My Sky Overview: What's the deal with Sky ID, VIP and Apps?

My Sky helps you manage your Sky account details, manage your Sky bill payments and access Sky Smart Broadband settings amongst other things. The My Sky app is designed to make managing your account and solving any issues you have as easy as possible. Additionally, My Sky let's you sign up and benefit from Sky VIP loyalty rewards. Let's take a closer look at how you can get the most out of My Sky.

My Sky Login

My Sky Login is the first step to being able access your Sky account and all the features within - from billing information to Sky Broadband features and apps. Having your Sky Login on hand is important so that you can use your Sky service to the fullest.

What is My Sky ID?

Your Sky ID will be made up of the email you entered when signing up for Sky and the associated password. Forgetting your password for your Sky ID isn't an issue if you have access to your email, since you can always request a password reset from the Sky Login page and then follow the instructions you receive by email.

Additionally, Sky ID can refer to an ID code that will appear on your Sky TV or broadband bill. For this reason, keeping your most recent Sky bill on paper or electronically can prevent a lot of hassle down the line.

How to log in to your My Sky account

If you just want to access your My Sky account, you can do so via the Sky website. The sign-in button is on the right-hand side of the bar at the top and will take you to the login page. From there you can either set up your account from scratch or enter your details and proceed.

If it’s the Sky app you want to log into, you will, of course, have to download it first. You can do so for Android or Apple phones on their respective app stores.

Once you’ve got the Sky app, just go in and type in your username and password. Your username is either your email or your Sky ID (which should be on your bill), and your password you will have set up yourself when you got your account. If you’ve yet to do this, it’s about time you did! Just click the ‘sign up’ button just below the one that says ‘sign in’.

My Sky Forgotten username/password

If you’ve forgotten your username or password (these things happen), not to worry. You can recover them by clicking below where it says ‘Forgotten username or password?’ The words “username” and “password” are both links - click the one you’ve forgotten and you’ll be taken to the relevant recovery page.

To recover a username, you’ll need either the email address you signed up with or some account information. To reset your password, you’ll need to supply either your email or Sky ID and perform a security check (one of those to make sure you’re not a robot).

If you’re having more trouble with this than you think is normal, you can find the relevant channel to contact Sky on our contact page.

My Sky Account Management

My Sky allows Sky customers to view and manage accounts and bills. Whether you’re a Sky TV, broadband or mobile customer, you just select your service from the ‘Manage Account’ menu and go through to your bill. Here you’ll get a breakdown of what you’ve been charged for, as well being able to view bills for the three previous months. Here’s a list of other handy features My Sky has for managing your account:

1. View and manage your Sky services.
2. See the offers and upgrades available to you.
3. Track Sky Q and Sky Multiscreen orders and reschedule engineer visits if needs be.
4. Find out what you need to know before moving home and contact Sky through the app.
5. Manage your Sky Go devices, reset your TV PIN, activate remote record and pair your viewing card.

Additionally, Sky Mobile customers are also well looked after, the app offering a smart way to view and manage their mobile account. In the ‘Mobile’ section users can view their plan, their bill, track data usage and orders, roll data back from within their “piggybank”, and even change their plan via the app.

My Sky Payments

Through My Sky, you’re also able to change how and when your payment for Sky goes through, as well as being able to update your payment details quickly and easily without the hassle of getting in touch with anyone to do it.

Sky VIP

What seems to set the My Sky app apart from its competitors is the Sky VIP loyalty programme. The programme rewards customer loyalty - which Sky has long been accused of not valuing - by offering prizes based on how long you remain a Sky customer. The scheme is tiered in the following way, and rewards are scaled up accordingly, though only little clues are offered as to what you’ll get:

The tiers are marked clearly enough, but the quotations are Sky’s only clues as to the nature of the ranges of rewards on offer. Sky does say, however, that you’ll get to choose your reward yourself from a range on offer to your bracket.

Joining the programme is free - you just tap the white Sky VIP button on the app’s home screen - and you get a small Welcome Gift when you do, as well as something new every week. You seem to have nothing to lose from joining, so we’d recommend you get to it asap!

