theCHIVE

As a long time Chiver, I have bought hundreds of dollars worth of Chive merchandise, donated plenty to their charities, enjoying their website for many years, and was thrilled when the first app appeared. I have always enjoyed the content... funny and uplifting threads, cat Saturday (where’d that go?), cute girls, interesting knowledge, comical gifs, interesting talent, and a general collection of everything you want to see online without all the crap and politics. Changes and updates to the app made some versions tough, but the Chive always redeemed themselves with fixes and better content. Until now. Every update is greeted with more ads, more merchandising, and so many more crashes... all with less true Chive content. And their only solution is to sell me an overpriced subscription that includes a coin, fewer ads, and random discounts from their store... golly gee, mister, wow that’s awesome.... I’m quite sad this will be the last month I’ll suffer through the frustration, as I feel the Chive served me greatly through the years and has ultimately let me down. As I delete the app, I can’t help but wonder if those two brothers even care anymore.

They literally punish you with the whole “Probably the best app in the world” tag line on the screen every time you go back to the old well and try to enjoy ya some Chive. Nobody will argue that the content and the people are anything but awesome. But the complete failure to even muster a half hearted effort at providing an app that even works at a mediocre level is astonishing. You can google it yourself and see nothing but an avalanche of complaints and comments from almost every person on the planet who has used the app and it’s an utter dumpster fire. It never works. Can’t open images or gifs. Crashes almost every time. It literally is almost self-defeating to even try to open it. You just want some DAR or memes or some crap and somehow you find yourself angry, disappointed, and borderline enraged by the time you’ve reloaded the app 4 times to try to see the freakin pics on a juicy thread or post. Save yourself the agony and just bookmark the Safari link to the Chive online. Trust me you’ll be thankful. Or if you are the kind of person that loves standing in line to find out they sold the last item to the person in front of you, or arriving at your favorite restaurant to find out they are closed that day, or opening up your one present on Christmas morning to find it is an empty box and a cruel joke.....well, then download the app and you’ll be repeatedly abused.

As much as I enjoy the content this app and what this organization provides, the grammar and conventions are lacking in a published site. It's understood when using slang like the adorable "doggos" and other slang, but "let's be hone" passes when it should be "let's be honest." Proper use of "your" and "you're" is ignored. There's many, and I mean I can find spelling and grammatical errors in almost EVERY post. And please choose either the British spelling or the American spelling of words. It appears that there's a bunch of frat boys running this outfit and it really should be polished. I say this, because I care, and I want what it best for theCHIVE. If I didn't care for your polish and your best, I wouldn't say anything. But I do. UPDATE: Too many intrusive ads. Scrolling down I’m automatically redirected to Safari and can’t enjoy the content. By the way, Wikipedia is NOT a source. Even your “facts” have no sources. Amateurs.

Please don’t get me wrong, because I love the Chive, the content they provide, what they stand for, and for all they do in providing to people and communities in need. However, the app itself does not work the best for me. It’s constantly being bogged down or freezes completely to the point where I often need to restart it, or just can’t use it period. Also, “pop-up ads” constantly cause the App Store to open on my phone, which I can not get to stop myself but rather have to let it run its course and hopefully be able to run the Chive app hours later. I’m not sure if it’s an issue with my phone (iPhone 6) or the ads they allow to run in their app. But, seeing as how I have other apps that do not have this issue I don’t think it’s my phone. For the reasons above though, I’ve decided to delete the app from my phone and plan on just viewing their web page on my down time. It’s too frustrating to be in an app where ads work phenomenally, but you can barely view the actual content the app was intended for. I mean this as constructive criticism because, as I said, I love the Chive. I hope that this review gets to them and they consider it wholeheartedly because I’m going to miss it on my phone. But, I’ll be enjoying their posts on Instagram and on their website from here on out.

The Chive has always meant much more to me than just an app full of funny galleries. It’s a community with a cause. I’ve bought Chive merchandise, supported Chive Charities, and have been proud to call myself a Chiver. I get it, nothing is free. I know at the end of the day it’s a business, and businesses have to be profitable, but this app has recently become a minefield of ads. Noisy video ads that pop up without warning, bottom banner ads that slide up to fill half the screen, etc etc. The ads have crossed the line from being a perfectly acceptable consequence of enjoying free content to being a truly annoying experience. All of this conveniently getting progressively more annoying upon the introduction of a $4.99 a month subscription for “ad-free”. I’m deleting this app for now. Guys, please take a closer look at this direction you are taking. When you ask, we Chivers deliver. When someone is in need, we blow the roof off fundraising. If you’re hard up for cash, please consider treating us with some respect and laying it out straight, instead of hitting us with some Clockwork Orange crap. I bet a majority of the true Chivers would make it rain on a fundraiser to keep you all doing what you do. This overly aggressive ad strategy makes me feel like a commodity and not a member of the community.

