ABC News: Live Breaking News

Just opened the latest update and previously, after reading an article, I could swipe right, anywhere on the screen, to go back to the main page, with the list of stories. Best feature of any news app. Now, just like every other news app I have tried, I need to swipe down, to get the backup arrow to appear, and then reach up to the top left corner, to back up. I might as well use the CBS app, which I previously deleted, since the ABC interface was much more intuitive and cleaner. Now it it no different than the others, so any incentive to use this app is now gone. Don’t fix what isn’t broken. Just lost me. Bye.

I would rate the app five stars, but for two glaring problems. First, it makes you watch an ad before EVERY news story. I understand ads are the price of free here, but 1:1 ads to news stories is obnoxious. Painful. (30-second ad, 2-minute video, repeat.) Plus it’s the same couple of ads over and over. The other big problem is that, if you’re watching a story when they publish a new story, it kicks you out of the one you’re watching. Screen goes black, a new ad plays, and their new story starts. Really bad experience. Happens to me a couple of times per week. Not sure why these things are acceptable to the folks who work on this app, but they’d have all the stars if they’d fix it. (This review is for the app on Apple TV.)

I had to delete the app because there’s an extremely bizarre glitch it’s been having lately: it starts playing audio of a news feed, while the app is closed. And it’s nearly impossible to turn off. It actually drained my battery and used God only knows how much data because it was doing it for hours once before I finally realized it (my phone was on silent so I couldn’t actually hear it). It happens at least a couple of times a week. I like the news updates, and I feel ABC is better with doing updates than Fox or CNN or anyone else, and the app looks nice enough, but this has caused me to delete it. If it can turn itself on without me doing it, what else can it do without my knowledge? With recent security and privacy concerns about Iphones, it does make me wonder.