AWorld in support of ActNow

What is AWorld app?

AWorld's mission is to minimise climate change's impact on the world's population. It starts with the user and gets them to calculate their climate footprint using its built-in calculator, which asks about lifestyle, buying, and travel habits. The next step educates users with stories and guides about the environment.

The first two steps give users an understanding of their existing environmental impact and knowledge of the issues. Next, the app involves users in a gamified series of actions, discussions and challenges to empower them to contribute to fighting climate change. Kids can participate in changing their habits and recording their actions using the app, but adults should ensure that any engagement in challenges and discussions is appropriate for their kids.

AWorld has multiple language options, including English, German, Spanish, French and Chinese.

What we love about AWorld app.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing us at the moment. Those contributing most to it may not be those who will suffer the worst, so we applaud AWorld's efforts. It educates, informs, and supports its users to make a difference.

Granted, each individual's efforts will play only a tiny part in fighting climate change, but the app's 'in-it-together' philosophy emphasises the importance of group action.

The app recognises the importance of motivation and habit forming to mitigate the effects that led to the climate crisis. Logging their actions helps its users see the progress they have made. Awards, leaderboards, and scores motivate them to continue and do even more.

Putting the relevant education and guidance in a free app helps it reach the broadest possible audience.

What skills does it teach?

AWorld is an educational app, but its content and focus are not directly aimed at typical school subjects. It will help people of any age learn about how everyone contributes to climate change and what they can do to minimise their impact. 

The themes within climate change and environmental issues link with subjects such as geography, science, and social responsibility.

What age is it appropriate for?

AWorld's developers have made the app for a general audience — not just kids. Its content does not contain anything inappropriate for children, but it incorporates group and team-based challenges, both local and global.

Users of this app need to have an email address to receive an activation code. Kids under 14 also have to give their parent's email address to receive a different code showing they have their caregiver's permission.

The app has a social aspect with links to the host device's messaging and social media apps. Some of the challenges encourage users to upload photographic evidence. Parents should consider this aspect when deciding to what level they wish to supervise their kid's use of this app.

The content of AWorld has strong visual elements, but it will require a modest literacy level to learn from the app and log actions. Typically, we'd expect kids aged 10+ to be able to learn from the material.

Is AWorld app easy to use?

The app has a clear user interface that follows familiar app layouts. You choose the section along the bottom of the screen and interact with the challenges, material and everything else in the upper portion of the screen.

The app's content is well-presented, and the user interactions, such as entering quiz answers and logging actions, are intuitive.

The log-in process takes longer than for many apps. Users must indicate their basic information, such as name, language, and nationality, before giving an email address. They then need to access a verification they'll receive by email before accessing the app's content.

How will students benefit?

The idea of taking personal responsibility for acting against climate change is laudable but intangible for kids and, indeed, many adults. AWorld's approach lets kids record what they have changed and understand its cumulative impact.

Seeing the results of their actions reflected in numbers, such as their reduced carbon footprint, earning badges, and joining group challenges, uses gamification to inspire and motivate kids.

The information provided by the app ensures kids know why their changes matter and build a practical understanding of the scientific and geographic links to their learning. The app incudes quizzes to ensure kids comprehend the information.

How will parents benefit?

Free apps are always popular with parents, and fighting climate change often involves efficiency and saving. Kids are encouraged to make savings and are shown by the app where they can make a difference. Your nagging might not get kids to turn off appliances when they're not in use, but the gamification of AWorld and the motivation of helping the planet might.

Being a free app also allows AWorld to form a family activity present on each member's mobile device. Everybody can download it to learn and record their actions. The results might help the family budget and the planet.

How will teachers benefit?

This app covers topics that link very well with geography and science lessons — for example, the importance of water, the global food system, and the mechanism of climate change. The guides and information probably won't form the basis of these lessons, but they are excellent for explaining surrounding issues and justifying why the lesson is important.

Schools often cover social and environmental issues as whole school events, within projects, and as part of lessons on social responsibility. For these, the guides provide teachers with a valuable structure and source of information they can modify for their students.

Being an entirely free educational app makes it a tool that every teacher can use to save time when planning related lessons.

Every slide in the information guides included in the app has a share button which lets you save it as a png file. This feature will be beneficial for teachers who want to link their lessons to the contents and guidance of AWorld.

How much does AWorld app cost?

AWorld is free, does not contain in-app purchases, does not require a subscription, and does not show advertisements.

Is AWorld app safe to use?

When users indicate they are younger than 14, the app asks for a parent's email address. This process expects you to understand what the app offers, so we encourage you to download and check it. As a free app, you can do this easily and satisfy yourself with its suitability for your child's age and maturity.

All users of the app need to give an email address where they will receive the access code to use it.

Some of the app challenges with groups can involve uploading images of their contributions. The app also encourages teamwork and group involvement by sharing through their existing messaging and social media apps.

The app's privacy policy refers to challenges asking users to upload images to the community showing their contributions and participating in discussions. We did not see an example of this during the review, but parents should ensure their children understand what is acceptable and ensure that any images do not include any personally identifiable information.

AWorld asks to track your activity across other apps and websites. For some apps, this is to target advertisements. In the case of this app, which does not show ads, the tracking is for understanding how people use the app, which will guide its future development. You can accept or reject the permission without harming your app experience.

What can AWorld app improve on?

The app is designed to work on a user-owned device rather than a shared one, as might be typical in the classroom. Although users can log out, the sign-in process involves accessing an email verification, and the app retains settings from previous accounts, including the age setting.

We understand why this is, as the app's design is to help individuals log their actions against climate change. However, the information is also a great resource, and it is a pity the app does not have a school mode that would let schools use it for general learning and reference.

The app tended to close unexpectedly when joining challenges which was frustrating. We tested it on an iPhone XR. More recent devices may not experience the issue, but the nature of the app does not suggest it should struggle with less than cutting-edge tech.

Overall rating of the app.

Climate change and environmental issues are topics not well-covered by educational apps. We commend AWorld for addressing this gap with an app that covers everything from education to building environmentally responsible habits.

Everybody, young and old, should download AWorld to their devices to learn about climate change and what they can contribute to fighting it. AWorld in support of ActNow is a five-star app.