I’m a small business owner and I’ve had the fortune to see my business grow outside of my home office and into something that requires a complete staff, office space, employee benefits, 3rd party tech support, 3rd party payroll support and even an accountant who only knows my business name but not mine... The Chive has grown by monumental proportions since I joined the Chive Nation in 2012. You guys have built something to be proud of! But as of tonight, I just can’t handle the ads or the $60(ish) a year that it would take to go ad free. That $60 could be going towards a charity or my bar tab. After reading the last 30 reviews it seems we’re all on the same page. We love y’all and the content but the price to play is getting out of hand. There has to be a happy medium here. If not I fear that you as an organization will lose a large portion of your support. You do great things for those who need it most, but don’t forget about the majority of users out there who use your app as a pick me up or a place to shut down and relax. They are the ones who will ultimately make or break a company. The ad pollution that consumed what probably WAS the best has made the experience stressful and frustrating. I hope to see y’all rebound from this hiccup. Much love and respect!

John...Mac...and the rest of the guys and ladies that power the Chive machine, you have failed us. I personally chose the Chive back in 2013 so that I could have a positive perspective on the goings on around the world. I was turned on to you guys by a fellow medic and it was an immediate love. I have seen your move to Austin and was filled with the warm feels when I see what is being done for my fellow vets and also those who are in need. But you have FAILED US. You stood tall when there needed to be a voice for net neutrality as well as the blue grinch known as Facebook...BUT YOU HAVE FAILED US. We, the Chive Nation, use your app as a get away or as a substitute for social media, we come to you to get away from the constant bombardment from ads and the mainstream chase of the almighty dollar. With the app in its current iteration, I can’t even sit for longer than two minutes without have to cut off intrusive ads. There has to be a better way. PLEEEEASE for the love of all that is holy...cut it out. Get back to what made you the Chris Farley’s of this world, and quit using us, the Chivers and Chivettes as your ad guinea pigs.

I used to be one this app daily. Typically multiple times a day. Anytime I had a moment and needed a quick dopamine fix. Then the ads started. I get that this is a business and you need to keep it going, but come on. The ads are at a point that they are ridiculous and I rarely even open it anymore. Pay for the ad-free experience you say? It’s easier to just delete this app and go elsewhere. I’ve donated to Chive charities, spent money on merch, and supported theChive for several years. For a long time it was part of my daily routine. Now, because of the ads, I rarely even open the app or visit the site anymore which means I’m not buying merch or donating anymore either. You can’t have it both ways. Either you have loyal supporters who make theChive a part of their life or you make your money from ads and see a huge turnover in subscribers and supporters. This whole site was designed to sell merch and did a fantastic job at first but as the business grew, so did the overhead and the need for more money. It no longer has the same “community feeling” that it did 3-4 years ago. Now it’s just another business vying for attention in a world where we are already overloaded with those. Take care and good luck. I’ll be deleting the app.

Trust me on all this below. You’ll see for yourself soon enough. You’ll love them at first the you‘ll see what I’m talking about. Have been checking back in the last few weeks to see if things got better since my last review. No way got much worse. Just had some f’d up audio commercial start playing out of nowhere and you can’t turn it off even if you close the app. F these guys with a capital F!!! And F Bill Murry. Don’t know why they support this creep. He is not a good guy. And who want to buy stupid coins with Bill Murray on them? For what? Just to give their money to these Guys. Wake up people!!! The greed of these guys got the best of them. You cans find better elsewhere. I’m done. Old review: The chive nation and charity are both awesome. However, the user experience is now miserable. The app is so glitchy and slow with frequent freeze ups I can no longer use it. Also, with the amount of ads I suspect that the owners are looking to cash out and are now at the stage of milking it for every dime they can squeeze out, not caring if their product suffers. Another competitor will come along and the chive Brother’s will have made their millions and then .....bye bye. It was a good run for a while though. I enjoyed most of it. Peace out.

Just updated to latest version again. Won't open up! Just crashes! Even after reload! Update on the new update: I’ve followed The Chive since before they had this app. It used to be funny and entertaining. Now it is all about reposted memes and bouncing boobs. I’m a guy and this is even too much for me. Not to mention all the ads, which after the last update they added MORE. Biggest complaint from everyone are the ads and what does Chive do? MORE ADS! As I scroll on the main page they’ve added short video clips between the galleries. Every time I scroll past one of those I get a short audio blip. My phone is on vibrate and the audio STILL PLAYS. Ridiculous. It has also been randomly going to the adverts web page even though I never clicked on the ad. This last update made that problem worse and it get stuck in a loop when I click back to the app it immediately goes back to the adverts web page, over and over and over, till I force close the app. The Chive started out well, now it’s about the ad money. I won’t pay for the ad free version and I will no longer use the app. You will also be losing any future donation’s to your charities. Chive has become Greedy, maybe that’s why the C in Chive is green.

Long time Chiver. Always enjoyed their content and I love what they’ve done recently to change the online publishing landscape. What I can’t understand is why their app has continued to be buggy for my iPhones over the years. There always seems to be issues with something, and most notably is how it can’t seem to handle being opened after it’s ignored for a few hours without making my iPhone 7+ go haywire, and more frequently is how it will stop my music or audiobook whenever I open the app, and I have to turn the music back on while using the app to continue. I really love having a paid subscription where there are no ads. That is more than worth the price for the quality content, but this app crashing and causing these issues is driving me nuts. Y’all.... please PLEASE do something about this. The music stopping is so consistent I can’t believe it. You have a great thing going but I’m literally writing this review because I had to try 5 times to open the app and it kept crashing, so I’ve spent this moment writing this review instead of checking the DAR. You are worth more than this. Godspeed.

