The Free Press Reviews

I’ve tried TheFreePress on both my iPhone and my iPad. I can never get properly logged in with my sub stack credentials which work fine on a browser, but not in TheFreePress . Even though I select the link to login with email, I get a window that says a link is being sent to the email, but the link never arrives. The account is shown in TheFreePress as a free subscription, but if I click the account link to manage the subscription, I’m directed to the website, which shows me properly logged in with my sub stack credentials. Since TheFreePress thinks I’m on a free subscription, I’m unable to use all of the features that I’ve paid for, making TheFreePress absolutely useless.

I was excited when I learned about TFP’s new app. I love TFP, and my 2-star rating has only to do with TheFreePress .

There are 2 major problems:
1. TheFreePress doesn’t recognize my paid subscription to TFP, allowing me to access only 3 free articles before shutting me down.
2. When I followed TheFreePress Store link for app support regarding problem 1, I was sent to Substack support, and Substack doesn’t know anything about TFP’s app.

Leaving this review appears to be my only way of notifying the developer about these problems.

Beyond these deal-breaker problems, I probably won’t use TFP’s app much until it offers a dark mode. The bright white app feels like an assault on my eyes.

I am using your Apple app. At some point the video turns into a smaller window and I couldn’t find a way to make it bigger like to fit the entire screen. If you stop the video, you can’t get back to it and continue watching where you left off, it always goes back to the beginning.
I would like to see the latest articles at the top of the home page, it feels stale.

I’m a big fan of The Free Press so I am thrilled to see a TFP app! However, the text sizing needs to be fixed so that there are more sizing options. Right now, the “slider”for text sizing only gives 4 options. For me, on an iPad, they are either too small or too large. Please make this more sensitive and allow more sizing options. I’ll rate app as 3 stars because it’s unusable for me until sizing issue is fixed.

I tried adding the TFP app to “per App” settings under accessibility options in IOS settings, however, the TFP app did not account for the large text settings under the per app settings. The WSJ app uses this strategy, and I hate it, but it does work. I suggest, though, that you fix it in app

Thank you!

The apps - iPhone and iPad are fine. My problem is with the text size slider in Settings. It is not continuously variable. It has four settings only: much too small, too small, too large and much too large. I do not believe that anyone would find the two outside positions usable, which leaves the two in the middle: too small and too large. I wish the developer would scrap the two outside settings, move the two interior settings to the outside, and include two new settings (if there have to be four discrete settings) between them; which between them would, I think, hit the sweet spots for most users.

The Free Press is the best thing to happen in journalism in a long time, and I love that they’re doing an app. There are just some things that TheFreePress needs to do better. First and foremost, if I leave TheFreePress to look at something else and the return to the article I was reading it reopens TheFreePress making me have to find where I was. Annoying.

Been waiting for FP to finally have an app as it’s my preferred way to read. TheFreePress is well presented like the FP website. However there is a bug with staying signed in. It signs me out for no reason. Leaving TheFreePress and coming back, whether you “kill” TheFreePress or not. Happening to myself and another family member.

I already knew I would like the content, I was pleasantly surprised by how well TheFreePress works.

I recently flew from Nashville to DC. I opened TheFreePress as we were taxing before we took off, in order to refresh with the latest articles that dropped. I was curious how many articles would open up once we got airborne. Not only did the latest headline open flawlessly, but so did articles I opened a few days back and didn’t get to finish. They even opened to the same point in the article. I was even able to open new articles a good ways down the feed all in airplane mode at cruising altitude.

Thank you, and well done.

So excited that the free press app is now live. I’ve been loving the emails and podcasts but now I’m using TheFreePress for all my news updates. Works great!

I love that we finally have a TFP app! It works great, I signed in without any issue on both my iPad and my iPhone. Setup notifications now I wanted to and it worked perfectly. Really no complaints, awesome app !

As you know, good things begin as movements turn into institutions and then become rackets. I was captivated by Nelly’s and Bar’s exit from the New York Times, so I was primed to love their product, but truly they have delivered. Pray they continue.

LOVE the FP content but just a heads up- TheFreePress won’t keep us signed in while using it, and we can’t read any of the paid subscriber articles even tho we’ve been members for a while. Hopefully just an easy bug to fix!

Excellent launch for an outstanding news site. My big ask is for a dark mode (at least for the articles if not for the homepage). It would be really helpful for those of us with sensitivity to bright screens.

It’s such a big day for The Free Press. I’ve been a subscriber for a few years and have seen them completely blow up because their content fills a void in the media landscape. Their newsroom has journalists from all across the social, political, and religious spectrum so download TheFreePress if you’re ready to break out of the echo chamber. The Free Press has brought back traditional journalistic values where truth, facts, balance, historical context, and empirical data back up every article. The opinion pieces are also thought provoking, even if you don’t always agree with the argument.

If you want to be frustrated, just get TheFreePress! I have an account. It wouldn’t let me sign in unless I agreed to notifications. OK, I’m thinking I’ll turn them off later. I sign in and I go to look at a Nelly Bowl‘s article and it tells me I need to be a member! I spent 45 minutes going around in a circle on this!

Yes I’m enjoying it. To be specific I enjoy the variety of articles. I’ve come to believe the FP does their research therefore I tend to believe them.

I do wish I was able to forward a piece in to a friend colleague or family member though it seems you’re determined to protect your stories and confine them to paid subscribers only.

I’m an independent thinker, voter, and in my actions; and this is my kind of content - both this site and the Honestly pod. I don’t feel like I’m being manipulated or sold an agenda. I used to say I read the NYT and the WSJ and take the average, how I just need to read TFP. Thank you Bari for having the courage and drive to make this happen.

I run creative at one of the most prominent design studios in the world, we design some of the most important platforms and experiences used by millions of not billions of people. I love TheFreePress. It truly editorializes the FP pov through its design, ease of use, depth of content and ability to meander and just be curious about the world. I’m so happy TheFreePress is finally here. Of course I could suggest a million improvements but I won’t. It’s great and I know it will get better over time. Great job!

Unquestionably the most intelligent, fair minded, honest, erudite, and informative site available. Serious, but with humorous asides, deeply felt stories from really great contributors, and what appears to be a very serious effort to make sense of our politics, our world, and our lives. Absolutely my go to source each day. The membership is worth every penny and more. The Free Press rocks….every day in every way. Highly recommend. The best online news source for discussion, fair mindedness and interesting articles.

This is something I have been waiting for but is there an option to claw back all those emails necessary before TheFreePress ?