BBC: World News & Stories

Hi I’ve been listening to BBC with my iPhone 6plus for many years. But recently after you updated the app, I could not use it anymore. The BBC app simply keeps freezing and I have to shut it down each time. Can you make your app usable for older version of iOS like before? Please!!!

I wanted good journalism not OpEds

In todays world it’s not acceptable that a News App does not permit you to select text or word to have it spoken by the device or having the meaning checked using the dictionary. That is just simply unacceptable.

Hello - have to say the new updated app is overall great and a huge improvement. One request is to have the app respond to swipes like most apps do: where you can swipe back to go to the previous page. It’s a little tedious to go to the top of the article and hit a very small button to go to previous page- this would make it much more intuitive and enjoyable. Thanks for the update!

The new format of the BBC app, despite my long efforts to find them, shows no improvements over the old one. It is worse. Much worse. And yes I did register, hoping an account might help. — The news feed cannot be customized to interests and the algorithm (both in the “All” and the “News” tabs) seems to feed me more items that don’t interest me, often veering away from serious international news items and into social-media type dross. I’d prefer to read about serious news, from skilled & intelligent journalists than be fed videos of people narrowly avoiding being hit by crane parts (isn’t that what Reddit is for?) This is not to say I dislike the lighter stuff and the regional stuff that BBC used to feature - I enjoyed some of those but I find a lot of that gone too, in favor of the same bland mix seen on FB or other platforms. The material on the BBC app no longer seems to come from the UK but from some content aggregator somewhere. There’s a lot of repetition and less breadth and less depth. — It is harder to find the good analyses that used to accompany the serious news items. There are (were?) BBC staff who do great work in contextualizing news. (Did Anthony Zeurcher et al all resign?) I used to like those additions to many of the articles I read. They’re probably not gone, but very very reduced and hard to find. Or maybe, those folks were simply fired - that’s kind of what this new app version suggests in its general turn away from serious reporting. — the app is more focused on video than before. Video consumption of news is for people who don’t work and have time for chatty time-wasting. I prefer the serious journalism best supported in written word format, which I can scan while I’m on hold or in other situations where video/audio is inappropriate. Also, I can scan or read a long article in half the time your silly videos take to drone on, in which they contain a fraction of the amount of actual information. The bottom has an option to see only video - I’d pay money for a button that excluded videos. It’s not that I never look at them, but that I never am glad that I did. Content density is too low. — The ads seem increased, longer (in videos) and more obtrusive. — The photos can no longer be selected/ opened and cannot be expanded. If I were 12 and was happy to view photos 1 inch across or else 70 and using a large desktop monitor this might be OK. One thing this change explains is the removal (or concealment?) of the themed photo series that u

Hypocritical and biased

You used to be able to customize the topics you see on your home page. I really liked that. I could see things I actually cared about. Not anymore. And also, it would be GREAT if I could choose what type of breaking news I get notifications for. I don’t want constant notifications about Wimbledon or the World Cup or whatever. I want actual important news about wars and elections and assassination attempts. But instead I get constant news about sport scores and actor deaths. I do not care or want this. I don’t really use this app anymore and I used to read it nearly every day.

What was once an independent voice is nothing but trash. So sad for a once credible source of information. It is now a stooge for the more radical left wing of the Labor Party. Will delete his app and look for something approaching non-partisan reporting. A sad day for English news. Now little more than a mouthpiece for the radical left. Glad I do not have to support such nuts with my taxes. God save the King!

The new version introduced months ago took away some basic, crucial functionality. First, an image can no longer be zoomed in to. This makes it difficult to spot details in photos. Second, text can no longer be selected. This makes it impossible to get to the context menu for looking up words or copying them for use in another app. Please bring these back.

I liked the old version a lot but now it’s not nearly as good. Bring back the previous version please!