It almost seems like a tragic breakup. We had some great times and I truly enjoyed the humor that I could always count on, especially when I needed some kind of pick me up. I stuck with the app after the introduction of ads, knowing that just like tv and radio, ads are a part of enjoying free content. I also thought it was perfectly fine that they offered a subscription based ad-free experience for those willing to pay for it. What I did not expect was that the quality of the end user experience with the app would become so degraded for those of us who don’t want to pay. They may still offer free content for every one who wants it, but with how slow the app has become, how choppy the downloading, having to stop after two or three pictures to wait for the next two or three to download, and the frequent redirects, it has become impossible to simply enjoy a little humor from this app. I have deleted it and will just have to find humor from another source. While The Chive may be a wonderful organization and community, they are limiting their exposure by making the app so unpleasant to use. I still love you, but I just can’t be with you anymore.

The chive has some decent content collections, mostly sourced from Reddit and other platforms but there is some unique stuff in the mix too. Overall, it’s an entertaining site with a lot of content updated daily Unfortunately, the app is less than stellar. Content often loads slowly and seems to take a lot of phone processing power for the type of content it is loading. My old iPhone 6s used to get hot running this app compared to similar apps like Reddit or Facebook. The worst part however is the intrusive ads, especially the auto play videos with sound. I’m all for having advertisement on free to use sites but I typically use these kinds of apps during breaks at work or at night before going to sleep. Nothing worse than having a loud ad from my phone play unexpectedly for all my coworkers to hear, or wake up my girlfriend at night, all because I didn’t think to turn off my phone volume to look at a photo website. I’d like to use this app more but it had become so annoying that I rarely use The Chive and favor Reddit as I don’t have to worry about the crazy adds with its app.

Could we just maybe charge a ONE-TIME $.99 (or at most $4.99...again ONCE, NOT per month) for the app, if nothing else but to forgo the constant barrage of useless ads & pop-ups? Seems the ads load quicker than the vids, which is maddening to say the least...Overall the “original’ content is always wonderful, but to have to time your swipe in between the “loading” icon that pops up constantly, or the random “let’s go to the App Store for no other reason than because we want to pump a game that will be gone within the year”, I have lost all hope for the app. I understand it takes money to do what they do, but to go ad-free for what they are asking is borderline extortion. I usually see a good portion of their posts on BuzzFeed a few days beforehand. Now I have been hit with the “BLACKED” pop-up (yes, that BLACKED... Incognito search that out if you really need to know). To have uninvited hardcore porn pop onto my phone from an app was beyond ridiculous. Apple doesn’t have many viruses that affect their products; fairly certain this app will change that real quick.

I remember first downloading the chive almost 10 years ago now on my old iPhone 4 and it worked great, save for how long it took for gifs to load back then, but hey, that was to be expected at the time. Now, on today’s most advanced of advanced smart phone platforms, if you use the app for more than 5 minutes, the first thing to happen is some bad lagging. About a minute later, you get eternal loading wheels. Nothing will load, pics or gifs. Fast forward another minute or so and everything completely freezes. Think you can shut down the app and start over? Wrong again. Needs to stay shut down for a considerable amount of time to reset itself. Once it does, you’d think it’d be good to go for round 2? Wrong again. You’ll encounter the exact same sequence of events. And on a side note, a lot of the posts now are sincerely bad. I mean just really bad. The chive was once a good community with a good platform for the community members to get together and share a laugh or two over some solid posts and picture collections. Maybe it’s time to just let it die. Maybe I’m just old and cranky now.

I’ve followed the chive since 2010 and I love the site, the content and everything the chive has done and continues to do for so many people. The app is the problem, first off just opening it cuts off any music or podcasts that is playing which is annoying. The biggest problem is the f@$!ing ads. I don’t click on them but either I scroll past them or just don’t touch my phone (iphoneX) and they pop up open my safari and or App Store and just redirect in a loop until I just close out the app and my internet/App Store. I love the chive but the ad problem with the app as turned me from a 5-7 day a week user to maybe one or two days. As soon as the ad monster tries to take over I’m out for the day. John you have done amazing things for a lot of people. Please fix the app so more chivers can enjoy your work without the frustration.

Used to be an awesome app providing many hours of entertainment while sitting at the bar in an attempt to avoid real human contact through a digitally mediated experience. I understand the advertisements but the frequency with which the app crashes is becoming difficult to manage. Perhaps the crashes are an attempt at conserving the battery power that would otherwise be drained if you were allowed to operate uninterrupted. I’ve also considered the possibility that the crashes are an engineered failsafe to prevent your phone from melting into self destruct mode because after about five minutes without a crash, I need a welding glove in order to hang on the the hecking thing. All that being said this review is for the app only, the Chive itself is an outstanding community and I respect and appreciate their charity work and involvement with military and veterans. That Ma’am’s and Sirs, I will salute. I will check back for improvements in the chive app with hopeful anticipation, however; in the in interim I’ll be scrolling through the gifs over on Reddit. Peace, Semper Fi and to the future!

