Addition of autoplaying videos on the main page is horrible. It wouldn't be so bad if there were a setting to toggle them off completely, or if the app remembered videos that I've already stopped from playing, but each time I open the app, the same videos start again 😤. I don't subscribe to a newspaper for video; if I wanted that, there are many more sources adapted for that form of media. Please stick to what you do best - print journalism.
Reviews for The Guardian - US & World News
← Back to The Guardian - US & World NewsI suspect that the 1 star reviews can be attributed to the far right. I just downloaded the app. It is incredibly easy to use, showing article headlines with the first sentence or 2 as I scroll down. None of my information has been requested from me. No special permissions were required. I don't even have ANY subscriptions. Something stinks and it sure isn't the Guardian.
The guardian went from an ad supported free website to something that gives you about 30 articles a month unless you're held hostage and want to pay the $10 ransom. No thank you. You meet your $2 million goal every year, instead of putting up ads you put up a paywall. I'm saving articles that I will read in a week when my limit resets. That's messed up.
Permissions, permissions - somehow I feel we have a fundamental failure from many developers to appreciate user perspectives on what a phone app should be. Having a technical potential to do something in an app is not a reason to do it. Are people clamoring for social-networking functions in news apps, beyond basic linking or quotation? I have heard no such thing. If you have daily user requests to track user habits, maybe you have done the right things with this Guardian app. If not, not.
Poor job of explaining subscription options. The paper is a good read. Problem is I bought a 6 month subscription but it only works on Android. I learned of the "10 pack" digital subscription that allows me to read on up to 10 devices only after I made an email inquiry and my initial subscription was fulfilled. I was hoping to read my premium suwon my iPad. There was no option in the android store. Big oversight when newspapers are dying from low revenue.
Previous version worked well. This one just crashes. Addition: tried two different tablets; it crashes on both. There was nothing wrong with the old app: now you have sacrificed functionality for the sake of flashy form. Update: looks like something got fixed - better now. Still not as good as the old version though... On a faster phone, much better, Beware users of old phones!
Balanced, well-researched, and insightful news, commentary, and investigative journalism. No hesitation spending money on a subscription to support this excellent work, even though they offer the content for free. Journalism of this quality is rare these days, and must be supported. I've had no problems with the app - it works well and is easy to navigate.
I pay for this news app because of the journalism. What irritates me is that like some other news apps, it is becoming more cluttered and chaotic. I might discontinue paying for it if this doesn't improve. Update-----I stopped paying for this app, was paying at the rate of $60 a year. I'm tired of being told "You've run out of your allotment of articles to read." I like the journalism, I don't like the stingy terms.
Love the Guardian, not thrilled with the app. Trying to scroll up often ends up with the article scrolling right or left so while you started reading one thing, suddenly, you are in a completely different story. It is frustrating bordering on infuriating. So much so I am considering deleting the app altogether and just waiting until I am on my computer.
I would like to participate in the comment section for some articles. This requires that my email be verified. The problem is that whenever I am prompted to verify my email, and accept the prompt, the app crashes. Every time. This is very annoying to me, but otherwise, the app is my favorite news app of all time, in terms of presentation.
This is the first time I've been moved to review. I'm on multiple media/social media forums, and this is the first one I Could. Not. Figure. Out, in the app nor the desktop site. It's anti-intuitive, disorganized, and redundant. Also, as a print journalist displaced by the economy, I thought I'd never say this -- but the constant attempts to get me to pay for a subscription are INSANE. I GET that journalism isn't free! But it's not possible for me TODAY and it won't stop. Uninstalling.
Well ever since the AP's app shot itself in both feet, I've been using the Guardian's and so far mostly everything seems fine with the transition. One very annoying thing though is in the main list of articles, there'll be something in a headline that is nowhere to be found in the actual article. Kind of frustrating to be lured into reading something when the actual subject matter doesn't exist. Please stop posting headlines with no articles to back them up, it's a very annoying waste of my time
I've been using the Guardian App for a long time, going back to the days when I had a Windows phone. Top-notch reporting, deep dives (long reads), football updates, and recipes for food and drink. You cannot find a better app out there; it runs smooth and in the info is presented in a clean, sleek manner. I've even been a paying customer (approx. $7/mo) for about two and a half years because I greatly value the Guardian. Highly, highly, highly recommend.
The app doesn't get in the way of reading the news, and in fact makes it quite convenient to do so. Smooth, quick. Plus, the Guardian is a really good paper, one that not only reports on a lot of events but also very significantly keeps What Happened in one article and What I Think About It in a separate one. Recipes and other human-interest pieces are generally very interesting and well written, and provide links for further research and primary sources (e.g. Lancet) where applicable.
Update--everything was fine until I logged in. Now, when I open the app, it freezes and I have to force quit I very often get news before I hear it in the U. S. Media. I love the in depth stories that The Guardian provides. The app is good but has some odd issues. It doesn't always keep me signed in, even when I don't sign out. Also, I get story emails and it doesn't give me an option to open them in the app. The listings in my categories are often less than on the website
The content is mostly good. Some of the opinion pieces are very suspect though. $10 per month is not worth it though. Time to move on after the pay wall... Ads not enough anymore? As much as you can opt out of tracking, the trackers are still there. I'm not sure how that works. Stick to the browser if you want to read news and protect yourself from the trackers through your browser.
Not better than web. The interface is fine, but I can't open articles in new tabs, and signing in is a little clunky. I'll just use the web version, which is already pretty nice in mobile. (Similar for the daily version; I can't really tell what the benefit would be, and sign in didn't sync between them so I'd have to find and enter my digital subscriber ID again.) Plus, I'm always annoyed by a prompt to review (though I appreciated the explicit questions about notifications when setting up).
Offline reading experience is terrible - PLEASE fix this! I guess maybe this is considered a niche feature these days, but when offline, when you click any article the screen just goes blank for 10-15 seconds, and you have to wait to see if it's downloaded or not. Surely the whole point of download for offline reading is that it should happen immediately! You must have a lot of people reading on the tube in London who want this fixed!
Mind you, the app gets three stars, while The Guardian itself deserves five. That said, I'm a monthly subscriber, yet the app imposes a limit on the number of articles I can read. I never bump up against a limit when using a browser, so I'm uninstalling the app and going back to the browser. I never could see what the advantages of the app are supposed to be. It's slick-looking, but that's about it.
UI since the redesign is poor. No customization and having the featured items at the top is terrible. It may work on the printed page or widescreen web page, but sucks on mobile. Now I can't even log in to my account, the app crashes as soon as I get past the password. I'm going to uninstall and stick to using the mobile browser for a while.