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Downloaded this app specifically to listen to Morning and Weekend Edition, as I am able to enjoy other NPR programs using podcasting apps. Unfortunately, there is no way to listen to the complete program in one go, due to it being cut into segments. I am forced to search for the program repeatedly to jump back in from where the app diverts to often unrelated content. I do not understand the point of this app at all, unless the point is to keep the user interacting with it constantly to extract as much data from the user as possible. There are indeed listeners out there who don’t care what gets streamed at them, and aren’t concerned with feeding an algorithm their data. As far as this app goes, however, it would seem to require a lot of effort to end up with a reasonable result. There are many listeners like me, though, who want the news without having to submit to an algorithm’s whims. A shame that this app cannot provide a coherent listening experience that allows the user to be in control. The NPR One app functions like Pandora, and as such is effectively useless.

Not sure what happened with the most recent update to this app but 3 times in the last hour of listening to my podcast the app has (with my phone locked and sitting on my kitchen counter as I’m doing dishes) cutoff my podcast without rhyme or reason changing it to the news. This of course wipes the episode I was listening to from my recent list and also any progress in the podcast I then have to search for that podcast then try to find where it randomly cut off. An added layer and further annoyance is that the news is of course 10x louder than the podcasts I actually care about so when the app randomly decides to start playing the news it blasts my speakers. This is incredibly obnoxious and if left unfixed I plan to uninstall and find a new place to listen to podcasts because it’s really obnoxious having to stop in the middle of what I’m doing pause the app so it’s no longer blasting my speaker then spend multiple minutes trying to locate the episode and time in the episode where the app cut to the news.

I support NPR. But this app is so frustrating I'm wavering. Return after a long enough break, and one is given the option to "catch up" (meaning get the latest 3 minute news summary) or "resume" (meaning continue from where one left off). Often this just doesn't work, and trying to find the news summary any other way seems impossible. It's frustrating because it seems obvious that access to the latest news summary, when desired, is what most people would want. Second, after the summary, some stories run automatically, and while you can skip forward to the next, you can't skip backwards! (Got my hands full, missed some of that story that was just on, want to rewind, and... can't.) This smells of "we know what's best for the user" nannying. No! Please just give the users the obvious controls they might want. Finally, the app itself is labyrinthine and very confusing. There's no need for this. NPR, please get some app designers who know how to put the users first, instead of trying to handspoon them what they often don't want.