Edit September 2017: Absolutely none of the issues so many of the users have tendered have been addressed. Video ads on every single one, constant pop-up ads, being redirected to the App Store, etc. Considering that most of your content is recycled from other websites (but I was willing to overlook that fact), I'm deleting The Chive. Sorry, but pushing that crap on your user base just doesn't cut it for me. Good luck with your future endeavors, but I'll be spending my charity money elsewhere. I am a (was) religious user of this site and app, but the ads have made it unbearable. I literally don't even click on any videos anymore because I have to sit through a 15 second ad for each and every one! I could see watching one ad and then the rest would be ad free, but the BS on every single GD video gets old. Not to mention the pop-ups that happen all of the time. The Chive has sold out and I am sorely disappointed. Remember where you came from and take all of these one star reviews into account. You are literally missing my Chive Charities money because your app is so Corporate now. Hope it's worth it.

I love the chive. This is my go-to over Facebook. However, since the last update, the app freezes all the time for no reason while I’m in the middle of scrolling through galleries, video adds pop up all the time in the middle of a gallery, repeatedly, and at times, I’ll be redirected to the App Store for some random game download even though I never touched anything having to do with any ads. When I try to go back to the chive app, it just keeps going back to the App Store over and over again to a different game download each time and the only way to stop it is to close the app out. And closing the app isn’t even functioning properly. I double click the home button and swipe up to close it and when I click back on it, it’s still on the same page frozen. I have to close it again and wait at least 30 seconds to try and open it again. Please fix this issue. It is so frustrating and kills the battery even more than ever!

This was a fantastic app, I mean the best on the internet.i have been a daily user since 2013. Then they decided to sell a version of ad free for a monthly fee. I decided like most people that I only have so much money and can’t possible buy the premium version of every subscription out their because every sells one. The chive would place ads in the thread and you could simply swipe past it or they would open a video of you clicked on the ad. This was for the non premium subscription and I was totally fine with that. Now that they sell the premium version you literally can’t get past two pictures with out a video ad with audio turning on and redirecting you to their advertisement. I wish I was exaggerating if you get though two picture your going to get a ad video. It’s so intrusive you ant even enjoy the app. Shame on you Chive your fans believed in you because you said we would never sell out but you did!! I’ll be deleting it soon as I’m done with this review. It’s so bad you can’t boot the site if you wanted to.

I still love the full site on the computer, but the app has seemingly only gotten progressively worse, with updates actually making it slower and more frustrating to use. I used to love the app, but now it’s like the app is only there because companies are ‘supposed to have a mobile app’. It’s not even the ads that bother me, but the fact that I can’t scroll through a single thread without it either freezing or crashing, makes the app just about useless. If this is a result of the increased ads then it’s a blatantly poor marketing decision. Nobody will see the ads that this company has forced in if they can’t even use the app, or if they delete it out of frustration. I don’t care if my favorite apps become billboards, as long as I can still actually use them. Go ahead and monetize, but please maintain a functional app. (Also this app still has a five star rating which I’m sure is from the last five years of reviews, because almost every rating within this year has been negative). Sell out if you want, but at least still maintain some semblance of a website. Peace.

I have been a loyal chiver for some years now. I understand that nothing in life is free, especially a free app. I know that companies like this must have advertisements on their sites to pay for all of the awesome free content that we receive. However, in the last few months, the ads have become unbearable. Every video has a 15 or 30 second ad that had to be viewed and not skipped (which operates flawlessly) only to get to a video that doesn’t load properly or buffers endlessly. You can’t touch anything on the screen without clicking on some ad that redirects you to their website, and even after using the back button, you will continue to be automatically be redirected the the advertisers site until you either view it for a period of time or close he app and reopen whatever it was you were on. Again I understand that this is a business and that businesses need to make money somehow, but the fact that the unrelenting flurry of ads came about right around the time the $4.99/ month ad free subscription came around is a bit ridiculous.

I love the chive, have lots of apparel, mugs, cups, you name it. I understand the need to make money to fund not only the business but the excellent charity work they do, which is why I was willing to pay $40 for a t-shirt. With that being said, I understand there is a need for ad revenue. However, the latest update has made the app unusable. I can’t stop the App Store from constantly opening on my phone. I can’t even scroll the galleries before a new ad pops up. Even when this ‘glitch’ does not occur, the app is constantly crashing. Definitely not the best app in the world. I understand you can pay for an ad free experience, but this app has never worked correctly. I am not going to pay for an app to constantly freeze. It is very frustrating because I love what the Chive has done with charities. However, it seems in the past year their focus has switched to money money money. They blame Facebook policies for their shift, but there has to be a better way than this ad filled, pop up only garbage. It is going to narrow down their user base to a select few over time.

