It seems they have finally fixed this issue, as the ads now open with the volume muted. Thanks guys! 👍 When you click into a story, a lot of times there is a video advertisement at the top that starts automatically at FULL VOLUME and there is no way to keep it from playing. Please, for the love of God, make it so the ad plays but is muted?! I should be able to scroll through the app in a staff meeting without the ad tattling on me for being on my phone 😂🤷♀️
The latest updates to this app are terrible. Why do people INSIST on messing up a good thing. BRING BACK THE SWIPE LEFT-RIGHT. It was so good. The new format of up-down scrolling is awful. Plus way too many ads. But these aren’t the worst things about it. Basically, you can’t even use the app. It constantly crashes on my iPhone XS. I open the app, then have to close an advertisement they shove down your throat, of course. Then, finally get to an article and start to read it, then the app crashes and goes back to my iPhone XS desktop. This inconsistency started about a month ago. I have used this app for years with no problem. They obviously messed with something they shouldn’t have messed with. This app has a very high rating only because it was so good for so long that it gathered up a lot of 5 stars. But this high, average long-term rating is not representative of what people think of it now. You have to read the recent reviews.
This is absolutely the best news app for TPA/STP and regional Florida breaking news/weather/traffic. I am tried all the news Apps for this area and none come close to News Channel 8. I am amazed -- and impressed -- by the timely and very informative push alerts I receive on my iPhone. They have helped me navigate traffic and stay informed of crime. WELL DONE News 8 WFLA!
Overall its a great app but every time i try to read and share an article the app freezes and i cant move to scroll down to read the rest of the story or the app completely just crashes and i have to re load it again for no valid reason. It seems to be “pick and choose” like when the app wants to actually fully function properly and seems to freeze and crash with certain stories if not a majority of them. I would give this a 5 star but this is a big issue ive noticed and doesn’t seem to be fixed
How dare I watch a news video fullscreen?! I paid my dues watching a garbage ad at the beginning, then the video played, with full player support, cast to device, mute, playback controls... Then the article was finished, but were they? NO! Here's a second advertisement at the end, and NO PLAYBACK CONTROLS! NO fullscreen, NO mute, NO playback controls or even an X! Just "Learn More" and nothing to do but either 1. Watch another advertisement until control is restored. OR 2. Force-quit the offensive over-advertising application. I won't be doing THAT much longer before my resolution is to REMOVE THIS APP.
I enjoy reading news from all the Tampa area, I had family in that area for 47 years. Although they are not with me any longer I still have wonderful memories of my times there, almost like my second home. Your app is a way for me to be there in a way. Even though the news is not always great I find good news items. Thanks for allowing me to "return" to old places, new changes, beautiful pictures and special memories. PW
Love the app but several times I click on link to certain stories and the app just closes out. Have refreshed and also reinstall app. But it continues to happen. Also app Only shows top videos? What happened to the stories. Have reinstalled app several times . Nothing works.
I absolutely DETEST the new version of your app. If I choose to read a story, I want to be able to READ IT without a video starting to play!!! Do you think nobody likes to actually read an article, but instead just mindlessly watch another video?!? Stop making “auto-play videos” active by default!! In addition to that, the look and feel is awful. I stopped using the Fox 13 app because they did exactly what your developers did. So it looks like I’m down to the local ABC news app 😒
I absolutely love the app, I have never had any issues with the app. It is wonderful to get the news updates and always know what is going on in the Tampa Bay Area. I love the weather notifications that I receive. I travel a lot and no matter where I am in the U.S., I always know what the weather is at home, lightning strikes, rain, etc. Great job!
Writing this review based on a comparison with my local news channel 5 , channel 8 is by far more tasteful, classy , accurate , news anchors are well spoken as well as very few mistakes when telling the story , we live in west palm beach and this is the news channel I watch to stay stay informed with state and news abroad
For some reason when I get notified about something with the app on my iPhone it only brings me to a screen that has me select what I want notifications on and location. Even when I put it in it stays on that page. I am no longer able to bring up the news story from the notification. I have never had this issues before and have deleted the App and added it back, still nothing…
Well the channel on the Internet is wonderful, the app is worthless. There’s a lot more advertising than anything else and the new story sir pretty much worthless with advertisements every inch or two. I highly recommend you watch the channel on the Internet and never download this app. It has been absolutely worthless to me and I am deleting it today. I’ve had it for four months and have not gotten one piece of news off of it worth seen. Most of it is Outdated news.
