WRAL News Mobile Reviews

by Kdiard

The articles themselves are full of grammatical and syntax errors, but that’s every local media outlet these days. The most annoying thing is WRALNews itself will give an error message almost every day (cannot load) and when I sent a trouble-ticket requesting assistance, WRAL’s tech support told me to delete it and reinstall when that happens. WHEN that happens? Every time? No thanks, I’ll just read the news elsewhere. (And it happens on three different devices with at least two bars-strength signal throughout multiple updates on two providers (AT&T and US Cellular,) so this is not a device-specific issue). WRALNews is fine when it works, just not sure why It’s such a challenge to use.

Another concern I can’t seem to get an answer for is why so many news stories click out to B-side news sites that moments into reading a supposed news story, you get a “You’ve won a FREE iPhone, you have 5 minutes to claim it!” pop up. You have to completely close WRALNews , there’s no way to close the pop up. Seems scammy and frankly, a little trashy for WRAL. I’m surprised they associate their site with clickbait like that. And from the list of stories on the main page, there’s really no way to know what’s real news and what’s not. Talk about “fake news.” *eye roll* C’mon, WRAL, you’re better than that.

by HCWoCH

I like WRAL News on tv, but WRALNews is very poorly designed and not up to the standards true journalism should be. Too many ads and they are placed right in along with the real news stories with hardly anything to distinguish the two from each other. It should be obvious when you click on a story whether it is news or an ad made to look like one. Also there seems to be no vetting of the ads. Many are for quack products or are just complete misinformation. They really tarnish the reputation of WRAL as a source for legitimate information.

by Aleaddict

WRAL can't even pretend to provide balanced news with the heavily-biased editorials and comics appearing on the home page of their app on a daily basis.

After over 40 years of watching channel 5 news, I recently switched to another triangle TV station and have found that I actually like the competition better. And I'm sorry Greg and Elizabeth, but I'm finding their weather to be much more accurate.

Thank you for all the bias, it guided me to a better news and weather source. I uninstalled all instances of WRAL news and weather apps across all our devices.

by Forgotten American 763

I deleted WRALNews as the news story’s titles where so twisted with bias. It was like a emotional child wrote half the standard news and the opinion pieces are always one sided with half/stretched truths. No one at this station could write a fact based research paper at a high school level. Emotions are not facts. I opted for another local stations app and they are more center with how they write articles and I feel they are more fact based and let me decide how to feel. WRAL wants to tell you how to feel. I also grew tired of small matters being over hyped.

by Cvick_01

WRAL was at one time the best local news agency. It’s declined started when they kept reporting through the national anthem at an event in Raleigh. Then come all of the biased editorial cartoons and news reporting. When I complained about it was stated that it was an opinion of CBC, WRALs parent company and that they would continue to put them on their website. I very rarely watch any of the news anymore. I try to catch the weather and that about it as I think the weather team on WRAL is awesome! I hope they change something soon! Because the people running CBC is running this once great news channel right in the ground.

by VOUser

In the settings, I have deselected all notifications for everything except for breaking news. However, I continue to get constant updates all day about traffic, weather, video, and what’s coming up on TV, even though I have turned all of those settings off. This application sendd dozens of updates every day. So I finally had no choice but to turn off all notifications. You need to fix the notification spam!

by KT-dissapointed

I grew up with WRAL. It was always the default TV channel at our house for news, sports & weather.
While growing older, I don’t think my political views have changed that much, but obviously we’re not in sync as much as before. I had noticed WRAL seeming to lean more to the liberal side of reporting a few years ago. Not just nationally, but statewide and locally.
You won’t notice it as much from the TV station as much as you do the with the website! The website was where I’d go several times a day to check the headlines and weather. Once they started linking opinion stories from The NY Times, it was obvious where the producers were headed.
And the political cartoons were always bashing Conservatives in office at every level!
Just when you thought they were getting worse, they “partnered” with NBC and took it to a whole new level.
Maybe I’m not as “woke” as they think I should be. I find myself streaming more TV and bypassing the political ads now.
You asked me to rate WRALNews and here you go. Wanted a quick glance at the tracking of the hurricane. Haven’t opened WRALNews in awhile.
I can get along without it.

by Wombatmatty

Lots of grammatical / spelling errors and TONS of useless notifications, even when I adjust the notification settings. Jesus... ease up on the notifications. And not just the number of them... but also when they come out. Example... get an amber alert notification. About 20 seconds later, I get a second alert saying the child was found. When I find reputable news coverage about it, it shows that almost 24 hours passed since the alert was issued and when it was cleared. Is this just the people behind the scenes blasting alerts just to get you into WRALNews ?