After being a daily chiver for years, I’ve finally and sadly had to delete the app. TheChive has shifted business models. They used to provide amazing content aggregated from around the web for free. Their fun panels and positive outlook bled through and made your day better. What a great ride we had together. Unfortunately they now want a subscription based platform. So they packed the free version of the app full of ads. Ads always load. They pop up in the middle of scrolling. The pop up if you want to look at any of the content. TheChive will fix it... if you buy the subscription. Am I a cheapskate? No. I donate to their charities, bought their shirts and products. The major difference is that before, It was a mutually enjoyable experience. They ruined my side of the experience. I wish them well. I don’t pretend I’m important to them. I’m sure their new revenue stream will satisfy them in the short term. Too bad it won’t last since their experience is now terrible. Don’t download the free app. It will crash a bunch, eat your data, and load ads easily and content second.

This isn’t a knock on the community or the content- all stellar in my opinion. I don’t mind the ads, I get it. My issue is the same as others have mentioned, bogging down, freezing, taking an eternity (dial up memories) to load a single photo and dude, the GIFs forget about it. It’s like slow motion if/when they finally load. This is a relatively new occurrence. You went through a phase last year where the app froze regularly and managed to fix it. This was pre-embedded ads, maybe correlation there? Beyond the irritation that the content loads soooo slowly (it at all) is that the ads populate immediately. I’m sure it’s due to their comparatively small file size but still irritating as AF. Thanks for the rant. Love the Chive! Can we get someone on this issue?

I will update when I receive a satisfying response. Everytime I open the app, my iPhone 11 displays a "the give pasted from..." notification. Where is my cut/copied pasting to and why is it doing it without my input or consent? Updated: from 1 to 3 stars; the above problem seems gone, however, the chive app is still the only app to cause my iphone to have massive lag and/or freezing issues. Both within the app itself, and it causes the same difficulty in other apps I'm using if I leave chive running in the background. #2: app deleted. App will almost completely freeze iphone within 10 min of use. Problem is immediately corrected by closing app; however, closing the app often takes 5 minutes of up swiping to get bring up open applications and close The Chive. Down to 2 stars. I love wasting the day away scrolling through the hilarious content, but your app only seems to get worse year after year. It has too many background processes.

I wish the ads were just simple, non-moving pictures that popped up every once in awhile as I scroll; but they are not. They either pop up with sound, loud and annoying at the end of a contemplation; are a small, clickable banner at the bottom with a pretend ‘x’ that will most certainly send you to a third party page or the ad store; or a large, moving ad that slows down your phone and causes the app to crash…a lot of the times you get ALL three. I love the CHIVE and the content that they provide. They do sooo much charity, they bring joy and laughter to many, and produce pretty awesome merch…but how is anyone going to know if their app keeps crashing, if their phone freezes, or the people rage quit because they keep accidentally clicking ads while trying to enjoy the content? Please work on the app. Make an ad free option or something, because Chivers who use the app will certainly pay for it.

In a word, F***!!!. Like many others before me have said before, the Chive app has seen its best days behind it. This is my second review of the app and sadly nothing has changed. After this latest update, where they promised that many of the bugs had been addressed and resolved. Only to still, have the app continuously abruptly shutdown while I’m in the middle of looking thru it. From the mysterious ads playing somewhere in the distance while your trying to look thru a gallery, to the 15-30sec ad, that plays and may just freeze up just before you watch that 45sec video that you initially clicked on. Perhaps Chive charity should take up a collection and help its once, guiding beacon. Also, while we’re on the subject. I get hot chics bring in the guys...and girls. But how in the hell are we to believe that all of the “local Chivetes” are all total smoke shows. Not saying that we need a large Marge feature. Just more realistic women, maybe, one with a C section scar who has an il advised tattoo of the guy that she swore was the one. Fix this, if not for me, do it for Large Marge.

The title says it all. I’ve been on Chive many years now and for the most part I love it. All the pics, the videos, the FYIs & DYKs, not to mention the charity work and the stories both celebrating and informing those in need and the stories of or veterans. I go a couple places that have Chive TV now and I dig it. Couple things killing me is for some reason, no matter what the device, the app uses more battery than any other app I have. Next would be I’ve always had a few pics or gifs never load or take forever. Finally the last thing would be the app itself working. Many times in the past 3 or so months the app won’t load or crashes a couple of time before running good. Maybe there is a lot of fans using it, idk but has become an issue this year. I don’t mind the occasional ad and at least are usually for the Chive. I would gladly give this app a 4 or 5 when some things are fixed as I have done so in the past.

A few years ago his used to be one of my favorite apps. Since then it has transformed into near meaningless content, the only new things they have are half naked women (which I enjoy let me assure you) but where is anything new? Most of the things posted I’ve already found in Reddit threads or are months or years old and are recycled. When I actually find something worth looking at or watching I’m bombarded with pop up ads. WAY too many to be justifiable for the kind of LAX content they cook up. Through the ads I would push on though. Annoyed but willing enough to put up with it. For the last several months the ap has done nothing but crash when I attempt to open a thread of pictures. I’ll get halfway through and the whole thing will freeze and send my phone into a frenzy. At first I thought maybe it was my phone, but after trying to open it on my tablet I was met with the same response. I’m probably done with Chive. Reddit has better content anyway and without the dozens of ads to slow you down.