My Sky App Features

The Sky app most basic features are exactly what you’d expect them to be. However, no two broadband and TV providers’ apps are exactly alike, so let’s take a look at its features in detail.

Sky says that the app will your "buddy for all things Sky" in addition to allowing you to manage your account on the go, being able to redeem Sky VIP rewards and asking for help.

Smart broadband features

The Sky app’s ‘Broadband and Talk’ section in the ‘Fix a problem’ menu will automatically test your home broadband setup. Sky claims that the app is capable of identifying the problem you’re having and then guiding you through the steps to get back online. If this works, it’s a serious feature and we want it, but we’ll hold off on the praise for now.

Through the new Sky app, customers can also keep track of their broadband usage and see at what speed their broadband is running at a given moment. You can check these things by selecting ‘Broadband & Talk’ in the ‘Manage account’ menu.

Fast problem-solving

The Sky app main menu also has a ‘Fix a problem’ icon that you can select when you’re experiencing issues. This section has a bank of easy-to-follow articles and videos to help you in resolving any issues you’re having that can be fixed without an engineer. If your problem is a bit more complicated, you’ll be put in touch with an expert directly through the app. Users are also kept up to date on any developments relating to their account and services with in-app notifications.

Sky Go App Features

The My Sky app is not the only app you can access with your Sky ID. Sky TV subscribers (and only they) can also get themselves the Sky Go app, with which they can stream live and catch-up TV on their phones, tablets or laptops. Access to Sky Go is included at no extra cost in your Sky TV subscription.

With the app, you can switch from watching Sky from your TV to any of the devices we’ve mentioned wherever you’re connected to WiFi, 4G or 3G. You can download the app for several smart devices and computers.

Sky Go Extra

While Sky Go comes as standard to Sky TV subscribers, Sky Go Extra will cost you a fiver more per month (unless you’re subscribed to the Sky Q experience, in which case it’s included). You might say it’s worth paying a bit extra when you see the extra features it’s got:

Apart from an added device to stream from, you can also download it to watch later. What’s more, two users can stream from separate devices at the same time. While an extra fiver per month is annoying (when putting together your Sky package they all add up!) we’d say it’s worth looking into the Sky Q experience to see if getting it as a part of that would be worth your while.

My Sky and Sky Go App Reviews

On the face of it, the My Sky app has good ratings on both Google Play and the App Store, with respective ratings of 3.8 out of 5 stars and 4.3 out of 5 stars. Is there anything behind the dip in ratings on Google Play? Let’s take a closer look.

If you read through most of the app’s recent reviews, you’d be forgiven for thinking its overall rating of 3.8 stars to be misleading. 14 of the last 20 reviews left in the Play Store for this app gave it 1 out of 5 stars. Many reviews complain of difficulty signing in to the app or that it simply crashes when opened.

This is, understandably, an issue that frustrates many users. Why download an app you can’t even sign into? Some users direct their annoyance toward the Sky VIP programme, which they claim doesn’t live up to its promise: “Diamond status doesn’t seem to give you any better chances for offers. Most things seem to be ballots…” Sky keep this quiet in their ads for the programme, so it’s normal that customers are disappointed not to be receiving the rewards they expected.

Then there are complaints around bugs that affect its general usability. The app’s ineffectiveness at solving connection issues for broadband are highlighted by some, and one user is continually frustrated with incorrect billing information:

I have had to call Sky so many times due to the wrong information the app provides. The app tells me my bill is £140, when I call they tell me its £79.

Reviews in the Apple App Store, on the other hand, are more universally positive - as their average of 4.3 stars would suggest. The sample of reviews shown by Apple includes only 5-star reviews, which makes sense given the high proportion of 5-star reviews overall. The reviews left generally seem to comment on Sky as a whole rather than just the functionality of the app, which gives us some pause, though when the app is mentioned it is quite positive:

Reviews for Google Play and the Apple App Store are beginning to differ so much that we’d say it depends on which operating system you use. Clearly, My Sky has some issues to address with My Sky for Android, but its features are good overall and it performs well in iOS.

Google Play reviews do deliver sobering truths about Sky VIP, however, which are bound to be equally true for iOS users. Don’t expect the world from it - it’s free, after all.