Patch Reviews

I’ve really appreciated having Patch. I come from a large family that’s spread out so it’s nice to know what’s going on in the communities where my siblings and parents live. I’ve also moved around a bunch and it’s been nice to keep tabs on the local news of where I used to live. The reason I gave it 4 stars is because a few weeks ago it started getting glitchy and wasn’t loading new articles and the few articles I booked marked disappeared. I had to uninstall and reinstall it to get it working. iOS recently did an update so that could have been why but I was still disappointed I lost the articles I had saved.
Update: it’s glitchy again, not giving me updated local information and deleting my bookmarks. This is the second time in just a couple of months it’s doing this. If this is happening because of updates on my phone then I will have to delete and reinstall it every time.... that’s really frustrating. I love what Patch provides but extremely disappointed in how its operating.

Patch was great before this update. Now it looks amazing but I can’t sign in. There is no sign in section like before and when I open Patch after enough time, it makes me pick my this app/s like a new user. I also tried to get help from the feedback and it got sent back to melt email because it can’t receive messages. If I can sign in again I will gladly change my review to 5 stars. The reason I went as low as 1 is because when you break main functions of an app, it’s worthless. It’s like having a kindle app that all of a sudden can’t open ebooks. Saving my settings and bookmarks is a major part of this app. Please fix so I can rate it what it deserves when it functions properly! Thank you.

Your writer has outed, not by name, but by location, restaurants that still offer indoor dining. To what end? Is the this app our savior to keep us all knowledgeable and safe from Covid? Does the this app not believe those choosing to dine in understand their personal Covid risks more than the this app does?
Has the this app looked at the constitutionality of the Governors Covid mandates? He has a time limit to act unilaterally but that expired months ago. Did the “journalist” writing the outing piece speak with the owners of the restaurants accused of the violations? No quotes were given, but he obviously spoke with the police in an effort to shut down the indoor dining. And he pointed county authorities to a small subset of county restaurants to target.
The action of the “journalist” to tattle on restaurants trying to stay in business is despicable. Does the this app advocate neighbors tattling on neighbors? Gee, where did that happen in Europe in the late 1930’s and how did that turn out?

I’m turning off the this app now. You have lost me as a reader. You’re unnecessary.

I gave it another look after the Developer urged me to give it another try. Still useless. Absolutely nothing here I haven't already seen reading my local papers. Why bother wasting my time to click on links to articles I have already read? I'm done!

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The navigation with the upgrade is a pain in the rear. But more important, at least for my 'hood, the stories are boring and useless. Poor subsets of what I can read in the paper. And that assumes I can even get stories to load. Most of the time Patch says there is a connection error with the server. It is June 29 and the stories displaying are mostly from mid-May. Useless!!!

I signed up for this app emails for local news updates in the small town I live in. Those emails were clickbaity (open the email, read a teaser, click on “read more,” and get taken to a collection of articles where I have to click yet again on the one I want to read). Taking a reader through that many clicks made it seem like that’s all they were after. So I downloaded Patch and went through the town selection, opted in for alerts, clicked “let’s get started,” etc. to finally read some local news. The next time I got an alert from Patch , this app made me go through the entire town selection/set up alerts/click click click process as if I had never set it up before. And this is after clicking on an alert *that Patch sent me*. Next day it did the same thing. After a few days of this I deleted it.

…due to inability to create a this app for my neighborhood, which is in the largest city in my county. It refers me instead to a little town kinda far from me and in a different county. The town they pick is really just a small unremarkable suburb of a thriving metropolis. Oh, and it refers me back to this small suburban town over anywhere else in my entire county or city when I try to make a this app for my neighborhood. I have no interest in or connection with said suburb, but cannot create a this app for anywhere else closer to me.

I have written them several times with zero reply. So I guess if you live in one of the few places their random choosiness allows for the creation of a neighborhood this app, maybe Patch would be okay. As of now, it’s pointless.

