Written Android App Review
If you are an Android Apps Review regular you know that I love news apps. We’ve covered CNN’s mobile masterpiece, BBC’s swing and a miss, and even Al Jazeera English’s amazing global news app that puts many others to shame.
The latest news app to cross my path is the ABC News Android app, a new app from one of the United States’ top news networks. I was curious to see how the ABC News Android app stacked up in my Android app review process. The results might surprise you.
Features
The ABC News Android app seems to have their act together when it comes to reporting the news on my Android. The app has a healthy mix of traditional print stories, videos and pictures touching on all of ABC News’ current hot topics.
ABC News
There is also a handy save feature on each article that pulls it to your phone to save for later. Stories may be shared through Facebook, Twitter or via email. There is also a dedicated video section, and a top news area that updates hourly.
One of ABC News Android app’s stellar app features is the local section. There you can view local reports and tap directly in to your area’s coverage, as long as you live in one of the 11 cities participating in the app. Currently that means residents of Chicago, Flint, Fresno, Houston, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York City, Philadelphia, Raleigh, San Francisco and Toledo. Sadly it does not apply to me.
So what’s missing? Customization. You cannot tailor the news topics or change the order they display in, resulting in a bit of a scroll happy home page.
Stability
In general, ABC News Android app loads stories, pictures and videos in a perfectly sufficient manner. I have not seen any app errors or experienced any freezes. I do have a problem with how the app handles updating news.
ABC News
If your device ever thinks it may have lost a data connection and you try to change news heading the entire ABC News app closes. I really do not understand the logic behind this. Leave me where I am, let me look at saved stories, something. Closing the app is just frustrating.
Also, the app likes to auto refresh on a regular basis, which can undo any scrolling or searching you do on a page. Tighten that up, ABC News, and I’ll be a fan.
Value
ABC News Android app is free to download and enjoy on your favorite Android device. Oh, I love free stuff! However there are occasionally ads that pop up at the bottom of the screen. ABC, you’re a gigantic company. You can’t afford to give Android users an app without ads?
I also think that the quality and quantity of news coverage provided by ABC is lacking a bit, especially when compared with other Android news apps. Still, the app is pretty solid. If you love ABC News, you’ll want this app.
ABC News
Android Apps Review Details: ABC News Android app is free. This app requires Android 2.1 and up. You may download ABC News from the Android Market.
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