Flipboard: The Social Magazine Reviews

by Mystery Shopper #3

The latest version opens for a millisecond and then quits. I'm running iOS 9, and even tho info says it's compatible with iOS 9, I suspect that's the problem. Unfortunately, unlike MacOS, there is no way for me to go back to the previous version. this app, I will miss you.

UPDATE ON JUNE 6 -- Hi, Developer! Thanks for your response. Right before I wrote the above review, I tried deleting whatever version of this app I had on my phone, and then reinstalling it from Flipboard Store. No luck. It still didn't open. But then I tried downloading again a few minutes ago and BINGO! Flipboard opened right up, just like the good old days. I don't know which version I had a few days ago and which version I have now, and quite frankly I don't care. All I know is that this app is working again and that makes me rather happy. I am changing my rating from one star to five stars, to reflect how much I enjoy using Flipboard. I've got a whole bunch of "news aggregator" apps on my phone because I'm a news junkie, but this is my favorite. Welcome back, this app!

by HockeyCoachBen

Update - The official response from this app (not the reply they posted here but the email that they sent me)…basically they said “too bad you don’t like our updates. Politics are a hot topic and regardless of your choice, politics (and our political agenda) will always be shoved down your throat! Your topic choices mean nothing.”

I’ve deleted Flipboard from all of my devices. What an arrogant response from the developer!

Original Review - I was so excited when I saw the customization options added to this app in the “For You” section. I chose only a couple categories for my “For You”…sports, technology and cars (or electric cars don’t remember which). Ever since then, I’d say 80% of all the articles in my “For You” are completely unrelated to my topics and focus around a specific political ideology that this app is trying to shove down our throats. So, I’ve basically stopped using Flipboard . The update is a major mistake! PS - nearly 75% of articles don’t load at all after updating to iPadOS 15. Completely useless app!

by Agricanto

it’s been downhill very gradually over the years. Here are my reasons for using it less…
* Flipboard has gotten unstable and spontaneously quits for no reason.
* Every article now has a firehouse of adverts that make reading impossible. If you click on the no ads option below will not carry most of the images in the ad ridden version
* There are paywalls in front of many articles, even from sources I already have subs for like the NYT and WaPo.
* Rarely do videos actually run when embedded in an article. No action when you click on the play button.
* You cannot refuse to get articles from a single source, only a board category. So if you don’t want Fox News in your feed, tough luck. You can’t turn it off. You have to give it all up to lose one.
* Clickbait and really bad sources are all over your feed. Lots of sponsored articles.
* You cannot curate your select sources. Flip only offers it all, whether you like it or not.
* Clicking on the “mail to” icon when you want to send the article will always fail to populate the To: section. No other iPad app fails to make use of the send icon this way.
* If you have set your iPad to “dark” mode get ready for this app to fail to give you readable articles in many cases. This will persist through many OS changes.

There’s more, but this should be enough to let Flip know they have gone downhill. Hope the monetizing at all costs is going as you hoped, mo munnie, unhappy user.

by 444tiger

28 June 18 Update - 1. One of the remaining bastions for pop up ads. 2. Many articles display totally different than they do when one goes to the source article without using this app. Many articles I need to copy the name and then search the web, find the actual article to be able to read it. In this app many links, content simply does not display.

NOV 2016 UPDATE - still no developer response to any of the below. No ability to screen and refine, e.g. Screen to only US source articles in a specific category. No guidance for top most popular feed in a specific category. Some pages flip right, some scroll down, you try to go back and kicked out of the article entirely or back to the beginning of the entire section, many articles are just ads or riddled with ads, full of pop ups that your pop up blocker cannot stop, full of articles from other countries that you cannot filter out in settings (e.g. Only US sourced articles), full of articles that when you click them you get two or three sentences and then a link to subscribe and pay.

by Charles61

I have used this app from the time it was introduced. Until it was introduced, I used Zite to look up content for the areas I was interested in. I hated to give up Zite but it was designated for EOL status as an app.
I was happy with this app as it provided me with the content I was interested in. But this all changed about eight months ago. this app's algorithms for finding material has gone downhill. I find articles that no longer fit the areas that I am interested in. Despite numerous emails to this app support, they have done absolutely nothing to improve their algorithms. I have as a selected area of interest, the New York Yankees. I constantly get articles from this app concerning food, perfume, models, football in addition to the expected articles on the Yankees. This is also the case for other areas of interest. I know Flipboard is free but if it doesn’t the content for areas you selected, it is no longer a good app. I decided to write this review before I delete this app from my iPhone and iPad so others can avoid Flipboard.

by Awesomesauce.