I’ve liked this app for years but in the last few months of my iPhone 6s and now on my new iPhone 8 it causes rapid battery drain. Multiple percentage points drop off in minutes and the phone back starts to get hot. I worked with their tech support on my old phone and at one point I thought it had improved but now with a new phone I’m dissatisfied again. I stream iHeartRadio but if I open this app it overrides the other and kills the audio immediately (used to only do this if I clicked on a video). I open this app consistently less, and every time I wonder why I still have it. Whether you’re on a WiFi or cellular connection if you want to view a gallery set your phone down for 5 to 10 minutes and if you can handle the heat from your stressed battery, the content may finally be viewable. . . Update - I went through several months of other reviews and I saw some of the same and other complaints. Obviously nothing is changing so I’m done. Sorry Chive! I deleted the app a couple minutes ago.

I love The Chive. Been a Chiver since...well I’m old and wasn’t when I first saw the DAR. I have donated. That said, I’m gonna have to delete the app. First, they added TONS of ads. Leave a gallery, ad. Scroll through a gallery, an ad every 5 images. Ads popping up from the bottom. Some ads are impossible to figure out how to close. I’m a marketer, I understand needing to make money from ad sales. This is going too far. They have taken it so far that it’s impossible to listen to music or an audiobook while Chiving. As soon as you go into a gallery, music or book is gone. Silenced. I assume this is because some advertisements, there are those ads again, have audio. I don’t mind that. Many apps have them. None of them mute your music upon entering the app, in fact most play the ad over your music or book. Lastly, and I have no idea why. They disabled saving pics from the app to your phone. I know, you are thinking, so he can’t save some hump DAR photos! Well I don’t actually save those, it’s the funny stuff I save and share with my wife or family that I save. I can save images from the website, but not the app. Seriously guys. Back down the ads some and let us save pics again. I will download again in a few months to see if it’s better, but I won’t be making you ANY money from ads during that time. I honestly don’t mind paying for free funny through ads, but you have to balance that with good UX. You haven’t don’t that.

Been a loyal chiver since 2014...was really excited for the app and have had the app on a number of different phones. Lately though I’ve been really frustrated on how quickly it kills my battery. It seems I can only chive for a quarter of the time I used to before it drains my battery almost next to nothing. I’m assuming it does this due to all the ads it pushes on you all the time. I could really care less if the ads stayed or left as long as it didn’t kill my battery like it does. Also it seems like it takes forever to load the photos. It will load the first couple fine and then I’ll have to exit out of the app and then reload it to get to the other photos. This happens numerous times in a single post...then by the time I get it all loaded my battery is about dead. I still love the chive, love the content, and love what they stand for. Just really disappointed in the way the app works compared to its previous versions.

I’ve never had any trouble with this app, excluding the annoying pop ups that plague the platform from time to time but those are always fixed quickly. The only reason I gave 3/5 stars is because there’s one major problem I’ve been having and it’s quite frankly, a stupid problem to have. Every time I navigate out of the chive app, and come back to it, the feed is completely reset and I’m taken back to the home screen almost like I force closed it which is annoying when you’re half way through a gallery that peaks interest and have to do...ANYTHING else for a few seconds. I feel like it’s a dumb thing to complain about but it’s also a dumb problem to have. Especially when you’re searching old galleries. Good luck finding where you were. Once that problem goes away, you’ll have all 5 back. I love this app and the community behind it. iPhone XS Max 256 GB

This app was my go to for entertainment for years, now it seems they have lost their way. Too many ads for one. When the chive does any kind of fund raiser, the community blows the goals away time after time. Simply hold one for yourselves to keep the ads out and the community will come through. Secondly, and worse than the ads is the agenda driven content I’m now seeing. The Chive was about avoiding all of the divisive and hate filled content the internet is overrun with. Seeing posts about racism is exactly the kind of crap I and many others are sick and tired of seeing day after day, and we were always thankful that the Chive didn’t inundate us with it. That is no longer true, plus better vetting should be done because several of those posts and stories turn out to be false anyway. Guys, stick to what made you so popular and stay away from the divisive agenda driven crap.

Dear Chive (Mac especially... You are the bomb), I honestly feel a bit self compromised writing a review/post on something. People that have the time to do that seem a bit lifeless and lacking in better things to do am I right? Well, I guess you guys can take it as a compliment that you are the only organization that I would stoop so low for. I first downloaded your app some 7 years ago as a freshman in high school and have been in love ever since. Until recently your app was worth the ads that had to be put up with in order to enjoy the free content. I get it, you guys have to make money that is the nature of the beast. The Chive app was always the first one I downloaded when I got a new phone, but sadly it will not be next time (which is soon, my phone is garbage due to the continued droppings). The ads are TOO MUCH, so much to the point that the free content that made you all famous is now inaccessible due to the frustration that comes with having to swipe down on a Windstar Cruises ad every 4 seconds. I’m deleting the app as of posting this which breaks just a little bit of my heart because I feel that with it a piece of my adolescence will go with it, but please for the sake of another freshman younger version of myself make the app as enjoyable as it once was for me by removing some of the ads. Make having a “keep calm chive on” or “Lejund” Chris Farley shirt from The Chive as cool as it was for that current freshman now. Regretfully, Francis

They seem to have fixed the annoying bugs and crashes which kept me away from using the app. Just a few minor annoyances left like sometimes I go away and when I relaunch I’m at the top instead of where I left off. I really wish there was a way to bookmark a location in the scrolling down from post to post or perhaps a “last viewed” button that would take me back down. Sometimes I have to scroll a long long way to find where I left off if I’ve been away for awhile. I prefer the funny stuff and find most of the posts featuring women less than wholesome (more girl next door and real women, much fewer Instagram models and photoshopped b*tches) Say what you want about The Chive, the charity does wonderful stuff for people in need.

