LAist Reviews

When I open LAist it plays this app content but drops out and LAist freezes within a minute or two. Is it a bug or only me when I move away from my WiFi?

I love this app but my goodness the new app is terrible. Most chose, like this American life and radio lab, won’t even load, and I hate the new format where it’s hard to listen to entire programs like weekend edition Saturday. How do you even get the entire show to play? When you tap play entire show, it takes you right to a mini segment. A very frustrating user experience overall.

I cannot easily play the shows that are listed below the live radio option. I really don’t like this new version. I’m using other apps instead. Very disappointed.

Very often LAist never connects. It continues to show as loading. I try other apps to check connection and I have no problem.

This one lacks features and usability of the old app, for example, night mode, embedded sleep clock, ease of forwarding and rewinding shows. I miss the old app and wish you hadn’t forced us to use this version which is a step back in user friendliness.

I listen to the various shows as podcasts and before it was easy to see which ones I missed and need to catch up on. Now? No clue which I have already played. And clunky looking listings of shows. List should show dates / title and THEN more info if touched upon.

It’s no surprise that this app waited until just after a big fundraiser to turn the best public radio app I’d seen into crippleware. I wonder how many donors feel suckered.

On top of that: I don’t know if Science Friday has cut down to two days a week of programming, but you’ve cut down to only offering the Thursday and Friday episodes. If this was your decision, put it back! If this was *not* your decision, perhaps you should put up some sort of disclaimer so that you don’t earn the scorn of SciFri fans like me!

LAist tends to drop quite frequently! Sometimes it comes right back up but other times I have to go back to LAist and restart it. My iPhone is the latest and I have a good carrier with great coverage but that is obviously not the problem!

It takes forever to find my favorite shows, some don’t download properly and they don’t pickup where you left off. Useful articles but what I’m interested in most is listening. And this is supposed to be audio! I’ve got the NY Times if I want to read. So, sorry to say but this is not an improvement.

…doesn’t mean you should.

The “New and improved” app just isn’t. I’ve lost my favorites and can’t see the schedule. The sleep timer only works for live casts and there isn’t any dark-mode (that I can find).

I’m a monthly subscriber (for years), and have been disappointed with each app “update” as features have been removed and usability has declined. 🫤

LAist used to show which pod cast episodes I had not started, or had partially listened to, or had finished listening to. Unless I missed it, this really useful bit of information seems to be missing in this new version…

This is why you don’t listen to developers. Why would you release a new update coming in to December a lightly staffed month? The bugs on the update are horrendous - shows don’t load, playback is wonky, list of shows is incomplete.

This version of LAist has photos (totally unnecessary!); the previous version used to keep track of where I was in a podcast, so I could go back a few hours or days later, and listen from the point I left off — which was great and super useful

Several of my favorite podcasts are no longer listed with the available shows. They include Science Friday, Weekend Edition, and Wait, Wait Don’t Tell me. They were included in previous versions of LAist .

Loved since the KPCC era. But this upgrade is wonky. Certain shows are gone & when I listen (after the initial airing) Weekend Edition no longer flows seamlessly. I have to click on each segment. Maybe it’s just me.

Just takes getting used to but it’s not as user friendly as the previous one.

LAist was changed December 2024 and I don’t find it as user friendly as before. I guess I’ll get used to it since I use it every day.

I really miss the daily schedule of shows; now to find my daily listens I need to scroll down what feels like a presentation worthy of the wooden square blocks for learning children. If it has the option to sort by preferences or at least sort alphabetically-please let me know! Perhaps the ~option~ to view with smaller “icons” and ~option~ to view like a list would be nice for those who liked the small list the daily schedule (that didn’t require scrolling)? I do still appreciate the this app app a lot…I regularly listen to a bunch of shows on my schedule; it is a beautiful thing!

UPDATE (just minutes later) found the “schedule” under the drop-down menu!!! YAY!

It doesn’t hold a pause if you go out of LAist . So if you need to pause while you take a call or whatever it’ll start live instead of where you were.

Edit: Also, I understand its regular radio but Morning Edition repeats. I would love to have the option to hear the stories from the night before. I only really have the availability to listen until 11 and the noon and 6 PM hours always sound interesting. It would be great to explore previously aired portions. (Like maybe put the hours next to the program names in the side bar; also does the side bar have ALL the prior segments?)

Edit 2: OMG thank you for this new swipe left. Maybe it was there before. Maybe not. I just accidentally found it and it’s awesome and exactly what I want. Pause is the only issue I have now.

LAist is reliable and I have no complaints. There was a time when I could rewind and replay. I loved that option but it might have caused problems for others. Overall I recommend LAist and this radio station.