App Profile: WRAL News Mobile

Kelllllllllllllllllllllll

Rating: 4/5

I think this app may have gotten bogged down with ads and I deleted it for about a year. I just reinstalled it recently and at least so far, so good. However, I have noticed that the interactive weather map is not very informative. It shows you what is happening currently- which you could just look outside. It also shows a progression of the past up until the current time, I don’t really need to know what happened in the past. What would be helpful to me is to see where storms are now further west and how it is expected to arrive so I can plan drives and avoid the storm. I do like that I think you can choose what notifications you get. “breaking news” alerts used to be urgent, almost emergency things and it got to where you would get an alert for the most mundane extremely run of the mill things and I was constantly getting bogged down with notifications. That may have actually been why I deleted the app a year ago. It seems much better now.

kdiard

Rating: 1/5

The articles themselves are full of grammatical and syntax errors, but that’s every local media outlet these days. The most annoying thing is the app itself will give an error message almost every day (cannot load) and when I sent a trouble-ticket requesting assistance, WRAL’s tech support told me to delete it and reinstall when that happens. WHEN that happens? Every time? No thanks, I’ll just read the news elsewhere. (And it happens on three different devices with at least two bars-strength signal throughout multiple updates on two providers (AT&T and US Cellular,) so this is not a device-specific issue). The app is fine when it works, just not sure why It’s such a challenge to use. Another concern I can’t seem to get an answer for is why so many news stories click out to B-side news sites that moments into reading a supposed news story, you get a “You’ve won a FREE iPhone, you have 5 minutes to claim it!” pop up. You have to completely close the app, there’s no way to close the pop up. Seems scammy and frankly, a little trashy for WRAL. I’m surprised they associate their site with clickbait like that. And from the list of stories on the main page, there’s really no way to know what’s real news and what’s not. Talk about “fake news.” *eye roll* C’mon, WRAL, you’re better than that.

Ami Berliner

Rating: 4/5

WRAL is, hands down, the best local news organization in the area. I have enjoyed their app for years despite the regular spelling and punctuation errors in their app’s news stories. A few weeks ago the app stopped working while using a VPN for online security and to prevent app tracking. This has never been a problem in the past. The app opens immediately when the VPN is paused. A Bug Report in the app was submitted which has gone unanswered and the issue has yet to be resolved. WRAL, please allow your faithful app users and viewers to use VPN’s while using your app. WTVD’s app still opens with a VPN…just saying. UPDATE: The app opens again when a VPN is active. Not sure if WRAL did something to resolve the issue or not, but thanks if they did. Now, if we can just get the frequent spelling and punctuation errors taken care of. **Rating changed to four stars**