Patch does a solid job of providing local news content you might not find a more common news app. However, something has went drastically wrong with the latest version of Patch , as several of the stories will not open when you tap on the link, and Patch freezes at that point. The problem seems to crop up most often with articles providing links to multiple news stories. I can get into the capsule summary but if I try to click on any of the links to read more specific details about a specific story, the article will not open and Patch freezes.

Only question i want to ask is why i can’t comment on the article that was written because of that I am giving 2 stars and one more thing that i don’t like is that this app is giving me 2 same emails for example i got 2 emails for 19 year old who died for his funeral. I actually wanted to comment on 14 year old girl who was found in New York safe about her mom being charged but every time i want to comment on something it’s not giving me please i want to comment on articles please fix that and i am giving you 5 stars rating and please just send me one email not 2

After town is selected and notifications enabled tabs at bottom of screen do not speak when navigated (minor problem). Headlines speak but articles under them do not speak. If articles are pixilated pictures there’s nthing this app developers can do to improve this situation though. Please test Patch with VoiceOver turned on and both look and listen as you go for mismatches between what you see and what you hear. Those mismatches will be the VoiceOver accessibility problems and yu may even find more than I found.

Keeps me locally informed, yet I feel that it’s a bit behind in user friendlyness. Patch feels a bit difficult to maneuver, but I do believe it is great, but young for online/iPhone information. It shows I have 2 messages, and I can not clear 2 even though I went through, all all articles. I believe it is technical thing that will be fixed as the this app grows. 4 stars because it’s the only online local news, that I feel gives true fast local news. I would give it 5 if better technically advised. Today’s user’s need the simple, fast, and easy.

At least it doesn’t make all of the content disappear completely from the page whenever I scroll down “below the fold”, like the website does. Still, it’s a bit frustrating when there’s a link to an external document and the only thing Patch lets me do with the link is to open it in their built-in browser, which does NOT display the URL or make it accessible in any manner that I can identify. The result is that whatever third party source (document, web page, article, whatever), that I am looking at cannot be saved or shared or even located outside of Patch , without Googling it from scratch.

I love Patch! It keeps me up to date on the latest headlines for my area. I get more news about my area through the this app than I do on our local news on tv. So I thank you all for that! Keep up the great work!!
The only thing I’d like to see is more cities in New Hampshire added. Like, Berlin, North Conway, Hampton, Manchester. That’s the only thing I have to add. Thanks again for all of your hard work everyone!

this app is very current with daily information. I was attempting to get my Covid 19 shot and things were kind of crazy. Each day there was new information on this app that helped you to maneuver what was actually happening. It gave me great confidence and direction to make plans. It also allows me to be updated to other areas in which family members live. Because it is so current, I am able to inform and share Patch with others.

The is the best app I have found for local news and events - including restaurant openings/closings and inspections; local politics, and local events. Regular weather, transit changes and real estate features. However, we have two homes so I have noticed some articles are duplicates among cities. Also some article are local and some are statewide (like events), which I wish were more local. Overall, a great app.

I’m new to the Pittsburgh this app and live in Jefferson Hills area. I tried a few from the South Hills area and deleted the Apps, not living in those areas, the information wasn’t relevant to me.

I’m a member of the Carnegie Museum and I do go into Pittsburgh frequently and I like news of Pittsburgh.

The Pittsburgh this app seems to cover a wide range of information....very satisfied with the content. As far as I’m concerned it’s an excellent hidden news source.

I use Patch daily, I fact..more than once, daily.
I’m not the”review type”.
I’m more the Talk to my friends, family. Like I’m telling them about something that will enhance their life, save time, or at least reference, the LOCAL 411!!!!
The rapid delivery Of local newsworthy information, directly relevant to my life! And my comfort. Not to mention more times than NOT, MY safety, as well as my loved ones
Way to go with this local info app

I don’t understand why all the apps can’t allow what the this app does. I have family and children all over the USA and this is the only one that will let me subscribe to all of those areas. I use to have to make 4 different users and be verified while actually visiting the are by location finding software or wasn’t allowed to see. I think it’s wonderful Patch it gives me much more than I could of asked for! Thumbs up 👍

Easy and intuitive interface. Does NOT spam with too many alerts - only ‘high-interest’ news events/stories pop-up with an alert (of you enable alerts).

this app, strangely enough, is not available for my town/county. However every other town/county surrounding mine is covered - so I still get worth-while info.