I love the Chive. I love your photo galleries and your commentary. I roll my eyes at the piles and piles of Uber hot unrealistic chicks, but then there’s that one day where it’s exactly what I want. I love your heart of gold and fundraising and RAKKING do-gooder attitude most of all. But WHAT IS UUUUUPPP with these ADS?? Like, guys. I realize that if I don’t pay, I’m gonna deal with some ads, but this is crazy. I just had to close a pop-up full-screen ad EVERY FIVE SECONDS. I could barely read a whole sentence in between each heartfelt profile video for a new Starbucks barista. I guess I’m lucky that it isn’t a loud video that plays even when my phone is on silent, but it still makes your free version completely intolerable. I can’t hang. I really will miss you, but you’ve made it pretttty clear you won’t miss me - unless I start paying you. That just doesn’t seem like who I thought you were. Also, why does my phone heat up so much every time I open more than two photo blogs? That never happened before the ads started either.

Once a great app to kill time at work has now become an ad riddled app that tries to keep sticking its hand in my wallet. I understand this is now a business and people need to get paid but these ads have become more invasive. It started out innocent enough as a little advertisement at the bottom of the screen but now it has morphed into pop up adds with volume playing automatically which blows my cover if I am killing time at work(can’t exactly say I am checking emails). Of course I now have the option to pay a monthly fee to get the ads removed. Included in the membership is a collector coin and 20% off overpriced merchandise. If your going to start charging people at least double check the content you are putting out. There are videos that don’t play and the same galleries re used(sometimes even in the same week). Will I still use the app? Yes. If you want to use this app keep your volume down and get ready to roam around in land mine field of ads.

The app is slow and doesn’t work properly anymore. Too many pop-ups and ads. Take so long to load pics or videos I typically close the app. I do keep coming back hoping something has changed, because the content is awesome. BTW. I hope someone at chive is reading this. On the “go ahead and take my money”, you guys recommended some t-shirts purported to be semi-tailored high quality T-shirt’s. Man, those were junk, worse than Hanes I threw them away because they shrank so bad so I don’t remember the name brand. Bottom line, they were junk and you shouldn’t have recommended them. I actually thought you tested the products before putting them on your website. Still love you though ......,,,

Posting another 1-Star review hoping you guys are working like mad to fix whatever is going on. Have been a Chiver since before Country Girl & this app has devolved into a mess. Galleries don’t load so often that I can’t even check to see if you have acknowledged the problem & are making an about face to fix it. The Chive is huge, you’ve got to have talented developers on staff. Are you choosing not to do anything??? This has been going on since shortly after the BFM coin dropped, coincidence? I have to guess that most of us have no problem with a pop-up here & there, unobtrusive adds at the bottom of the page or even mixed into the galleries. But the Chive app that I have loved for years is totally broken, adds, coding, whatever, just broken. I deleted it when it was on the last revision, and downloaded the new update with nothing but hope. All I got was nopes instead... Please fix my favorite escape from the day & I’ll be back in a heartbeat, all of us will.

Look, I’m sure we can all agree, The Chive is a wonderful group of fantastic people who help those in need and stand for what’s right. But guys, cmon, please fix your app. It’s bogged down with adds we can’t skip, and it forces the App Store to open almost every 5 seconds to show you an app that you “should get”. Also, holy battery sucking abilities Chive. I mean, I opened the app with 98% waited 3 minutes and then closed it. My battery was at 94%. Yes, I know this seems insignificant but I have an iPhone 8 and use a multitude of other apps, including several games. NONE of them are even close to the draining power of The Chive. I hope you guys read this, and take it to heart, I really do. I’ve enjoyed you all from the beginning but I can’t use your app anymore and I’m barely on my pc to just go to your website. It saddens me to say that I will no longer be able to look at your content because of the awful app. Please fix it!

Used to be an amazing app. Now every other thing is an ad thrown in your face. I especially love the ones that completely take over you phone and blast out noise even if your phone is silenced. Don’t forget about the adds you can’t scroll through either if your finger even comes close to it, it’s gonna load! Not to mention this app used to have a fair amount of general goodness to people. I loved reading about what the original crew was doing for charity. I loved reading about the outstanding human beings out there that selflessly try to make this world a better place. Whatever happened to RAKs? Are guys like John and Mac still involved at all? Whoever is running this app now desperately needs to look back to the beginning and go back to the roots! We don’t need 15 galleries a day of just attractive women, there are basically an infinite amount of sites dedicated to that. The CHIVE feels as though it represents the complete opposite of what it used to and that’s very disappointing.

