Newsify: RSS Reader Reviews

by Gaspatchosoup

I’m trying to find a new app to use as I don’t like the old one I have used for 5 plus years. I have found a pretty big issue that will have me stop using Newsify very quickly. I have found the last two times I have used Newsify when I go into an article the arrow and all the other buttons disappear. No matter what I do tapping scrolling they don’t come back. I don’t want to have to scroll down every story. In order for them to come back I have to force close Newsify and reopen it. It’s a pretty big and bad issue.

The previous news app/ rss reader app I was using I really started to dislike after years of using it. I have tried to find a replacement but after using Newsify for not even half a day I will be going back to the old one. It could be I’m so used to the other one since I have been using it everyday for 5 plus years. The above issue is a huge problem but just other small things make Newsify a no.

by Stoket

Update: after over a year, the widget still only updates when I open Newsify . Not sure if that's intended, but it means I basically never use Newsify for my news sadly. Great app otherwise. It seems this would be easy to fix!

I really like Newsify, I find it to be a very quality RSS reader, especially considering competition on iOS isn’t that great. The only real issue I have is that the widget NEVER updates news unless I open Newsify , no matter how much I use Newsify to get iOS to prioritize its background activity. Really hampers my style since I like to get news at a glance throughout the day.

by GNMitscold

This has been my favorite app for many years, but after a recent update about 6 months ago, it is constantly freezing up and crashing.

Newsify is so great that I still use it, despite it freezing up probably every 3 or 4 minutes, having to exit, and then restart it, but that is only because I have. It been able to find a suitable alternative. I have tried changing settings, reset my phone, but nothing has fixed this issue.

Every time Newsify has a new update, I am disappointed when the problem isn’t fixed.

by Rerunicus

I loved Newsify so much & used it daily for years. Today I tried to open it on an old iPad & sync with my phone. The ipad only offered the option to sign in via Feedly. When I attempted to sign in with the Feedly account used on my phone, it told there was no such user. Tried on mac & got the same result. Found advice (given by Feedly) saying to log out of all your accounts and then log back in. Which I did... And now cannot access this app on any device. Not sure how it's possible I was just logged onto a Feedly account in my phone that now I'm being told doesn't exist. I lost so many saved articles & my whole subscription list. Great app until I logged out of it.

by Ftlum

Very good news reader. Easy to quickly read headlines. Pull up to mark all as read. Intuitive gestures. Very customizable. It's not perfect-- you can't swipe back out of the Safari view, for instance.

Two stars deducted for the subscription based requirement to get full text at times (and other features that should not cost $30/year). I am ok with paying a flat fee, and have already done this, so the subscription requirement is like getting charged more than twice.

by Samuelitooooo

I'm doing RSS-reader-hopping right now and was intrigued by this one because of all the features. Unlike Feedly, this is a lot like the best of other RSS readers while also having an online account (which I haven't tried yet).

First thing I noticed, however, is I cannot import or export OPML files… This is not great. First, I'm not adding 70+ feed URLs one-by-one. 😂 Second, I want to back up my sources. I'm not afraid of the Files app, and I have cloud storage (and USB sticks). Please add OPML import and export!

May revise my review if/when I sign up for an online account. The bright side is it's free and, unlike Feedly, no cap on the number of sources for the free account.

by 0112334556katie

this app is a good aggregate source. I like being able to categorize my news (politics, science & tech, etc). However, Newsify freezes and crashes constantly—especially when I shift between apps. Sometimes it will take 4 or 5 re-openings of an article just to get through it while it’s glitching every 30 seconds. Additionally, a lot of trashy, clickbaity articles show up in my world news folders—ones that are not from my list of preferred sources—as well as entertainment articles. I wish there was a way to report that articles are not aligned with my interests/preferences (or are just plain trash) or are in the wrong categories.

by ThreapUSA

Update 6/9/17
I regret stating in my original review that the built-in ads are "unobtrusive and unobjectionable". Since a recent update, Newsify has felt the necessity to insert the usual trashy ads in every single news feed, even when wildly inappropriate. When will advertisers and app authors realize that "less is more" when it comes to adverts?
Update 27th December:
Since the most recent update, this app is VERY unstable on my iphone 5/IOS7.1.2. Freezes after loading (certain) pages & won't "kill" cleanly when it does so. I'm sticking with it because it's still the best out there - but darn, this is frustrating!
Original review:
I came to this app as a refugee from Pulse, which since its acquisition by LinkedIn has gone steadily downhill. this app, I'm delighted to say, is almost exactly what I want in an RSS reader; simple, clean interface that gives me access to my feeds. Even the in-app ads are unobtrusive and unobjectionable. Definitely a good app.

by Uggs Myster

I was going to give Newsify a 5, but I didn’t. I can’t figure out the way to change the in app browser from Chrome to Safari. I do not use Chrome or have it on my phone but Newsify does. While I was looking to be able to choose the browser on which to open an article that I want to read I noticed I am not able to change the default browser it uses to open the article. Please add this option. But I do not what google for anything.

by Wkrueger

Of all the rss readers I've tried I like this one the best but it has one very annoying issue and one minor issue that rates it only 3 stars with me.

The minor issue is the way the viewer handles the controls at the bottom of the screen that allow selecting things like marking an article as unread, selecting the next/previous article, etc. the part that's an issue is the way the design has that area disappear and reappear. The transition between hide/show is too slow and too easy to toggle. So I end up turning it off when I don't want it off and having to tap on the article in just the right place (or more to the point, not in the wrong place) and waiting for some set, slow interval for it to reappear so I can use it. I want it as instantaneous as possible or better yet, I want an option to keep it always displayed.

