Apple's "News" app is JUNK

[Dino F]

Since having this app on my iPhone 6 - I am appalled at how shockingly SH*TE this app actually is.

I check this daily and upon opening it, these are my issues with it:

1. It first freezes the screen, before it then springs to life.
2. Sometimes it auto reloads the newest stories and sometimes it just doesn't - is totally random.
3. Sometimes it jumps to the first unread story, sometimes it doesn't
4. Sometimes it just loads the newest stories first resulting in me having to scroll down to any unread stories I haven't yet read, and sometimes it doesn't
   
5. No option to actually mark stories as 'Read'

Seeing that this app is an Apple app - it is truly SHOCKING.............

I previously used an app called 'Newssify' for all my news feeds and I wrongly thought I could use Apple's News app instead- how wrong I was.

 

[LordQ]

The app is okay, but boy it needs quite some polishing; Search also works when it wants and some topics show very outdated stories whereas pages like CNN or Men's Health show No Stories for me at all.

 

[Blujelly]

Unfortunately I have no issues on my iPhone 6+, loads fine no stutters, no freezing nothing.

 

[gsmornot]

Since having this app on my iPhone 6 - I am appalled at how shockingly SH*TE this app actually is.

I check this daily and upon opening it, these are my issues with it:

1. It first freezes the screen, before it then springs to life.
2. Sometimes it auto reloads the newest stories and sometimes it just doesn't - is totally random.
3. Sometimes it jumps to the first unread story, sometimes it doesn't
4. Sometimes it just loads the newest stories first resulting in me having to scroll down to any unread stories I haven't yet read, and sometimes it doesn't
   
5. No option to actually mark stories as 'Read'

Seeing that this app is an Apple app - it is truly SHOCKING.............

I previously used an app called 'Newssify' for all my news feeds and I wrongly thought I could use Apple's News app instead- how wrong I was.

If you're like me, you're coming to News from another reader that you're used to using on a regular basis. In my experience each news reader has been different in the areas you outline above and for a while felt like I was being shorted by the experience but over time I found ways to adjust and like what I was seeing. News has taken time, like two months, for me to get where I wanted to be. Now that I am here, I like very much what I see in the News app. I have spent a fair amount of time selecting sources, removing sources, telling it to mute sources, etc. You have to do this to adjust the feed. That said, I will comment on your 5 items with my personal experience.

1. This is normal. This freeze is the gathering of stories to load in the For You tab. If it did this in the background people would not be happy so it waits for you to open the app to run the process.
2. If you scroll right away, the new stories will load but will not adjust the screen position. If you leave the screen alone until it pulls in the new stories it will scroll to the top.
   
3. Same as number 2. If you wait until it pulls in the stories, it will move to the first unread.
4. Same as number 2. This is the same statement said 3 times but worded differently. You either scroll or you wait, up to you.
   
5. Stories are marked as read automatically as you read them. They turn from black to light gray.

News will hopefully get better over time. I have been able to make it work for me. I do not feel forced to make it work since other options are available but I made it work because I like the integration and the formatting style. I like it more on my phone than my iPad. I still have other readers but have not opened them. I would suggest giving it time to develop and taking the time to search for topics you want to read about and adding them to your feed. I'm not talking about the channels you were presented during setup, those are just the start. Search for keywords you want to know more about like 'running' and view the list of sources and add the ones that seem interesting. I'm guessing I have added close to 100 sources at this point and feel the For You has really come along way from what it was giving me when it was new.

Or just file it away and stick with Newsify. At least there are options.

 

[Cakefish]

What I dislike the most are the websites that give nothing more than the headlines in the News app. You click them and they just ask you to navigate to the website to actually read the article. It's very frustrating. Creates a very inconsistent experience.

I suppose I should cull all those troublesome blogs and use only the websites that put the effort in to seamlessly integrate into the app.

 

[gsmornot]

What I dislike the most are the websites that give nothing more than the headlines in the News app. You click them and they just ask you to navigate to the website to actually read the article. It's very frustrating. Creates a very inconsistent experience.

I suppose I should cull all those troublesome blogs and use only the websites that put the effort in to seamlessly integrate into the app.

Right and turn off 'show story previews' in settings-News

 

[Dino F]

If you're like me, you're coming to News from another reader that you're used to using on a regular basis. In my experience each news reader has been different in the areas you outline above and for a while felt like I was being shorted by the experience but over time I found ways to adjust and like what I was seeing. News has taken time, like two months, for me to get where I wanted to be. Now that I am here, I like very much what I see in the News app. I have spent a fair amount of time selecting sources, removing sources, telling it to mute sources, etc. You have to do this to adjust the feed. That said, I will comment on your 5 items with my personal experience.

1. This is normal. This freeze is the gathering of stories to load in the For You tab. If it did this in the background people would not be happy so it waits for you to open the app to run the process.
2. If you scroll right away, the new stories will load but will not adjust the screen position. If you leave the screen alone until it pulls in the new stories it will scroll to the top.
   
3. Same as number 2. If you wait until it pulls in the stories, it will move to the first unread.
4. Same as number 2. This is the same statement said 3 times but worded differently. You either scroll or you wait, up to you.
   
