BeachSea Support

Thanks for using BeachSea! If you need help, have a feature request, or run into a bug, we are happy to hear from you.

Contact

Email: [email protected]

We try to respond within a few business days.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I add a beach?

Tap the plus button in the header. Search for a beach by name, or tap “Beaches near you” to see the ones around you. Pick one and a small map opens so you can check the spot. Drag the map to put the pin exactly where you go into the water, then tap Save beach.

Placing the pin well is worth the few seconds. It is the point the forecast is fetched for, and the point the shore compass sends you back to.

What is “sea direction”, and why does BeachSea keep asking for it?

It is the direction you look when you face the open water. BeachSea cannot work it out on its own, and five things depend on it:

• Whether the wind is blowing offshore, which is the single most useful warning in the app
• The rip current risk, which depends on how the swell meets the shore
• The arrow in in-the-water mode that points back to the beach
• The “Sea NE” badge on the beach picture
• The shape of the coastline BeachSea draws for your beach

Tap the compass button in the header, drag the map until the arrow points at the open water, and tap Set sea direction. It takes about five seconds and you only do it once per beach.

Why does it warn about offshore wind when the sea looks calm?

That is exactly when offshore wind is dangerous. Wind blowing from the beach out to sea flattens the water near the shore, so it looks inviting, while it pushes anything that floats away from land. Inflatables, boards, and weak swimmers get carried out faster than they can swim back. A calm looking sea with the wind at your back is the classic set-up for a rescue.

Does BeachSea show me where the rip currents are?

No, and neither can any other app. Rips form from sandbars that shift with every tide and storm, and there is no worldwide feed of live rip positions anywhere in the world.

What BeachSea does is tell you when conditions favour rips at your beach, and teach you what to do about it. Tap the rip card to learn how to spot one from the beach, and how to escape one: do not fight it, swim parallel to the shore. When in doubt, swim near lifeguards.

What does the “Water cleanliness” card mean?

It appears when there is something worth knowing, and stays quiet otherwise. It has two parts:

• After heavy rain, runoff and sewer overflows push bacteria into the sea. BeachSea sees the rain that has already fallen at your beach, anywhere in the world, and suggests giving it a day. This is not a measurement of the water, it is a well known pattern that health authorities warn about everywhere.
• In Europe, official bathing water ratings are published once a year by the European Environment Agency, based on samples from the previous four seasons. BeachSea speaks up only for beaches rated Poor or Sufficient, because Excellent covers most of the coast and would be wallpaper.

Neither one measures today’s water. Nothing in BeachSea ever claims the water is clean or safe.

When you search for beaches or browse beaches near you, each European result also shows its official rating as a small badge, along with its distance. And “Beaches near you” reaches farther when you are away from the coast, so an inland search finds the nearest coast instead of nothing.

What is in-the-water mode?

Tap “I’m going in the water” before you swim. The screen turns black with huge text, keeps itself awake, and shows a single arrow pointing back to shore with the distance, plus the wind and a plain warning if things are turning. It needs no signal once it is open, and it is meant to be readable with wet eyes at arm’s length.

The arrow needs the sea direction set for that beach, and it uses the phone’s compass, so hold the phone flat.

Is there an Apple Watch app?

Yes. Tap “I’m going in the water” on your iPhone and pick Swim, Surf, Paddle or Boat. Your watch taps your wrist as the session starts: raise it and tap the small workout icon at the top of the watch face (or open BeachSea there) and the live arrow is waiting, pointing back to shore with the distance, driven by the watch’s own GPS and compass. The session runs as a workout of the type you picked (Surf also covers kite and windsurf, Paddle covers SUP and kayak), which is what keeps the arrow alive with your phone left on the sand, and it saves to Fitness. If the forecast turns while you are out, the screen goes amber and your wrist buzzes twice.

You can also start straight from the watch: open BeachSea there and pick your activity. To finish, tap the X on the watch, or close the black screen on your iPhone, and the workout is saved either way.

The watch app usually does not install by itself. Open the Watch app on your iPhone, scroll down to the available apps, and tap Install next to BeachSea. The first time you start an activity, the watch asks for Health permission so the session can run and be saved to Fitness. Both wrist taps can be switched off in BeachSea’s Settings, under Apple Watch.

One physical honesty note for swimmers: GPS cannot see through water, so your position updates when your wrist clears the surface. On a board or a boat it is continuous.

Why does my beach picture never change?

The drawn beach scene is an illustration, not a live view. It takes the real shape of your coastline and tints the water with today’s severity, but the umbrellas and waves are artwork.

If you would rather see the real place, open Settings and set Beach scene style to Map. That shows a map picture of your saved pin, with a dot for where you are. You can also move the scene between the bottom and the top of the screen.

The tide only says Rising or Falling. Where are the tide times?

BeachSea shows the direction the water is moving, not a tide table. Global tide models are accurate out at sea and unreliable right at the coast, where you actually stand, so a printed high tide time would often be wrong by enough to matter. Rather than show a confident number that is off, BeachSea shows the trend it can stand behind.

When do morning alerts arrive?

Around 8am at the beach, not on your phone’s clock, so a beach in another time zone still tells you at the right moment. Turn them on per beach in Settings, under Morning alerts. You only hear from BeachSea when a morning actually looks rough.

iOS decides when apps may refresh in the background, so BeachSea prepares up to three mornings ahead. If iOS never wakes it, the alert still fires using the most recent forecast it has.

Does it work without signal?

Yes, for what it already knows. Saved beaches, the last forecast, the rip and flags guides, and in-the-water mode all work offline. The “Data age” line under the tiles tells you how old the numbers are, so you can judge them for yourself. Fresh numbers need a connection.

Can I switch between my beaches quickly?

Swipe left or right on the beach screen. The dots at the bottom show where you are in your list. The widget follows whichever beach you have open.

Which languages does BeachSea speak?

English, French, Dutch, German, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. Change it in Settings under Language and the app switches straight away. One small label drawn by Apple on the map keeps the previous language until the next time you open the app.

What do Simple and Marine mean?

Simple uses everyday units and plain safety language. Marine switches wind and gusts to knots and adds compass bearings for wind and swell, for people who read a forecast that way. Both show the same conditions and the same warnings.

Where does the data come from?

Weather and marine forecasts come from Open-Meteo. Maps come from Apple. European bathing water ratings come from the European Environment Agency. The full list is in Settings, under About.

Is BeachSea a substitute for lifeguards?

No. It is guidance to help you decide, not a guarantee about the water. Conditions change faster than any forecast, local hazards do not appear in any dataset, and no app can see the sea in front of you. Obey the posted flags, swim near lifeguards, and if the beach and the app disagree, trust the beach.

How do I remove a beach?

Open the beach and tap the red bin in the header. It asks first, and it removes that beach along with its cached forecast and sea direction.