I also ‘like’ how titles are a little deceptive. Take one that talks about “local landlord, energy firm propose.....” When you click the article, it talks about MAINE.

And it’s odd how I download WRALNews and suddenly I get emails to the email registered for the Apple ID from WRAL sports fan... claiming I signed up for sports emails. No. I didn’t.

by Mbgrant0714

I’m not sure what happened or maybe I just didn’t really pay that much attention but over the years WRAL has become quite left leaning. Not far left just leaning quite hard left. In this day and age of everything from what kind of toothpaste you use (yes an exaggeration but) all the way up to the president. Anything that makes Trump look bad is highlighted. Stuff that doesn’t even matter on ANY level get put out there. Meaningless stuff. And the things that show him in a good light get either looked over or just a blip on the screen. Now I’m not saying I’m pro-Trump on all the things he does, says or tweets but since day one of his presidency its been all you can do to bring him down. IMO.
On another note, it’s a shame that the ability to make comments on some articles is disappointing. Maybe you can on social media but I’m not on any of that “crap”. I try to read things from the opposite sides of media like Fox News vs. cnn. Usually the truth lies between the two. My big plea is to report the news and not report left leaning news. That is what I wish for you and ALL the other reputable news companies. Thanks.

by Raleigh Waterboy

A lot of the news doesn’t get reported for a while after The incident happens, and there’s a lot of things that I see going on that’s never get reported in the news. Especially WRALNews it’s very unreliable in that sense. And don’t even get me started on the traffic for WRALNews it’s pretty much nonexistent there’s back ups and they’re not even reported on WRALNews or it says there’s a back up and is completely clear on the highway. WRALNews is frustrating but it’s not bad if it’s all you have

by D-n-w

Edit - I finally gave up and deleted it. It’s taking so long to upload any stories it’s ridiculous but the tipping point was this morning it gave me 7 notifications for the same exact story, one after another. And then after a minute it started doing it again with the notification slightly rewritten. If I ever find out it’s been fixed I’ll get it again but for now I’m done.

WRALNews is barely usable now. I don’t think it’s traffic volume on WRALNews . Half the stories don’t load on the home page and the ones that do don’t load when you click on them to read them. I let it sit and the wheel just spins. It’s not my phone or network because it’s not happening to other news apps. I hope they fix it. I don’t like the layout for channel 11 but at least it opens the stories.

by Therealmjfox

Even though I went into WRALNews’s settings and turned off all notifications except traffic, it still sends me at least three notifications early every morning urging me to watch the morning news and the Today show. So I had to block all its notifications in the iOS settings which is unfortunate because the traffic alerts are useful. WRAL has ignored tweets reporting this problem.

Other than that it’s an excellent local news source and a well done app.

by Ncmtngirl60

What is the deal with trying to share an article? For a few months now, I’ve been unable to share any news stories. Every time I click on the share icon, I’m kicked out of WRALNews . I thought it would be fixed by now with updates but still not. When will this be fixed?? I would give WRALNews 5 stars but this issue is big for me.

by Ncmuumm

If you LOVE getting notifications about interesting news stories only to click and never receive then this is WRALNews for you!
WRALNews is fine as long as you never expect to be able to actually find, much less read, a news story sent in a notification. I have deleted better news apps for less. I guess I will just turn off all notifications for WRALNews as I struggle to find ways to get me to keep it.

by Zznotopkb

Good app for a local TV station. Needs to be updated more often. Seems like yesterday’s news today and again tomorrow. Also it leaves a news story video playing on your Home Screen even after you close WRALNews on an I phone.

by Sparklezplenty

I’m glad you are back on the air! WRAL was the only station we watched for over 20 years!