5. Stories are marked as read automatically as you read them. They turn from black to light gray.

News will hopefully get better over time. I have been able to make it work for me. I do not feel forced to make it work since other options are available but I made it work because I like the integration and the formatting style. I like it more on my phone than my iPad. I still have other readers but have not opened them. I would suggest giving it time to develop and taking the time to search for topics you want to read about and adding them to your feed. I'm not talking about the channels you were presented during setup, those are just the start. Search for keywords you want to know more about like 'running' and view the list of sources and add the ones that seem interesting. I'm guessing I have added close to 100 sources at this point and feel the For You has really come along way from what it was giving me when it was new.

Or just file it away and stick with Newsify. At least there are options.

...that's a very helpful reply so appreciate you posting it - thanks.

Will take on board what you have said and see how I get on with it over the next few days.

 

[Knowlege Bomb]

I tried to like it and while I didn't put a good amount of time into curating my feed, I've found that Flipboard is a much better/more functional news reader for my needs. Thing is I had never used it until I got frustrated with the News app.

 

[gsmornot]

I tried to like it and while I didn't put a good amount of time into curating my feed, I've found that Flipboard is a much better/more functional news reader for my needs. Thing is I had never used it until I got frustrated with the News app.

One advantage Flipboard does have is a web interface. You can see your feed on iOS and through a browser, something Apple News could use but doubt will have anytime soon if ever.

 

[sunking101]

It looks like they spent a few seconds on the homescreen icon. What a strange, dull and ugly icon. It looks like it belongs in iOS1.

 

[gsmornot]

It looks like they spent a few seconds on the homescreen icon. What a strange, dull and ugly icon. It looks like it belongs in iOS1.

They spent the time creating the Wallet icon.

 

[sunking101]

They spent the time creating the Wallet icon.

Yeah, they did.
Mind you, at least the wallet icon is bright, not the dull thing they call a news app icon.

 

[bushido]

i hate the app cuz theres just too much content, i dont even know where to start so i dont read anything at all. also way too much white

 

[dk001]

If you're like me, you're coming to News from another reader that you're used to using on a regular basis. In my experience each news reader has been different in the areas you outline above and for a while felt like I was being shorted by the experience but over time I found ways to adjust and like what I was seeing. News has taken time, like two months, for me to get where I wanted to be. Now that I am here, I like very much what I see in the News app. I have spent a fair amount of time selecting sources, removing sources, telling it to mute sources, etc. You have to do this to adjust the feed. ...

Or just file it away and stick with Newsify. At least there are options.

The freeze piece is a put off. Great reply though.
Since I prefer FlipBoard and Google News, I wish we could delete the app .... oh well.

 

[appledefenceforce]

Hm no the news app is absolutely gorgeous, particularly on an iPad. It is slow to load content sometimes when using data but apart from that when I'm wifi it's very good.

 

[tranceking26]

I don't use the app so can't comment much on it, but I will say that I'm sure Apple will be tweaking it in the near future, it's still fairly new.

 

[BradWould]

I wish I could complain about the news app but I'm Canadian so I'm not allowed to use it yet. I'll post my opinion in 6 or 7 years when I get access. Stay tuned.

 

[mjschabow]

News app is fantastic. I have no issues like you mentioned.

 

[appledefenceforce]

I wish I could complain about the news app but I'm Canadian so I'm not allowed to use it yet. I'll post my opinion in 6 or 7 years when I get access. Stay tuned.

Change the region to US.

 

[Paco II]

I'm surprised by the expectations of the app since it's from Apple. For me, I've come to expect nothing more than middle of the road from an Apple app, and the News app is very much that. It works fine for me, though I do wish it had an option for scheduled background updates so that it would be 'fresh' when I do my typical reading in morning and commute home from work. Refresh delay is annoying. On the whole I find it to be decent at what it is designed to do. Not great. Not terrible. Better than many other apps in this category.

 

[Dino F]

...sorry, but unfortunately, my experiences with this app remain *****, even after following the advice above.

• New stories STILL randomly fail to load unless I pull the screen down to refresh

• Screen STILL freezes for FAR TOO LONG when first launching the app

• Screen STILL randomly decides whether or not to jump to the top of the screen no matter if I touch the display or not
• App is just generally TOO effing slow (it will state at the top, x number of new stories and yet the stories which are still displayed are yesterday's old news)
• No chronological order in the stories - it has 1,2, 3 day old stories mixed in with 1 hour old stories

To reiterate, what I initially stated :

Apple's "News" app is JUNK


......back to Newssify I go.

 

[aldrinjtauro]

For me, the app itself is not bad, but the way it's used is horrendous. Opening headlines form Siri Sug. shows their mobile websites in the extremely laggy Safari Webview (with Google Ads lol), even if they use the News format. And there's not a good source of just Headlines and no opinion pieces. I just kept using Google Newsstand.

 

[LordQ]

I use the App in Mexico (with my phone's region set to US) but looks like Apple is now preventing outside use as I can't refresh my feed or search for new topics anymore—or is this something happening to just me?

 

[MistrSynistr]

I agree the icon is ****. It's strange, there was no thought into it.

Once the app does load and you scroll up and the stories work, it's fine...but as the OP said, getting there is a hassle.

 

[pentcp2]

Mine seems to often mark the story below the one I've just read, read. If you know what I mean. Click on an item, read the item, return to the newsfeed headers and find that both the just-read item and the one below (unread as yet) have turned grey. Anyone else?