Badges

Badges celebrate steady habits in your ministry, like sharing each month, sending your report, and going back to see people. There's nothing to set up: WitnessWork checks your records and adds a badge when you reach one. To see yours, tap your profile picture, then Profile. Your badges sit right under your profile card; tap one to see it up close, or tap See all to open Badges, where you can see every badge you have and what helps each one grow next. Most badges grow through four levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Pearl. A few one-time badges, like First Bible Study, stay hidden until you have them. When something you just did earns a badge, like logging time, checking off that you shared, saving a visit or plan, sending your report, answering Going, or confirming a buddy, a small card with the badge slides in at the top of the screen. Tap it to celebrate the badge full screen, or swipe it away. Several new badges stack, newest in front; tap the ones behind to spread them out. A badge you don't tap, and one that arrives another way, such as a plan's day arriving overnight, time logged on your watch or another device, or a buddy's reply, doesn't interrupt you: it waits in the notification bell on Home. Tap View there to celebrate it, or X to dismiss it; either way the badge is saved and stays marked new on your profile until you open your badges. (Before version 1.45.0, a badge you just earned was celebrated full screen right away, and one that arrived another way showed a New badge card at the top of Home.) If your records already reach badges the first time WitnessWork checks them on a device, a one-time “Your badges are here” screen says how many you have: Take a look opens your profile, and Later closes it. It waits for a time you open WitnessWork without an update's tour. Badges reached by records you add or restore while setting up WitnessWork are added without it. Either way, your badges are already saved. Badges work on iOS and Android and update a moment after your records change and whenever you return to WitnessWork. They aren't the red number on the app icon, which counts unread items in the notification bell.

Tap any badge, on your profile, on the Badges screen, or on a buddy's page in Buddies, and it opens full screen: the badge, its level, what it counts, and when you earned it. “Found in your history” means older records reached it and the month isn't known. Under your own badges, a line like “Next: Pearl · 41 of 60 months” shows how far that badge is from its next level, or “All four levels collected” once you have Pearl; tap the info button beside it to see what helps it grow. A level you haven't reached yet shows “Not yet” and how to get there, and so does a level a buddy hasn't reached when you tap it under See all on their page. Tap the badge to spin it. To share one, take a screenshot: the screen shows your name, as in “Anna's badge,” and WitnessWork at the bottom, and nothing is sent anywhere on its own. Your name comes from your profile, in Settings → Profile; without a name, the screen leaves it off. Close the badge with the X, by swiping down, or with Back on Android. With Buddies, your buddies' reactions appear under your own badge, and a buddy's badge lets you send one; see the question about what buddies see.

So everyone grows at the same pace, whatever their circumstances. Every badge counts calendar months, never hours or goals. A month counts once, whether you shared for a few minutes or all day, and whether you mark that you shared or log hours as a pioneer. Badges never reset or depend on an unbroken run of months, so time off for illness, travel, or a hard season takes nothing away; the next month you share simply counts. Your streak is separate and never affects your badges. Year Round counts service years with at least 10 months of sharing, so two months off in a service year never count against you. Because each month counts only once, the highest level, Pearl, takes years. That's on purpose.

Sharing the Good News counts months where you logged time or marked that you shared. Year Round counts service years with at least 10 of those months. Reports Sent counts months whose report you sent from WitnessWork or marked as already sent. Ready to Go counts months with a Plan, once the Plan's day arrives. Kind Words counts months with a visit where you talked with someone; Not at Home visits don't count. Return Visits counts months you went back to someone you had visited before. Next Time counts months with a Follow-up that has a topic. Keeping in Touch counts the most different months you've talked with one person, in person, by phone, or by letter. Two by Two counts months a buddy went with you on a Plan or Follow-up, and shows only where Buddies is available. If a month didn't count: hours carried over by the rollover option don't count on their own, visits that came with a contact someone shared with you are theirs and don't count, a Plan counts only once its day arrives, and Two by Two needs a buddy who answered Going. One-time badges mark a first: your first Bible study, and your first buddy.

Your buddies see the badges you have, each at its highest level, in a row on your page in Buddies. See all there shows each collection with the levels you've reached and the ones still ahead, plus your one-time badges. They never see your progress, counts, or dates. In data protection mode, First Bible Study isn't shared. To stop sharing badges, turn off Badges in Buddies Settings. When a buddy gets a new badge, you get an alert with their name and the badge, like “Levi earned a badge” with “Year Round, Silver” below it; tap it to open their page. You get at most one alert per buddy a day, and later badges that day arrive quietly in the notification bell. Badges found in imported or restored history, and one-time badges, aren't announced. To encourage a buddy, open their page in Buddies, tap one of their badges, and pick a reaction: 🎉, 🎊, 🔥, 👏, 👍, or 🙌. You can react to each badge once; picking another reaction replaces the first. Only that buddy sees who reacted, and nothing else is sent: no message, and none of your own badges. If you're offline, your reaction is sent when you're back online. When a buddy reacts to one of your badges, you get an alert like “Anna reacted 🔥 to your badge,” at most once per buddy a day, and the reaction appears in the notification bell and when you open that badge. To stop alerts for new badges and reactions on a device, turn off Badge Alerts in Buddies Settings; both still appear in the notification bell. With Show badges off, you can't react, and reactions to your badges aren't shown.

In the notification bell on Home, under From your buddies, below anything waiting for your answer. A buddy's new badge shows the badge with six reactions: 🎉, 🎊, 🔥, 👏, 👍, and 🙌. Tap one to encourage them right away. After that, the row shows what you sent; tap Change to pick another. Tap the row or its badge to see the badge full screen, marked New if you hadn't seen it yet. Several badges from one buddy within a day share one row. When a buddy reacts to one of your badges, tap it to open your badge with every buddy's reaction. Buddies' news never adds to the red number on the bell or the app icon; a small dot on the bell means something new from your buddies. It says only Today, This week, or Earlier, never the time. Dismiss it with X or Clear All, or let it clear on its own after 30 days. It shows only for your current buddies, wherever Buddies is available, on iPhone, iPad, and Android, and only while Show badges is on. To stop the alerts but keep the news in the bell, turn off Badge Alerts in Buddies Settings. If you're offline, your reaction is saved and sent when you're back online. When you get a new badge yourself and share badges with your buddies, the New badge card says who will see it, like “Ben and Grace will see it.” To stop sharing badges, turn off Badges in Buddies Settings.

Badges are keepsakes: once you have one, it stays, even if you later delete the time, visits, or plans behind it, or a buddy leaves. Progress toward the next level is kept too when data protection mode suggests deleting old details. Your badges sync between your devices when sync is on and are included in backup files, so restoring a backup on a new phone brings them back. When imported or restored history reaches new badges, they're added quietly with one summary instead of a celebration for each, or with no summary at all when you import or restore while setting up WitnessWork. To hide badges, open Settings → Preferences → Streaks & Badges and turn off Show badges. That hides them everywhere, including from your buddies and celebrations, without forgetting them; turn it back on and they return.