I was looking for an app to provide me customized news based on my preferences. It was exhausting seeing negative news all the time either about coronavirus or politics that I wanted an app that can deliver me news just on a particular topic like art or design. Not that I don’t keep myself informed on other sources but I wanted to customize this news app to inspire creativity. I was excited when I saw that this app does have the capabilities to customize but this is also its downfall. Even while just browsing the art or design tags, I still received news on my boards about politics or other topics I wasn’t interested in. I knew this would be a possibility because some news items may also be tagged that way based on the article’s content. However, I tried to customize it further by using the “less like this” option. Regardless of how many times I have selected “less like this” of a certain topic, it still comes up day after day...despite those same exact keywords showing up as an option to see “less like this.” I really tried and gave Flipboard a good few weeks but unfortunately, I’m off searching for a new app.

by Mo398

I wish flip board would bring back the bar at the top of the screen. I constantly have to exit Flipboard to check the time or to see how much charge my battery is at. I get that you want to make a more “enriching” or more “ immersive” experience. But it’s annoying, and now with the latest update the default board is “for you” and I don’t like that. I want to see the news and what’s happening not what flip board servers have decided what I might be interested in. Use to love Flipboard now it’s just going down hill fast.

Edit: after your response I was able to get the status bar back (after Flipboard crashed 7 times) but it’s working now. Also the other point I was trying to make is that I don’t want the feed that you all are forcing on everyone. I don’t want/I don’t need you all (or your sever) deciding what content I want to see. I want you to just show me content and I’ll scroll through and read what I want to. Why do companies think that they get to choose and limit what we can see? Sure it’s “optimized” but really? From what I’ve seen the optimization is crap, and it doesn’t show me anything that I actually want to read anymore.

by Brt Grt

this app has completely fallen to the “curated” and ad-driven model that has made Flipboard no longer worth using. I used to love the convenience of being able to connect to multiple sources of news and articles in one place. I have many interests and do not follow a particular political party or ideology. Now, when I happen to read some articles that do fit a certain category, I get bombarded with more of the same. I go to an aggregator to have one place to look at a lot of different things, not to see the same type of content every time I look there. On top of that, if you don’t want to see certain ads anymore, the best option is to not touch or give any feedback on them. I’ve reported one site’s ads as being deceptive well over 20 times and they have become even more prevalent. If all I need is an API to connect to multiple sources, I can do that myself and at least only deal with the native ads from now on, and not have the content be narrowed to fit imagined categories that some statistical model says I should fit in.

by Blueber1237

this app is great. However...they may want address how many user comments are legitimate thoughts written by actual readers. Many comments connected to articles appear to be written by users with little or no flips, likes, or magazines...perhaps indicating no real investment into Flipboard or no desire to actually read articles...they only want a venue to
help foster disagreements. Many of these comments look purposely incendiary. Considering that many of these articles go on to be posted on Facebook or Twitter, this app may want to do its part to curb bots and “fake news” and encourage legitimate discussion rather than fostering division. Commenters who actually have flips or magazines are few and far between, indicating an overwhelming number of commenters are not real accounts. this app, please solve this, you have a responsibility to NOT contribute to division.

Addition: The comments are now even more prevalent and, if you can believe this, more negative and divisive from both sides. These commenters haven’t even read the articles! It’s ridiculous! These are definitely bots or trolls meant to drive up anger. this app replied to my last review that I could “report” these users. Are you kidding me!?!? I’d have to report ALL of them on every article. How is this responsible of you as a company?!?! What are you doing to curb this besides putting it on the onus of your legit users to “report” every single fake user?!?!

