Review Insights · Google Play
Boston.com
Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC · 799 ratings · ★ 4.5
4.5
★★★★★
799 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 37 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"articles"
8 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "My experience w/Bos e editions are the articles are 24 to 48 hrs old. There is no refresh w/my google play store download" - A Google user
2
"updated"
6 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The app hasn't updated or changed stories in 4+ days. I've tried updating it, reloading and it's still frozen. Unlikely I'll keep it if it stays like this." - Deborah Beane
3
"stories"
6 negative reviews mention this · 16% of all complaints
★★★★★ "The app hasn't updated or changed stories in 4+ days. I've tried updating it, reloading and it's still frozen. Unlikely I'll keep it if it stays like this." - Deborah Beane
4
"news"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why is there no way to control granular notifications? I don't want the daily morning summary but want breaking news ones. This stinks." - Jeremy Krantz
5
"boston"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Was good but they blocked out link to Boston Globe and the Real Estate section is garbage now, a failing media" - Jim Sousa
6
"real"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Was good but they blocked out link to Boston Globe and the Real Estate section is garbage now, a failing media" - Jim Sousa
7
"times"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "this company is like a tick, hard to get rid of. D (Devon, the Brit version is even worse! literally cluttered my whole screen with mail... never ending. Had to cancel it multiple times!" - A Google user
8
"better"
4 negative reviews mention this · 11% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Why fix something not br oken? After the update the app crashed. Uninstalled until it's fixed. A new jazzy UI does NOT necessarily mean a better user experience." - A Google user
📋 All 37 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Crashes all the time
The app hasn't updated or changed stories in 4+ days. I've tried updating it, reloading and it's still frozen. Unlikely I'll keep it if it stays like this.
Was good but they blocked out link to Boston Globe and the Real Estate section is garbage now, a failing media
App stopped updating content as of 9/16/21.
Useless
news feed hasn't updated in a week, since last tuesday
this company is like a tick, hard to get rid of. D (Devon, the Brit version is even worse! literally cluttered my whole screen with mail... never ending. Had to cancel it multiple times!
This app is not worth it.. it doesn't have any local or National updates. this app sucks.
Obituaries won't open.
Doesnt give you full article. First paragraph or two then link to pay to read full article.
Ads are intrusive. Content not updated as much as on would expect.
But newest version sucks. At least 40%-50% is now filled by two banners/menus on the top and banner ad on the bottom.
Designer should lose their job
It's not a real app. It just sends me to the website where I get a 503 error
Shameful that a major news paper continues to show months old stories. The Boston Globe must think we are too stupid and are willing to read the same story for months. This app is not worth your time.
1. Uses too much data. 2. Sports articles, including columns, usually lack bylines. The reader should know who writes this stuff, especially if they're editorializing and not just reporting. 3. Often there are no paragraph breaks. Paragraph breaks are an important aspect of good writing. 4. Sometimes there is a link to an article, but the article is either blank or there is a huge distorted image instead of text.
Too slow to update news
This free app is worth every penny I paid for it.
New version falls short of earlier releases with repeated stories, failures to load and code showing up in the place of article text.
Installed...tried...Uninstalled, it's 4 April 2015, top headline Is they won't indict the cop for shooting kid in Ferguson (Brown). Etc.
Slow, way too many ads. Ads mixed in with the stories. Links that don't work. HTML tags where they're should be content. If this was a High School newspaper I'd give it a 'C'. Incredibly amateurish effort for the Paper of Record for Boston. Junk it and start over.
What's up with this app? Articles are almost always out of date or won't update. Sad situation for one of the original city-focused websites and one of the great daily newspapers to put this flawed app in the Play Store. Website works great but this app doesn't! Reluctantly uninstalling ...
Why is there no way to control granular notifications? I don't want the daily morning summary but want breaking news ones. This stinks.
My experience w/Bos e editions are the articles are 24 to 48 hrs old. There is no refresh w/my google play store download
Why fix something not br oken? After the update the app crashed. Uninstalled until it's fixed. A new jazzy UI does NOT necessarily mean a better user experience.
Not a real app at all. Just a collection of hyperlinks that you must open in a web-browser. I am quite ashamed for the developers of this "app". It is laughable.
Takes too much time to load. "The Big Picture" is not available in the app.
Are they even trying? The new layout is horrible. SO sick of seeing Ben Affleck and puppies icon for Culture. Why don't they change these! The index is terrible, stories repeated so many times. And why can't I ever find live updates of game scores? After so many years, thus app should be much better.
Poor performance. On the patriots blitz section the articles haven't been updated in over 2 months. It's as if this app is an afterthought for the Boston Globe
Half of articles are incomplete or fail to display correctly; almost unusable.
Few stories, seldom updated. Often lacks Bostn team scores next AM.
The articles are always out of date. They also repeat when scrolling through the list. On December 1 Weather Wisdom showed the entry from November 11!
Seems like some links do nothing - for example the keep moving section in health and the real estate section. I do like having easy access to breaking local news through this app, but otherwise it is a little bit of a hassle to use.
Layout is a bit clunky and could be better organized. Articles also repeat themselves very regularly and sometimes i see the same one 3 or 4 times scrolling through.
I liked the previous format better. I'm less likely to peruse the site now.
The app would be useful if it updated and had headlines. Instead, it's a series of pictures that you click. Sometimes the same two articles are listed two or three times in a row. Just a bizarre, uninformative, clumsy app.
Buggy
Sentiment summary
89%
Positive (4-5★)
3%
Neutral (3★)
8%
Negative (1-2★)