is not! As a result I needed to rely on the haptic feedback, which only happens occasionally, and when it did the vibrations were very, very weak meaning I frequently missed the cause of when to start running. I would like my money back please…not impressed…
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Waste of my money. couldn’t connect to my AirPods.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
No always-on display. Very annoying having to rotate the watch or tap the screen to see anything while trying to exercise How long has SwiftUI been around for now? Might as well just use WorkOutDoors which is much more powerful than this
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Poor. I bought this because I kept skipping by accident on my iPhone. The voice over is very limited in a cold accent with no counts down or encouragement whatsoever. No countdown to run, nothing. Waste of money, will go back to Denise on my phone.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
No Sound. Whilst the App looks ok from initial impression. My two immediate findings are there’s no warm up built in and I can’t seem to get any audio to play through watch telling you when to run or walk
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Prompts don’t sync. I can’t get the audio prompts to play in the earphones. I have gone through all of the troubleshooting steps, but it will not function with Apple AirPods Pro. The other apps have no problem playing prompts into earphones
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Not worth it. It’s an okay running app. But a lack of features in combination with some baffling decisions ultimately make it not worth the purchase.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
No Audio Cues. I got no audio cues when using. Not sure if this is because I use Spotify, but other apps like Couch to 5k do cue over Spotify.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Meh. With volume turned all the way up on AirPods Pro, I cannot hear the queues for when to switch between running and walking. Also cannot hear halfway point queu. Constantly checking the watch seems unsafe and sort of defeats the purpose. Also, route map does not show up in activity log as it does if using the outdoor walk tracker on Apple Watch.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
It’s ok but not smart enough. The app itself is ok but when you need to redo the weeks, which absolutely every true bigger will need to do because couch to 5k is poor as a programme, the app does not track this at all and you aren’t sure where you are at. Not the apps fault but couch to 5k is designed by a marketer. Not a fitness expert. The jump from 8 minute intervals to 20 full minutes is just insane. It’s a poor programme for beginners.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Works well on the watch, but doesn’t show information needed during a run.. Whilst running, the information on the watch face includes “avg. pace” which is nice to have, but isn’t helpful when trying to pace yourself. You cannot change this. The avg pace is, of course, an average - so it calculates using running and walking pace. It would be nice to see current pace to help maintain a desired speed. The other info it shows, during the run, is “calories”, this isn’t helpful information especially during the run!
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Doesn’t output to Strava. We all know if it’s not on Strava, it didn’t happen. This app will not output to Strava, which is frustrating and makes the app very redundant for those who like to look at their stats and see if there are improvements.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
App. I would like a verbal prompt
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
v unreliable. I find that the notifications to tell me to walk or run don’t always come through on time. typically I have to raise my wrist to open the display, otherwise, I don’t get a notification at all. and thereafter it goes bonkers and tells you finishing up in 321 while the display still has 44 seconds left and then congratulates you at the end of 44s. it’s a good idea for an app but it just doesn’t work in. practice. i am in apple watch series 6 maybe it works better on newer devices.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
App crashes constantly. The app does not communicate with Spotify well. The guide does not give you the instructions so you need to press start so that it moves to the next instruction everytime.
★★★★★a needed feature is missing
Great idea, but doesn’t work well.. I like the idea of an app that I can use independently of my phone, but this one needs a bit of work before it’s usable, as currently, it’s very unreliable. On my 1st run, using watch 7 and latest gen AirPods, there was no sound. I thought I missed a setting somewhere and used the dodgy haptic feedbacks to try and work out when to run instead. You have to keep checking your watch though, as the tap on your wrist may be a txt, a closed ring notification, or the app alerting you that you’re half way through. Run 2 I had sound, yay! But it’s very quiet. I figured I could use the crown to adjust volume, nope. Maybe the companion app will allow me to adjust sound? Nope. Run 3 was the same as run 2, except I knew the sound would be rubbish as I couldnt find any settings to adjust. I thought I’d be clever and turn the music right up, then pause the music, but that didn’t work either. Run 4 I had no sound again, and I’m now giving up on it and I’ll just use a pod cast instead. I tried to get on with it, but I can’t. I hope once the bugs are ironed out it’s a great app.
★★★★★negative experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Really not very good. I have used Couch to 5k before … needed to do it again having lapsed and now had an Apple Watch and hated taking my phone with me. But this is far from good, the voice does not encourage me … doesn’t say one run left or give me my pace … and no real warning of the run about to start … how about get ready to run and then 3 bleeps or something. There is a lot of work to do on encouraging good running
★★★★★crashes, freezes and errors
Broken. Virtual coach doesn’t work properly if listening to music it’ll only play through my watch which means I can’t actually hear it, virtual coach only works properly if music is turned off
★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Not worth the money. This app doesn't take advantage of the detailed tracking apple watch provides. Although it saves your workouts in the fitness app, it only has really basic stats. No cadence, no heartrate zones. The UI is slightly clunky too.
★★★★★mixed experience without a specific reason· unspecific
Not quite what o wanted.. Tried the app as I liked the option of choosing my own music rather than using the fixed music on the NHS couch to 5k podcast episodes. Instructions were very robotic and not very inspiring. Also couldn’t figure how to get my data into Strava so without that it wasn’t the right fit. Sure it will be great for some.