ABC13 Houston News & Weather Reviews

We only have a TV in our living room, however, I like to watch the news while I get ready in the morning, so I use the ABC13 app on my phone or on my tablet. There are several format issues, but the main one is that the “watch live” banner is so small that even with my petite fingers I often hit the story below instead. Also, there isn’t enough space between the watch live feature and the story below when you want to make it full screen. The little full screen box is in the lower right corner and when I click it, it’s the same issue. Very frustrating. In general though, the over all “look” of ABC13HoustonNewsWeather is a little “low end” and “jumbled”. It’s not very sleek or easy on the eyes. It’s not easy to find the story you just got an alert for, which is very frustrating. I also wish they would switch up their story queue when you watch a story and then it goes into another one. They use the same story queue, so it’s the same ones over and over again when there is an entire feed of fresh stories to watch. Much to improve upon in ABC13HoustonNewsWeather.

ABC13HoustonNewsWeather provides me all the news I need for the Houston area. One of the main problems I have is that I get an alert that there is going to be a news conference. So then I click on the alert and it takes me to the article. I press play to see the LIVE event.. BUT they play an ad FIRST before they allow viewing the live event. There have been several times that by the time the ad finishes, I have missed the live event. They should REALLY consider disabling ads for the live events. Play them all you want on the replay of these events. Play them all you want on stories. But by putting the ad in front of the live event you are causing people to potentially miss out on important information which they may be seeking. In fact after removing such ads they should verify against their competitors and could “guarantee no ads for live events”.. could be a very big selling point vs your competitors.

The only thing I like better is that video’s pictures doesn’t have the play button covering the middle of it before you play it & It is cleaner looking, larger, and clearer to view which is nice but the pervious version was organized better and had a better layout.

Also I’m not sure but I think I have to register now to view it which is horrible. I can’t view it it says it needs to connect. So idk?

The first video you view everyday shouldn’t have a ad for it. FYI it makes ppl not want to watch videos if they only see one thing worth watching. But the info should be all written below it.

Also I got to say Travis herzog this Monday total got the weeks forecast wrong and was the only weather report that that said what he said. “Pacific cold front?” It’s the coldest week I’ve seen ever for houston. You said no concern for freeze?!?!

I know the weather changes but you won weather man of the year. Step up to David Tillman’s level! ;) where’s Casey also? But I like your delivery Travis. But your lucky cheta got married or I would watch her still. She also got the closer prediction by a mile.

Maybe next time you miss the weather by this much you can help me cover all the plants at my job. Because I thought I was good but it’s colder now than I’ve ever felt here.

I have been in the Houston area for near 50 years. I have just now moved to the Spring-Woodlands area, and I have watched ABC13KTRK since the first time I moved to Texas. I think that ABC13KTRK covers the news better than any other stations. I am an ABC13KTRK fan and usually watch every episode so I can catch anything new, that only you all investigate. Thank you for all your hard work, I love ABC13KTRK, and I will always be grateful for to be able to watch you💝!!!!

Well they have really done it. They took a five star app and turn it into a two star lousy one. All of the important features of the whole App are gone. The new app has little to no organization end it is very hard to find a live stream option. Ads are annoying and repetitive. The greatness of the original ABC 13 app is gone. ABC13HoustonNewsWeather has a really bad design, repetitive continuous advertisements and no lifestream option, all of which the old app offered. I would not waste my time with the new version. I wants five star app is now a two star app and is now being removed from my phone. I am moving to KHOU's app. Not only does their app have a better design it is also more easily navigable than this one. Don't waste your time on ABC13HoustonNewsWeather. It is not worth it. There are better apps out there for getting news.

I give it 2 stars based on the news lay out and ease of use. ABC13HoustonNewsWeather caters to city of Houston ideology and does NOT represent a majority (area or population) of Southeast Texas. Years ago I felt as if “journalism” was reporting to the public important facts and unbiased review of current events. Not anymore. The “news” is really a condensed version of how the “reporter” sees the events using colorful adjectives to “put down” ideas and ways of life opposing their own.
Having said that, it is understandable that this is what journalism has become given the fact that social media is doing a great job at limiting speech and stifling views opposing their own. It is SAD that our children may grow up in this environment.
Real journalism should report on BOTH sides of a story which are based on FACTS.
I would encourage news seekers to keep looking for alternative unbiased reporting whenever possible and teach your children the same-

ABC 13 used to be my favorite news channel, I’ve watched them my whole life. My dad would watch the news when he got home from work and I’d watch too. It’s sad to see such an incredible newscast spin very biased stories. I hate to leave, I just can’t sit and watch this station turn into CNN. The days of getting the straight news with no bias is done. Cover the story, make the observation and don’t lean on one side of the other. Leave your opinions out of it, support the country and stop trying to create division or push liberal media. Many, many, many Americans are no longer trusting news sources, be careful ABC, its a slippery slide down hill. You need to remember ABC that half of the country still supports conservative views. Wish you the best, here I come Fox. And if Fox is doing the same, I’ll stop with them and no longer watch any news. Gain the trust of your viewers, spin the truth. If you don’t know the truth about the story, don’t air it.