by Skoobiedoit

If you want ‘Outdoors’ news, expect lots of ‘Climate Change’ propaganda.
If you want ‘Political’ news, expect lots of Trump-bashing. If you get tired of all the negativity, you cannot put a thumbs down or ‘unlike.” You can click a heart for what you love, but the only way to get rid of the negativity is to ban that particular feed source.
I don’t know how they decide which articles to show, but it certainly isn’t according to the population of America, which is roughly 50% conservative, as proved by the last presidential election. I can’t help but wonder, are they are trying to give people the balanced news they want, or FLIP them toward what they want them to believe? Hope I’m wrong in doubting it.
I love the this app concept, but would just LOVE to be able to add specific blogs, publishers, etc.
Also, when I first set it up I was able to give it a few categories of my special Interests, but I see no way now to go back in and modify that, without sharing tons of information about myself by signing in with my Facebook/Google/etc. accounts.
Strange! It should be easy to go back in and give it specific topics or URLs, or just specify ‘fewer negative articles.’
Hope they’re listening— it has a wonderful design, and lots of potential!
Also, sometimes, after you interact with it, when you go back in, it flips all the way back to the beginning.

by 

Unfortunately the combination of algorithms and subscription only news pages make this beauty much shallower than one would hope. There is no denying this app is very easy on the eyes however the algorithms efforts to try and give you more of what you look at just end up giving you less of what you want. One or two stories on a given topic are enough when I am looking for the widest range of news on all topics. Further, I am constantly shut down by stories that look interesting only to find I am forbidden to read more than a teaser without subscribing. I would happily subscribe to this app if all of the content was then accessible without additional subscriptions! And truly at the beginning and end of every day there is probably only 25-30 minutes of new news worth reading so do I really need this app for that?

by Daeipovmp'ev

Having Flipboard over a few years, a trend has been developing any solidified. What was a quick convenient method to draw on several news sources, has turned into a popup advertisement nightmare. Frequently after reading an article within this app, is a popup for products, subscriptions, other websites you name it. It wouldn’t be so much of an issue but when you close the unsolicited popup, you go back to the browsing screen in this app and have to start all over by reloading the page you had almost finished reading but interrupted for a pop up.

The data usage is very high for an app supposedly providing simplistic pictures and text articles. The ads are proliferating beyond control. You are seeing more ad space than content. Not as content intensive as it used to be. Still a good app as far as convenience goes for multiple sources tailored to your interests. And by your choice I might add is something taken for granted. You have input here whereas similar applications don’t give that to the user.

by MattZombieBear

Love Flipboard , but any five star app need “Sign in with Apple”.

Displaying a Sign in with Apple button in your app or website means that people can sign in or sign up with just a tap using the Apple ID they already have, and skip filling out forms, verifying email addresses, and choosing passwords. Sign in with Apple provides a new, more private way to simply and quickly sign into apps and websites while giving people a consistent sign-in experience they can trust and the convenience of not having to remember multiple accounts and passwords. In cases where you choose to ask for a name and email address, people have the option to keep their email address private and share a unique, random email address instead. For developer guidance, see AuthenticationServices.

Sign in with Apple makes it easy for people to authenticate with Face ID or Touch ID and has two-factor authentication built in for an added layer of security. Apple does not use Sign in with Apple to profile users or their activity in apps.

by Hassaan I.A.S.

I’ve been using this app for years now as my main news reading app on my phone, and I do genuinely enjoy using it, especially since I can easily swipe back and forth between my smart magazines to find articles on topics I choose.

I recently bought a tablet and downloaded the same app thinking the experience would be better, but in fact it is not, its far worse. Unless I’m missing something, the emphasis is on the tags you follow and not the smart magazines you’ve created, which are practically hidden. This is terrible, and I’m not at all happy with the experience. Flipboard is still a good one, so I won’t rate it badly, it the difference between the tablet app and the phone app is too great, and with the phone app being far better I’ll be looking for another main news reading app for my tablet.

by Sam G In Austin Texas

I first installed this app on my iPad in 2011. It was one of the first apps installed on my first iPad, and I’ve used this app more or less every day since August 2011, through the present (February 2021). I find this app indispensable to using my iPad. this app’s staff skillfully curates a very broad range of news about current events and also features a huge variety of special interest magazines and articles, and is markedly superior to all other news magazine apps I’ve seen. I am often surprised by how quickly this app posts news about current events, usually incredibly rapidly after the reported events have occurred or first appeared in source media. My iPad would be much less useful, and much less fun to use, if this app were ever unavailable to me. Thank you this app staff for making and maintaining such a great app.

by JamKlatt

Starting to become dated..Absolutely love the update having a month to make magazines is just divine. Staying at 4⭐️ stars still miss Still an sore - my primary this app screen. Begging and Pleading - Please, please, please bring back the old this app screen somewhere inside Flipboard .
I love the extra stuff but if there could just be an option to have it on the bottom of the menu? I want to click Flipboard and have big and little pictures flip down animation for new stories. This isn't rocket science, I'll pay to have the feature back. Why change something that's not broken? Please this app!!