It’s so wonderful to have a app that specializes in what’s currently happening in real life time. I work tedious hours so catching the news is a treat for me but when I heard about Chanel 8 news app i jump in with both eyes open. It’s exactly what I need to compensate my long hour at work
The app is good and provides all of the notifications about the articles of the current events. However half the time I cannot read articles because they are either not downloading properly or I am kicked out of the app completely while reading articles. There are also times when an article is no longer found yet was published that same day.
This app constantly updates me on both Florida’s local news and sometimes what’s going on worldwide—a perfect balance of information. I highly recommend this news app to Floridians and anyone outside of FL too. You won’t be disappointed 👍
The app has nice graphics. News stories are great. However, unable to share any stories from within the app. Please fix that piece of your app. That is, if you want your name on stories that you want shared.
I’m from Michigan “Go Blue”. I enjoy following the news from the Tampa area especially your investigative reporter Benkin not sure if I got the spelling correct. It amazes me how companies neglect to live up to the business standards of why they are in business and represent themselves. I enjoy following the Gulf Coast weather. Thank you for a job well done. In the West Michigan area I follow WOOD TV 8 in Grand Rapids.
Months have become years spent patiently waiting for editors - or anyone - to recognize how the consistent editing and proofreading errors alter the entire context of WFLA’s “news” articles. I’m throwing in the towel on WFLA’s egregiously slanted, poorly written, defunct articles. I may have forgiven the fact that the app crashes more often than not; but if one must struggle to get the news, the hope is that there would be some level of reliable editorial quality.
Our family has been watching since the old black and white days in 1961. I’m 67 now and only watch on an iPad when out in Calif. But when in town during the Winter we watch on Spectrum cable. Love this station.
I hate this app, for years I thought it was my old phone that couldn’t handle it, but then I upgraded for the 12, and realized that the app still glitches the same way. The livestreams come with no sounds, freeze on regular basis, and image cut out the rest of the time... if you’re willing to skip any video, which can rarely be expanded to full/wide screen (oh, and they start on their own, no choice on your part), the pages are polluted with ads.
It got us through the last hurricane and it will get us through the next one too! These dedicated news people shined brightly and helped us through a hellish situation and we placed our trust in them! We say BRAVO! And Thank You!
I saw a quick blurb on the TV while channel surfing. Went to this highly rated app to look for it but to my complete dismay there’s no place to search for it! Seriously? I searched every freakin square inch of the page, zoomed in! Is it because I’m on a tablet? I shudder to think how difficult it would be to find a tiny search box on my phone! Really, who doesn’t put a search box on their news app. Delete delete delete
I like the reporting and the channel so I loaded this app a few months ago. Worked fine at first but with the last couple updates the app constantly freezes and crashes. Today it crashed five times before I could even get halfway through any news story. Way too buggy! Have deleted and reinstalled and the app still crashes after a couple mins. Deleted for good. Don’t waste your time
Not sure it deserves one star now as what happened however yesterday on 21 April 2020 the layout of you app completely changed...No news stories on the landing page as was the day prior only the live feed option which wouldn’t play with sound. You now have to select a box to see local news each and every time you go into the app like you have to with traffic flow, Better Call, etc.
I enjoy WFLA because they do not give only one-sided news. They give the conservative side as opposed to most main stream news agencies which give only the liberal side of a story and ignore the conservative side.
Great app initially but now it crashes every time I open a notification or click on notifications bell within the app. Start reading a story and it crashes. Videos loading and it crashes. Hoped the last update would fix it but didn’t help, might have made worse. Deleting, time to find a new app. 😑
So frustrating I deleted this app. Every time I’d tap on the notification of a story I’d like to READ, I’d get ads. Once I’d swipe all the ads away, I’d get a video about the story. I don’t want the video as others in the house are watching tv and don’t want to hear what I’m doing on my device. Sometimes the news story’s there, many times it isn’t. Tired of wasting time on it...