As large as Houston is, as diversified, and as cosmopolitan, ABC13HoustonNewsWeather contains very little useful news about the city, the county, or the state. It seems as if this station is "going along to get along". The news stories lack depth and originality.
Way too many "fluff stories" hang around way too long taking up space for possible news that has merit and useful information. Where are your investigative reporters? Is the Houston/Harris area county devoid of lawlessness, graft, and any number of other problems? Your web site seems to give that impression.
For supposedly being a professional news outlet, in the 4th largest city in the United States, I have found more useful information in "Mom and Pop" county papers and/or web sites.
Shame on you channel 13 for being afraid to show differential performance.
It may be time for me to move on, relegate your site to the "cloud", and just let it float away.

Often times I’ll click on a story and a wrong video news segment will play. It happens a lot! Also, it struggles to go into landscape mode. If you try to put it in landscape mode it will repeat the 3 minute commercial, even on live feeds which is a pain because it means you are missing live tv minutes. Abc often times for the live feed you have to sit through a long commercial that isn’t even from a sponsor, it’s a commercial about KHRT13.... which is making you miss portions of the live KHRT13 news feed of an important breaking news event. Pretty redundant when you are already trying to tune into the advertised station.

I’m only giving a one star cause I had to give one! Just wanted to let you know that because of the the cancellation of a show that I like to watch made by ABC, I am gonna take a stand and cancel your app from all of my devices and no longer watch ABC at all. So maybe ABC will feel the devastating affects it had for a lot of other people in this world anyway I’m done with unforgivable people our world is going to hell in a hand basket and the media is playing right into it as well. So without ABC having any ratings because of this show does this mean you will be leaving the airwaves as well?!?! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander! Two wrongs don’t make it right! Treat others how you would want to be treated! Adios amigos! I used to love nothing but ABC13KTRK but I now have to take a stand as well!

I’ve been reading the news on ABC13HoustonNewsWeather for a few years now, actually look forward to it every day but the past several months ABC13HoustonNewsWeather just freezes, can’t scroll, can’t do anything and then all of a sudden it just shuts down. I swipe everything away and reopen ABC13HoustonNewsWeather , scroll back to the article I was reading to continue on. A couple articles later, it happens again and this continues on and on. I’m frustrated as hell and I’ve uninstalled ABC13HoustonNewsWeather , reinstalled but it hasn’t made any difference at all. Someone needs to get this figured out, I’m getting closer every day to uninstalling ABC13HoustonNewsWeather for good! I use ABC13HoustonNewsWeather on my iPad and my cell and have this problem on both of my devices. Please fix this!

I enjoy reading the news, weather and sports in your app, but the Apple Music ad needs to go or change the setting on it. When you are scrolling your app and if you accidentally hit the Apple ad ( which seems to be every time) it immediately opens your safari tab and the your Apple Music tab. Frustrating and put simply it’s just easier to get the news from another app. I understand the necessity for ads, but not ads that open other functions on my phone.

The negativity that is broadcasted daily on this station about the President and the whole Republican Party is dumbfounding. When a nation is in such turmoil you keep trashing everything except Sheila Jackson Lee who is nothing but a media w***e that wants to make everything racial. Try bringing this community together instead of creating and broadcasting bs. I have been a loyal viewer for over 30 years but now turning your station off!!!

Your videos are littered with ads, so much as content the story or video never plays. Not to mention your stories are the same 5 stories everyday, Do you not have any people working there ? The stories are poorly written with no talent in developing the story in lost within two sentences that are as plain and misleading. I don’t blame people for getting their news from other sources of social media like Facebook and Twitter when you are giving us junk to watch and read. I know it’s probably not your call on what story to write about, but at least make the story interesting rather than opinionated one sided garbage filler. Please work on these stories better.

ABC13 is my favorite news station. However ABC13HoustonNewsWeather needs some bugs fixed. It shuts down right in the middle of reading or watching. Not only my phone but also my husband’s phone. Then you have to open ABC13HoustonNewsWeather again and search for the article you were reading. Not liking it. Used to be 5 stars but not any more. If there’s a fix let me know.

I just recently added ABC13HoustonNewsWeather to my phone and had the notifications turned on. I really like seeing the news that is happening right now and not having to wait for the news on TV or keep watching online. The only reason I didn’t give 5 stars is because I can’t seem to search for older news stories. If there is a search function, maybe make it more clear in the future updates.