New this app 4⭐️ - This is by far my favorite app but this new update is disappointing with removing the primary page. I've been with you since iPad 1 and the best day ever was when it hit the iPhone. What is this? It's less flippy, now I have all of this useless extra white on the top of my dashboard stating "following" instead of a gorgeous layout that took over the entire screen.

Old this app 5⭐️ - This is by far the elite news reader, and it's all the information u want to read. You make your own newspaper...I always tell people to download first when they get a new iPad or iPhone. Keep up the good work, u have my attention ❤❤❤❤❤❤😃😜😃❤❤❤❤

by Tyson1818

This has been one of my most used apps for awhile. However with the new auto play video ads it might need to go. Even if you watch the full ad you still have to tap the x at the top left and with the iPhone plus it’s kinda annoying. If it happen once every in awhile no problem, but it’s the same video ad after every 5-7 flips. PLEASE improve or remove this. I know Flipboard is free and nothing in the world is truly free, but make it more user friendly with the ads

UPDATE :
Since posting this review this issue appears to be resolved or close to it. I still use Flipboard every day and appreciate the hard work it must take to make such a great app. I don’t mind ads I know they pay the bills, just didn’t like the way it interfered. All is good now, thank you!

by Gary LaPointe

If you have not tried Flipboard, you must try it out!

It's very graphical and pretty on my retina iPad and my 12.9” iPad Pro. Generally works very smoothly. Could cache the data a little better / faster, I've got fast internet at home, but sometimes it's slow updating and if I just spent a while reading the last entry, seems like it could read ahead a little bit, it could make the experiences so much better...

BUT be careful if you have a cellular connection! this app (being so graphical and beautiful) is a HUGE a data hog (assuming you're viewing something graphical and not text) so if you're on a low data plan be careful. I used over 10% of my 250MB data plan in less than 5 minutes (I tested this again at the end of this month, just a few minutes and 50MB of data was gone!). This is NOT a flaw, it's just the way super graphical apps are, but it goes SO fast I wanted to point it out.

Because of the retina display it "shrinks" some graphics too small (like animated GIFs in Tumblr pages) and it's too hard to read. Needs some user adjustment on that (what size to shrink to retina proportions) and to size text. It shrinks things WAY too far on the iPad Pro.

It’s got a great search option that searches a variety of sources all at once.

I don't think it's as useful on the iPhone for browsing, maybe if you went to a specific section, but I'm still not sold on that yet...

by _hauk

this app asked me to rate Flipboard in an in-app pop up. Trying to submit 1 star was not allowed. That’s a bit shady. What I don’t like is that Flipboard sends you to the publisher to read the article. This is bad because any ad-blocker u might have installed in Safari does not work in Flipboards “web-browser”. So to read an article you end up downloading megabytes of ads and ad-tracking scripts from every publisher. That is, unless the publisher has an agreement with this app, in which case this app inserts its own full page ads you cannot pinch out of. The whole this app experience can therefore be very _bad_ for your data plan and for your privacy. That said, this app is very useful and gives you the opportunity to browse through articles within topics of interest in a very nice way. Apples own News app is a strong contender though, but for now I do prefer this app.

by Fairfax Reader

I’m leaving my original review below in an effort to provide transparency to anyone else experiencing this issue. I love this app. Probably my most used app. Have used for years and years. I was really upset when the recent upgrade eliminated all of my feeds. Dropped my usage to almost zero. Posted a review here and this evening was alerted that the developers responded to my review and it let me know there was an update.