I’ve always enjoyed the Chive. I would consider myself to be a daily peruser of the app, and have been for several years now. There have been buggy versions before. It happens. I must say, though, this latest revision is the worst I’ve ever seen. It opens very slowly, and once open, the galleries will usually only load the first picture and all the text. I can sit and wait and the other pictures will slowly appear, one after the other, over the course of 2-5 minutes (depending on the number of pics in that particular gallery). GIFs are even worse, and usually don’t load at all beyond the first one. I know some people complain about the number of ads, and yes, they have become absolutely pervasive, invasive, and obnoxious. Loud videos that pop up out of nowhere while scrolling a gallery, out of nowhere redirects to the App Store for some crappy app i would NEVER even ordinarily look at, and so on. Ironically the ads always load perfectly, while the galleries don’t. I have an iPhone 7 Plus. No issues with any other apps. The phone is not buggy or problematic in any way. The app functions the same (poorly) whether I’m on LTE or WiFi, regardless of the signal strength. I hope you folks can fix this, I really do. I miss looking at the galleries at lunch and during my downtime. Please. Please fix it. Fix ‘er up real nice for us common folk. Thanks, A.

Huge fan of the app and have been looking at it for years now, pretty much since it first came out. And although the content remains the same high quality, the ads are just too much. Between the Apple store ad that pops up 5-6 times in a row (no matter what you do it keeps switching screens if you close it, leave it open, doesn’t matter), and the random ads that come up throughout the posts (not to mention even if you lightly scroll down and happen to actually touch an ad, it opens it...) make it such a pain to go through. Interestingly enough Chive went on a rant about Facebook a few months back and how they are charging companies (including Chive) to make more money and now they are doing the same thing. I’ll still log in daily but I wish they’d do something about it. I get the necessity to make income off of ad dollars, but at what cost? Super annoying Chive. Feels like you’re selling out for the almighty $$.

I would like to start by saying that Chive is the best social media alternative out there. Free of the usual drama and overall human stupidity displayed on places like Facebook. That being said the app has went down hill since I first started using it back in 2013. It uses a staggering amount of battery and makes my phone hot enough to cook an egg on. Then there are the ads, now I get that nothing is free in this world and Chive has to pay their bills, but when the ads render the app unusable and I find my self have to close and restart the app, just so I can get through two posts. All that being said, I am a dedicated Chiver and I will deal with the issues because I believe in what the Chive stands for and I will deal with the battery draining, app crashing, phone cooking Chive app (insert Ric Flair “wooo” here) because despite all of that it still better than having to scroll fifteen seconds in the dumpster fire known as Facebook.

Update: I can no longer put up with this. Every time I’m automatically redirected to the App Store for some stupid game to purchase I just think about how I’m probably being bothered with this garbage so the Chive staff can have another absurd office party. I’m over it. Original review: For a long time now, this has been my only “time waster” app. I love the fun galleries. But this app just doesn’t work well. I have an iPhone X and keep it updated, but consistently for the past year (maybe even longer), galleries load very slowly. Even with full LTE bars or connected to my WiFi at home, the first few photos will load, but the remainder will be blank gray squares. I don’t even bother trying to open gif galleries. This is across three different phones and who knows how many software versions. Usually they will finish loading, but I have to be very patient. I put up with it because I require memes. 5 star content, 2 star ease of use.

I’ve been a fan of the chive for a long time and will continue to appreciate the content, gear, and community. Please fix the constant crashes and ad loops I am stuck in. Every time I open this app I expect a few crashes, this has begun happening over the last year. Now I can’t scroll through one post without freezing. Also I get stuck in an add loop where the App Store opens and try’s to get me to download one of your advertisers apps. When I press done or X out of the add I see the post and immediately get sent back to the App Store to download another advertised app. I really enjoy wasting my time on your app it’s great content and fills dull spots in my day with a laugh or a wow now and then. The chive is a 5 star app but not in the condition it’s in now. Sorry guys, I will re rate at 5 stars once its back to its original smooth self. Thanks for listening.

I get that you want to promote you ad free paid service that you just launched but fixing the standard version needs to happen soon. If I can’t even look through the galleries with out getting stuck with random sound blips or a what I’m going to start calling the white pop up of pay up. The app is going to get round filed. I understand that as a company you need to bring in ad money to pay the people who make a living there and so that you can keep doing the awesome charitable work that you do. So no I’m not going to pay the monthly subscription fee but I’m more than happy to get ads directed at me, that being said if I don’t even see the ad then how are you justifying your invoices to your advertisers. Keep up the good work but please fix this so that I actually want to stay on the app so you keep making money off of ads that come up infront of my eyes.

I’m a longtime Chivette. I’m not much of a social media kind of person so The Chive has always been my go-to app. There’s lots of awesome content you don’t have to scour through multiple sites bc they do that for you. There’s some cool stuff they advertise…I will admit I’ve bought a few awesome gifts from looking at their ads. There are tons of ads now but that’s not even my issue. My main issue is the constant crashing that’s been going on for a few years now. Once it crashes I have to restart the app 3-4 times for it to act right and I know I only have a limited amount of time (generally enough to look through 3, 4 galleries tops) before it crashes again. The Chive is the ONLY app I have an issue with doing this. No others. How can this still be an issue when it’s been going on for literally YEARS?! Fix the bugs already & you may have (even more) paying customers!