5 stars, because I suspect my town/county is just not worthy of this app - not holding this against an app. Where can I go to rate government now?

I was getting the emails and then decided to try out Patch . I’ve been using it for quite some time now. I love the ease of use, that I can get events, news, updates on news, entertainment and other goings on in my community all in one place. I’m also impressed with how fast important alerts are received and the follow ups. Patch is fantastic at keeping me informed in every way. It runs great and I am very happy with it. Kudos to the team who keep Patch running top notch!

Newspapers today are not what they used to. One minute you’re reading a local article, the next an article about something that happened in Timbuktu. It’s more of a one size fits all. Seems the only thing that changes is the masthead. Local newspapers don’t exist. They’ve been consolidated under giant publishers. this app brings back the look an feel
of the paper that used to be waiting at your front door.

Patch continues to improve. 4 Stars now. It still lacks two major functions.
A search function for old stories that weren’t bookmarked.
Pictures need to be expandable. Weather maps and some other pictures are way too small to see any detail on an iPhone.
There are still occasional issues with links taking you to the wrong location and stories that were read still showing up the next time Patch is opened.
As for the content, spelling, grammar, editing, sensationalism and political bias, this app is on par with Newsday. That’s a fairly low standard.
Basically the Push Notification gives all the info I need for local news. Reading the story is usually unnecessary.

Great local news! It’s nice to see local/neighborhood news on the Internet. I hate watching it on TV — terrible. The only criticism I have is the “neighbors” who post the same thing over and over (e.g., photography of aging in NYC). However, the benefit with Patch is that they are identified as “neighbors,” distinguished from the reg folk. Overall, Patch is very helpful. I’ve received notifications about gas line maintenance when my super has not.

I have been using Patch for quite some time now and I find that it is quite amazing. It is great for reading local news that normally is quite important. I look at it every day to read local news and I prefer it more than ANY other news app. I also love how you can just search for a place that you want to read news about instead of scrolling all the way down just to read one story like you do on other apps. this app is an incredibly useful and resourceful app.

By Juliacat

I normally don't write reviews, but I'd like to see Patch get more positive ratings because it's the BEST local news apps I have EVER used! I don't even know where I would go to get the aggregate of local news information this app provides for as many local areas as you like. this app let's you add multiple neighborhoods, so you get the latest news for that AREA, which is really where Patch shines. From changes in parking rules to local accidents to subway closures to weather-related events, I've never seen a smarter or more sophisticated news app! I live in NYC but also have a place in the south, so I set up this app for that area, then we had the string of Hurricanes last year, and this was the ONLY app that provided me with crucial updates on my neighborhood conditions, as I was not there during the storms and had no way of knowing the damage to my local area. Things like which roads remained closed, which were recently cleared, where there were downed trees, if bridges were open, local curfews and garbage pickup. These may sound like small things, but you seriously can't get this info from other sources, and it's all organized in ONE PLACE! this app gives you the stuff big news conglomerates don't care about. If you want more than crime and politics in your news feed, then this app is Patch for you! Thanks, devs!!

I don’t usually go past the stars rating but I feel strongly about Patch. I’m very impressed by the amount of “local” information I can access using this app. I have access to news, activities and all things that influence my area. It’s precise to my location in one click and easy to read. Im spreading the word and hope more find and use this worthy app. Keep up the good work this app staff!

There is one email I don’t mind seeing in my inbox all the time and that’s the this app. The news they report is genuine and you can tell right away whomever wrote it took the time to check facts, etc. Feels like a real journalism throwback. Just found out they have an app (I am probably super late to the party) but excited none the less. Solid local news.