Waller Resident

I hate to give up ABC13HoustonNewsWeather because when it works it’s great, but I’ve opened it too many times to check the news only to find it crashed again. I’ve done the delete/reinstall several times and restarted my iPad even more times but these are only temporary fixes as results are the same in the end. Since this is the only app on my iPad that does this I have to conclude it’s not the iPad.

After numerous attempts to see breaking live coverage it would not allow without 30-60+ seconds of commercials. By that time it became useless. I understand d the ads for money but use it on watching previously aired items, NOT updates on active shootings or other important items. This is the reason companies got to cnn, fox or others. I like your station but if I always have to watch ads even during crisis programming, I’ll delete and just stick with ATT TV. I’m sure 99.9% would agree.

Took a really user friendly app and ruined it with this update. If I had known how messed up and worthless ABC13HoustonNewsWeather would be after the update, I would not have updated it, now its virtually worthless. Seriously considering deleting it.
Also to note, the advertisements and data mining is ridiculous...I read an article about a truck driver who became stranded and instead of breaking out some of his potato chip cargo, he went hungry...for months now I have been showered with truck driving schools, truck driver everything in my emails and advertising across the board, all from ONE article.

Ever since I moved to Houston in 2007 I became a believer in the mission of KTRK. They are dependable and consistent. Weather is handled in a professional and competent way with 5 certified meteorologists on rotation and commitment to giving you the best information so you can stay informed. Friendly anchors serve the news in a good way. However, KTRK's true strength is in its reporting staff. These guys in the trenches get the story and they attempt to get it right! God bless them!

Well, we would have given 5 stars but the latest update does not let us watch the news through ABC13HoustonNewsWeather for the last 3 days. Don't know if they forgot to turn on live news switch or whatever switch it is, but it is time to watch the news it does not come on. It just shows ABC 13 on the screen, also sometimes during the live news there is sometimes no sound, then it goes off air for about 5 minutes missing part of the news. There is still some bugs and glitches for ABC13HoustonNewsWeather , please fix.

Update: ABC13HoustonNewsWeather does not work unless you buy a new iPad. Now we cannot watch live news because ABC13HoustonNewsWeather has a new updated software. We have a iPad 2 and error message keep saying please connect to Internet, which we have and still not working. This should be able to use on all version of iPad, not a lot of people now days like to buy new technology when it is not broken yet. This how old folk save money.

I loved ABC13HoustonNewsWeather until a change that had videos start to play when I’m trying to READ the news. I don’t want to see the videos or have them randomly start playing out loud, so I just have to forego reading the news in public settings or when I need “quiet”. I’ve become accustomed to repeatedly clicking the X to close the video before it starts playing (can’t always catch it in time). It’s a real pain for those of us who are just trying to read the news.

I am such a big fan of ABC13! Everyone from the news anchors to weather and traffic reporters to the reporters and camera people at the scene of whatever is happening are professional and always make me feel safe and aware of what's going on around me. The Accu Weather APP has been amazing during this huge storm, Harvey, too. I always tune in and I am grateful for all that each person does at ABC13KTRK!! ☺️💕

Let me start this out by saying that I love abc 13. They are my go to news station, but can y’all do something about all of the news alerts that are phased out to the phones? I’ve noticed recently that y’all are sending out items that aren’t really breaking news worthy. I know y’all have to compete with other local news stations, and y’all want to be the first to tell the news, but there has to be something y’all can do. Maybe a filter for push notifications?

Why is it that ABC makes such a BIG deal over the immigrants trying to get to our borders ? Making it so sad . No one made them bring their families through such horrible conditions.
Why don’t you care about our American citizens that live in poverty . Even our veterans that went to war for you . There are children that don’t have enough food to eat .
You need to clean up your news. I can’t even watch it anymore and it was once my favorite .
You need to show some respect for our President . We the people voted him into office .
You won’t let me post . Are you afraid ?

I always get updates as they happen this can be good and bad but I rather know what’s going on than know what’s going on it is very helpful to know things as they happen and not have to wait to get home to watch the news.. so glad I have ABC13HoustonNewsWeather it’s very useful and beneficial in many ways so thank you for that I give 10 stars I’m so pleased by ABC13HoustonNewsWeather keep up the good work!

The new app is awful. Impossible to find traffic and weather and when you do finally find it the traffic has changed because it took 10 min. This is the worst app ever and my husband and I will be going to another station that has things in clear and concise order. Awful just awful... why?

Figured out you can disable auto-play, settings bottom right/video/never auto play) but now it crashes all the time. have tried reinstalling but
same. It’s very disappointing since review page covered with reviews re:crashes you would think they would try to push updates but they haven’t. Last update was 4 weeks ago according to Apple. Did ABC13HoustonNewsWeather dev team quit? Are they trying to save money by letting someone’s kid take on app dev as a school project? I guess if ABC13HoustonNewsWeather quit crashing maybe they could send a reporter to ask these kinds of questions!