Now a very serious question since I heard a person state…, we should blame this surge in covid on the people who are actually responsible…, those who are not vaccinated!! Please tell me how they can try to enforce a policy on the American public and mandate we take the vaccine when we have documentation from our physicians that we are 99% likely going to be allergic to it because we are allergic to the flu vaccine and the pneumonia vaccine?? I think this is a very good question and I think Monica Laliberty is the perfect person to ask that question and find out what the pharma company’s have to say about this!

by Redhead Attitude

Been fav TV station since Charlie Gaddy and Bob Debardelaben. Mr Bob came to Barton College (Atlantic Christian College) at that time and talked to my Nuring class about Cystic fibrosis since his daughter had it. He won me over that day.
And in April 2011 when the tornado came over Wilson right over our house, the weather call from Greg Fischer probably saved my family’s lives. I will never forget. WRAL will always be first in my heart ❤️

by Shotts Ml7

Compared to other local TV stations, the WRAL website is beyond compare. It is well structured, and easy to navigate. It always seems to be current, with early reads on new breaking stories. The information inThe triangle and statewide is excellent. Also comment on national events is rapid and comprehensive.

by Carleennc56

Comprehensive and informative keeps me up to make on news and events in North Carolina. I especially like the way it helps me to stay connected during our numerous and diverse weather situations here in central NC because there are times I can go a week without power and WRAL new app can be my best tool for staying connected to conditions around the area in those times. Thank you for your diligence

by TONEY-O

I love being able to stay connected and abreast on (breaking) news, weather and traffic!! It can’t get any better than having the news at your fingertips. Plus you can glimpse or see/read it in details. Better yet you can decipher and skip over what you don’t want to know. My favorite, the best, WRAL News Team💙

by ThreyaKhazâd

There’s no longer a link to live news and weather broadcasts. I depend on WRAL to help me keep my family safe, but without the link to the live broadcasts I have to go elsewhere. No other station has the high quality I rely upon, especially for weather. When a hurricane might be heading this way I need to be able to get up to date weather info! Please bring back the live broadcast link!

by Cheryl E Love

WRAL used to be my “go to” news source every morning for the last few years. Now.... it locks up more than it works!! Don’t know if it’s because it’s not yet fully compatible with IOS 13 on my XR or not but cannot scroll more than halfway before it kicks up and have to close it out. Average 6 times while scrolling. Emailed support and reported it last week but so far no response! I hope they fix this bug soon.... I’m running out of local news sources since WITN no longer works also!! Uggggg

by TwoBadWolves

I really like WRALNews from the standpoint that I can check the news anytime of day. Only issue with WRALNews is the NUMEROUS DAILY NOTIFICATIONS!! I'd much rather have one or two each day (with the exception of emergency notifications) rather than so many as it stands now. Even one daily "list" of stories from which I could select the ones that are relevant to me would be great. Love WRAL though and have watched them since I arrived in NC in 1994!

by RP/C

I have the 2018 iPad and WRALNews never displays content. On my older iPad mini it just locks up. I am running the latest version of iOS on both and have plenty of free space.

On my iPhone WRALNews loads but very slowly and sometimes does not load graphics for all the stories. This behavior started 2 versions ago.

by Cranky Jane 52

I used to watch WRAL. Many years ago when living in the area . Now I live out of state but still have many friends and family still there ...
It is nice to read about what is happening.
Helps me to be less Homesick.

by MameJohnston

Oh, how I wish the news didn’t start every broadcast with a police blotter report for 20 minutes. At least with WRALNews , I am able to choose whether I click to learn more about the latest body that was found.

by CatRNell

This yankee came to Raleigh in 1978. We are now 4 generations. From rabbit ears, to cable, then dishes, the web access, and now on my phone. I’m in Franklinton now. Y’all are still the best news, weather, sports and world family focus reporting.

by Brudersmom

Seems to be a lot of notifications at all hours. Going to look at modifying frequency since after I go to bed- it really can wait until the AM.