War on the Rocks

Made worse by the fact that my Russia Contingency subscription through Apple Podcasts is always glitching, forcing me to listen on this app.

War on the Rocks continues to provide excellent coverage and analysis of global affairs. However, this app is a miserable experience. As others have noted, the app is really just a portal to hyper-linked articles. Articles don’t stay open when you switch apps or temporarily put down your phone. It’s impossible to start an article, turn to another task, and return to where you were reading. Until this app is re-engineered to function like an actual news app (of which there are many great examples) I’d forgo downloading it and stick to the website.

I thought this app would give me the best WOTR experience. Once I log into it, all I can do is change my profile. There’s no way to get to content or anything in there. I have just spent 30 minutes ding around with it and I can’t make it work, I’ll go back to trying to access stuff from the website. For $150 a year I guess my expectations were somewhat higher. Content is still first rate, presentation poor.

War On The Rocks is an great, their app is not. The app requires you to sign into your subscriber account every time you open the app. It is not a stand alone app, but rather it simply routes to the website. Excellent content, but tedious app to view it in.

This App displays SIDEWAYS on my iPad. It’s a shame because the content is worth reading. Fix it if you expect iPad readers to use it.

This app is just a web client with a subscribed user login, produced by a company that is seeking to monetize as much content as they can create. There is an embedded audio player with a single control, play/stop. There is no ‘forward to the end’ or ‘reverse to the end’, there is no ‘reverse by :05/:15/:30 seconds’ and no ‘forward by :05/:15/:30 seconds’. The audio player does not have a list to display what has been played and what has not been played. There is a way to separate the audio player from the web client and from the interactive forum client. There are no other controls for either the web client or the audio player. There is a control gear widget, but all it provides is one control to toggle for Push Notifications, and the rest is information about the company e.g. ToS, Privacy Policy, FAQ, inquiries and tech support, and ‘invite your friends!’. There is no CarPlay compatibility, and no Dark Mode. So if you want to play podcasts in the car or read at night forget about it. It does not differentiate the separate content subjects. The web client does not remember state, so if you scrolled down a ways and then go to a different app on your device and then come back to the WOTR app it places you at the top again. It is missing many major European languages (French) and has no Scandinavian languages; it has German and Russian but no Ukrainian; it has a few minor languages (Polish, Romanian). This app is all about monetizing content for the creator with a myriad of subject streams, but with little attention to UX/UI detail for the user/customer. The app is (currently) listed as version 1.2.0, but it really should be at v0.5.0. Have to assume they did no user testing (UX/UI) whatsoever aside from the principals.

Already a member, love the new app. Much easier to find podcasts and follow discussions I care about. Love that they keep adding new member benefits & podcasts! Value has gone up significantly in the last year or so.

WotR is my go-to community for all things strategy and foreign affairs related. Ryan is well-informed, conducts great interviews, and is well respected in his community. This gives him access to really experienced professionals with deep institutional knowledge of said topics. Signing up is a no brainer.

Easy to download and works great (using on iPhone currently). Can’t beat the variety of quality content at users’ fingertips. The podcast intros and time sequencing are helpful. Perfect for a quick ‘read’ (listen) on the go or for in-depth focus on a topic of choice when more time is available.

Get this app If you like learning deeply about current military issues, especially the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This app is a platform for some of the most fascinating interviews and articles, both print and podcast. The subjects are all war related, with talks on everything from political influences to high level leadership psychology to discussing strategy of various battles we are witnessing in the Russian invasion of Ukraine. There is also a great section on China and much general discussion, going down many rabbit holes… all with top world experts speaking on their subjects. There is also a section for supporting members to discuss these subjects and the discussions there are quite interesting, with plenty of professionals giving their experience and thought.