The major issue is that after a period of time Newsify crashes. It doesn't seem to happen at predictable times. It does recover rather well but it should never have crashed in the first place.

Update: Newsify no longer crashes.

by Nimboslice

this app is one of the best news readers in Newsify store. Beautiful interface and intuitive navigation. It is able to display articles in newspaper format or the standard list view. One of the few readers that mark as read while scrolling (one of the most overlooked features). I wish it could mark older posts as read (older than 1 day, 3 days, etc) but still a must have for any google reader user!

by Prasinous

Lots of features and it looks great - but for me the killer is the offline full text. I'm glad to be able to subscribe and support development of Newsify : when I reported that full text wasn't working for a certain site, the developer fixed it the next day. Reading my news feed used to be full of ads, promoted articles, and long load times. Now it's utterly serene. So worth it.

by Schlowago

I've been through a lot of IOS news reader apps. Many of them had outstanding features, but none brought so many together as does this app. Great look, system of viewing articles (and a choice of preference there), saving, and sharing. I cannot imagine any RSS reader improving on what Newsify delivers, and so I'm putting this quest to bed.

I can add, through my own experience, a report on support. I was having a problem with one aspect of Newsify that would have been quickly and easily corrected in settings, had I not repeatedly overlooked the toggle. Through support services contact, the developer patiently pinpointed the source of my issue, and clearly supplied the remedy. So, I can attest to this app's stellar customer support.

by Allnicknamesaretaken846362729

It is a great app but is missing something important. When I configure the article order to display the new ones at the top instead of the bottom by default, subsequently marking the read items from the menu will mark the TOP items as read, instead of bottom ones. This means the unread items that I haven't gotten a chance to scroll up to are now marked as read and will disappear.

by Pshimmons

OK, I’ll admit it - I follow WAY to many websites and read WAY too much news on the web! But the cool thing is that all of this news is MY new - the news that I am interested in. The best part? I use Newsify to bring it to my iPad in a compelling, easy to read fashion. No having to go check multiple websites each and every day just to see what’s up. I simply use RSS and boom it shows up in my news feed.

by Ph8nt0m48

Includes standard refresh, usability, simple functionality and a familiar platform making this Newsify user-friendly. Your concentrated news and other text-based items can be sorted to folders within Newsify ’s main screen. Newsify links to Safari however many feeds can be read within this app alleviating clicking to external links. Minimal advertisements but if you upgrade, zero adds. Definitely a must-have news and RSS push application. Works with Apple Watch 4th generation. Enjoy!

by Rate Mint

I think it is the best way on any platform to follow my feeds. I absolutely love using this program. It is fast and is fun to use. It is one of my top 10 apps.

Photos are great! I keep up with many different areas of interest: technology, news, sports... I can share articles in any way I want to. I use this app almost every day. It does everything I have needed it to do. I wish I could find many more glowing things to say, because I think the people who created this app have done an outstanding job.

I have not tried the faster sync yet.

by Tribalpilot

- No other app out there seems to do as we as pulling in Full-Text articles.
- Consistently pulls in full text for articles that other RSS apps can’t. This saves a lot of time because you never have to wait for the full article to load - it’s already there!
- Best OFF-LINE RSS app - if you live or work somewhere with inconsistent internet coverage, this is a great app for downloading all your articles ahead of time.
- Consistently updated
- Quick response from developers. If you do run into a website that doesn’t always show the “full-text”, you can quickly share the website with the developers and they will be quick to respond!

by Daredevilmohan

I love Newsify so much.

One concern I have is with the ‘Add to reading list’ feature. Why do I need to confirm every time if I want to add a link to my reading List? If you have given a toggle switch for persons who don’t need to have a pop-up every time, it would be great. Also displaying a confirmation message mentioning ‘the article has been added to your reading list’ would be helpful. Sometimes I have to go to my safari to check if the link has been added to my reading list. Hopefully this feature would be added in future.
Once again, thanks for the wonderful app.

by Juniorraz

For people who consume lots of news and need it quickly, Newsify is fantastic. The data-rich format, while still keeping images, is the best I’ve tested and the upload speeds with a premium subscription are great. The full-text feature is crucial to making this great since so many feeds never show the full texts. In the three or four times that full texts didn’t download, the developer responded within hours to get it working. Full text is doubly impressive since I rely on a lot of niche and foreign news sources and still rarely have trouble getting full text. Even with a premium subscription, Newsify is so good that I almost feel like it’s too good to be true.

by Bart The App Reviewer

I've been using this reader for a couple years now. It has many features and allows you to customise most to suit your needs. It's a five-star app in my opinion except for one annoying feature: the pull up to mark all item as read, to be more precise, the amount of pull up. I often scroll through my list of articles to choose what to read and when it gets to the the bottom one inadvertent pull up easily marks all as read with no way of undoing. This is a simple move with a very big risk, to irreversibly mark as read your whole unread list 😬

I'd suggest the developer to add a hold action to the pull up with a short 2 second progress bar to ensure no accidental pull ups. Either that or an undo action where it takes all marked read in the last few seconds back to unread.

I'd be happy to learn an undo action exists but I haven't been able to find one. There I must give this reader four stars because it's a big downside for a small action.

✌️