As of now all of my feeds are back and it’s the same old news feed that I know and love. What a relief. Thanks for being so responsive and fixing whatever went wrong. Updating my review to reflect how much I enjoy Flipboard and especially the responsiveness of the developers.

this app was probably the first app I downloaded on my very first iPad. I’ve spent years curating which feeds I wanted to follow and as of this week”s update, it is all gone. All of my magazines are wiped out. Worthless after the latest update.

by Nexus6man

There are so many bugs in strange things that occur with Flipboard it’s hilariously stupid. Anytime I comment on a news story and then other people comment I get all of these strange notifications saying that I need to unmute hidden stories, and Flipboard resizes itself to a quarter of the screen down on the right hand side of the phone. This is been an ongoing issue for at least a year or two, through numerous iOS updates and numerous this app updates. Not to mention the fact that the site doesn’t seem to be well monitored; in the sense that the amount of trolls that exist and horrible, nasty comments that are made that never get dealt with by this app, other than muting the offending person. All in all I would say that this app has turned into a news cesspool.
P.S. I am very disgusted with your advertising policy! The ads are far too numerous and if you even touch one of them, even trying to flip past it, it launches Safari! This is highly unethical! PLEASE STOP THIS OR I’m UNINSTALLING this app!!!

by Ewill20

The new app design, which I opted to try, scrolls instead of flips which sort of goes against the original idea. The original app was great, easy-to-use and customize. Over the past few years Flipboard has gotten increasingly more difficult to use with some settings buried in non-sensical places. Flipboard is also ridiculously littered with ads, it’s very frustrating seeing multiple ads at one time. Another gripe I have is Flipboard seems to highlight or push articles by the New York Times and others that cost money and have a pop-up blocking the article. They have other news agencies that don’t charge for a subscription buried or not shown at all. When I try to mute these sources (one setting that’s annoyingly difficult to locate) they don’t always get muted. I’ve always liked Flipboard for aesthetics and having so many sources in one place, but the changes they keep implementing is making Flipboard worse, not better.

by Sconnell2

Flipboard is not as good or user friendly as the 5-star Zite app it consumed and killed, but it is OK a for finding news on specific topics that may be of personal or professional interest, often that you may not find elsewhere (the main reason I use Flipboard). There seem to be some bugs involving sharing via social media where the headlines don't show up, just an abbreviated link. The web interface on a desktop is sometimes better & more usable than the iPhone app in some ways. Linked articles where ads cover so much of the screen I can't see the article & the ad won't close without opening in safari can be a problem. Also, I have subscribed to a bunch of "channels" that seem to have gone dormant with no new content for months & find that it's difficult to unsubscribe or even move them to the bottom so they're at least out of the way. Would be nice if it were easier to organize or delete these saved topics (especially for those of us who follow a lot)

by Gary LaPointe Http://GarySaid.com/

If you have not tried Flipboard, you must try it out!

It's very graphical and pretty on my retina iPad and my 12.9” iPad Pro. Generally works very smoothly. Could cache the data a little better / faster, I've got fast internet at home, but sometimes it's slow updating and if I just spent a while reading the last entry, seems like it could read ahead a little bit, it could make the experiences so much better...

BUT be careful if you have a cellular connection! this app (being so graphical and beautiful) is a HUGE a data hog (assuming you're viewing something graphical and not text) so if you're on a low data plan be careful. I used over 10% of my 250MB data plan in less than 5 minutes (I tested this again at the end of this month, just a few minutes and 50MB of data was gone!). This is NOT a flaw, it's just the way super graphical apps are, but it goes SO fast I wanted to point it out.

Because of the retina display it "shrinks" some graphics too small (like animated GIFs in Tumblr pages) and it's too hard to read. Needs some user adjustment on that (what size to shrink to retina proportions) and to size text. It shrinks things WAY too far on the iPad Pro.

It’s got a great search option that searches a variety of sources all at once.

I don't think it's as useful on the iPhone for browsing, maybe if you went to a specific section, but I'm still not sold on that yet...

by Logan Shepard

If nothing else, Flipboard alone is worth getting an iPad for. Getting all your news in the coolest of ways makes Flipboard useful beyond bounds. They're always adding new sources so it's always interesting. The presentation and view on the iPad is absolutely beautiful, but that's not to say its not great on my iPhone as well! I love Flipboard!

**Update** 24 September 2017
I wrote my original reviews of this app ages ago when Flipboard first came out. I have been a supporter ever since. However, since the previous major update, it was less intuitive and less attractive to use with its large cover page cards and bulky interface. Long-time users will be happy to know that that “traditional” this app viewing experience is back and beautiful as ever for iOS 11! Love it again.