Houston Chronicle App Reviews

UPDATE: While new version is better than past versions, rampant problems remain. I can relate to nearly all of the criticisms listed in iTunes reviews about this app. Why cant Hearst Corp/Houston Chronicle do better than this? NYT and WSJ (I subscribe to both) fully get it. Why doesnt the Chronicle? The only motivation for keeping this app on my iPad is so I can read my local paper while traveling. The app makes that a challenge. Current version has compatibility issues with iOS9.0.1. Lots of strange characters embedded in text - a problem being widely experienced. I like this apps delivery of the Chronicle but find the multitude of bugs and lack of support pathetic. When is The Chronicle/Hearst Corp going to commit to supporting this app? Until then, it will remain mediocre.

Try to use daily, works 2-3 days at most each week. Scrolling from section to section is hit or miss. Really wondering whether or not to keep subscription because my ability to have access to physical paper limited. Your completions news sites work flawlessly.

This app is slow, poorly organized, and buggy. It crashes frequently. Compared to the NY Times or Washington Post, it is a real dud.

Why is this App so big? It is by far the largest App I have. It is very slow and freezes constantly. Please make revisions so this is easier and quicker to use.

Crashes frequently, s-l-o-w to load, not responsive to changes in Sections.

Its gotten marginally better with the updates but still cumbersome and frequently crashes or hangs when loading stories. It has potential but not anywhere near the functionality and design of others. As much as the Chronicle pulls in, surely they can afford to bring themselves into the new millennium...

This is the worst app for a large metropolitan area to put out as the paper. Your sports section is woefully out of sync with what is actually going on in college sports As an example, no schedule for college games shows up in the paper on Friday. Its a disgrace This app is so bad that it makes Siri look good

....but the newspapers content is terrible. It is so full of propaganda and disinformation that I cant manage more than 1 or 2 articles before closing the App in disgust. The opinion pieces are so far removed from my viewpoint that I find nothing of interest on any topic other than sports and outdoors. I wont be renewing.

App constantly crashes and is slow also no access to HC website through other means is annoying

I converted my subscription over to the app, only getting a thrown paper on Sundays. At first I liked the app a lot. I did a good job of recreating the experience of the hardcopy paper in an app. Each section had several "pages" to flip through, and you could go back to a weeks worth of papers. My only serious complaint was that not all the comics were available in the app. Then the major overhaul came. Ive waited many months before reviewing it, but now its time. The overhaul ruined the app. Its no longer trying to replicate the experience of reading the traditional paper. Now its more like going to a webpage. While there are the different sections, you continuously scroll down rather than "turning" pages. The worst part, and this is pretty bad, is that the same article will show up multiple times in the "paper." In fact, Ive seen it appear 3 or more times ON THE SAME PAGE! Theres also no indicate of it being "todays" paper. You get the same articles appearing for a week. You waste a lot of time scrolling past stuff you saw 3 days ago. On top of that, Ive noticed now when i open the app it wont load articles when I touch on them. I have to shut down the app, open again to a black screen, then shut down a 2nd time and then open for the 3rd time to finally get the links to appear. Its bad enough Im questioning whethere to cancel my subscription. Ive subscribed to the Chronicle for years. Id go back to a thrown paper copy, but theyve raised the subscription prices for that so much, with editions getting thinner and thinner, that its not worth the cost. Im already looking at other Texas papers to see if they have better apps.

So overstuffed with all sorts of ads (banners, pop ups, etc) and poorly programmed, that reliably slow loading and regular crashes, sometimes multiple, are too irritatingly familiar. And its not the content, if one can ever actually get to it, is so damned enticing or well written.....makes me wonder why I continue to pay for the persistent irritation. NYT will download entire content and can be read anywhere w/o wireless access; not possible with HC.

I use the apps from the NY Times, WaPo, WSJ, USA Today, The Economist, Charlotte Observer. Each takes a different approach to displaying content. Each is far better than the Chron. With this app once it opens you cant immediately tap the first interesting headline -- nothing will happen! The Chron takes forever to load content (and forget about loading for offline reading, like on a plane, simply doesnt work). This app freezes or shuts down all the time. BTW paying $6/month gets you only access to whats on the app. If you click a link within the app to another Chronicle story, it will (try to) open the story from the web, but youll get the message that you "have to be a subscriber to read this content." Frustrating! Either the Chronicle used a summer intern to develop this app, or theyre intentionally trying be annoying. Theres no other way it could be this bad. If I didnt live in Houston and really, really want to read some of the content in my local newspaper, I wouldnt go near this app.

The app still stalls or crashes too often. Graphics (like photos of a news event) suddenly cover text for no apparent reason, and then wont go away to allow you to read the article. This could be such a great app. And there need to be more comics.

The app is unreliable for reading the news. I get notifications about interesting stories. But after clicking on them, it loads up a blank panel. Sometimes after waiting 30 seconds or more the story loads. Then typically the app crashes when loading the 2nd story. Ive tried rebooting / reinstalling the app, but it doesnt help. Other times, when opening the app fresh, it wont load stories and just gives me a blank screen with the loading bar circling around, but the story never loads. Sometimes I can move to a 2nd story which will load and return back to the 1st story and finally get it to load. The frustration of the app keeps me from coming back.

This update didnt improve anything. App is slow and unresponsive. Do you people ever test anything before you roll it out???

Today is November 25, 2016 and the Flavor section is touting the 2015 list of top 100 restaurants, some of which have been closed for a year. If the Chronicle is going to put "news" in its app, it should be news, not outdated information.

This could be a nice supplement for us print subscribers, but it needs a lot of work. Among other shortcomings, todays news is hard to distinguish from the laundry lists of past stories. This robs the site of the immediacy you expect from a newspaper. I actually preferred the previous design of the site, even with all its glitches. It had much more the look and feel of a real newspaper. Give me todays news organized by the normal sections of the paper, with an easily accessed archive of past stories, and Ill be happy.

I read the paper version then use the app for comics not in the printed version and to do the crosswords. I also do read some if the app articles especially if my paper version gets stolen. The app is horribly slow, crashes, you can no longer choose the edition, gives future days articles , some things call up web pages that dont load. Its junk.

Even the improvements dont improve much.

Has good content, but app startup and reliability issues. These are old and documented problems. First rate city. First rate content. Fifth rate app. Mgmt clearly does not care.