I don’t care for the radar on this app and that’s the main reason I got it. For some reason it is blank on the right side of the radar map and I am not able to move it over to see my city. Very frustrating I will not be using this app, this is the second time I got it and still not happy with it. Not even worth one star
Needs updating as it freezes and crashes constantly after the recent update. Also, ease up on the awful ads, will you? The last thing I care about in the middle of a hurricane is the latest offer from my local Jeep dealer and I shouldn’t have to be forced to see them before finding out if I’m in the path of a tornado or not.
I’ve tried reinstalling this app several times but it doesn’t work. I can’t read all the way through any article without the app crashing and closing itself down. Sometimes it crashes while opening and article to read and sometimes it crashes simply by opening the app. This isn’t a reliable source for our local news.
They give up to the minute news from all over. My husband and I retired up to North Carolina 2 1/2 years ago but I lived in the Tampa/Riverview area all my life. It’s great getting the news from our old surroundings.
It’s basically just their ad filled website, but on an app. Not the best, so hard to read through things with video and pictures all over the place… Only reason it’s 2 star instead of 1 is the push notifications being pretty helpful.
I get notifications of top stories but nowadays, when I tap on the notification, it doesn’t even show up in the news feed. Very frustrating! It didn’t used to be this way.
If you adjust the text to be even slightly larger, the ad at the bottom of every story blocks the end of the story. The larger you make the text, the less story you can read. That’s just not acceptable. I uninstalled this app months ago and thought it was way better now until I saw this.
Like the news app a lot except that when I open it the sound comes on for the video. Very annoying to me and others. Please correct this- I have my sound turned off and it still comes on. Am afraid to open the app... PS
I love this App! Have never ever had any problems or concerns. I love how I get all the notifications...or... top news stories, weather and areas closed down for accidents. Keep up the good job!!!
It hardly works. I was watching channel 8 every morning on my phone through my carrier, but it got so expensive. I downgraded just to WiFi and I the app is intermittent.
The recent update removed the swipe back gesture to return to the main page after reading an article. This is a terrible UX change. Not just with this app, but any of the sister stations that use the same platform.
I absolutely love this app!! The best and fastest for local news. I love the instant notifications I receive from this app. It allows me to keep up with stories as they happen!!
I like the way the app works. Mostly the topics on an alert are useful. The website, however, needs work on objectivity and filtering of appropriate items.
Have watched channel 8 for more yrs than I can remember. This app is great. I get notifications and always open to see what’s happening. Keep up the good work!!
Every day people use guns to defend themselves against criminals, but I never see it mentioned. Yet, every time there is an incident involving guns, it gets wall to wall coverage. How about being a little more fair and balanced in your reporting?
I used to love watching WFLA news in the morning but, started having trouble with the app crashing on my iPad a year ago. I try it every few months with no success. Had to switch to Fox 13. No problems with their app. Sorry.
Anytime I want to just see the news or read a story it takes several taps or swipes. If I try to watch video, like updates from the governor during a pandemic, forget it. The video starts muted and if I’m watching on my phone (XR) the buttons to either unmute or go full screen don’t show up and I have to guess where they’re at. Horrible app.
The most recent update did nothing but make the app worse! “View more” doesn’t open anything, everything is huge, and not as easy to navigate as before the update. Will not be using until you fix the issues.
I do understand a that a “free” app has to somehow pay for itself… But there are so many ads that you can’t even really enjoy reading the articles. I was just looking for an APP for local news, but this one is almost unusable… Will probably just delete it
Experience the brand new WFLA News Channel 8 News app. The WFLA.com app is On Your Side with the latest breaking news, sports, and weather coverage for the Tampa Bay area, including Tampa, St. Petersburg and Clearwater, FL, Hillsborough, Pinellas, Polk, Pasco and Hernado counties, plus the Orlando area. Get more news, more weather and more video. It's everything you love about WFLA News Channel 8 right at your fingertips. FEATURES: - Live News Channel 8 broadcasts & on-demand replays - Current news and Storm Team 8 weather is featured right on the home screen - Navigate easily through local news and information that's important to you - Stay informed of breaking news with push alerts - View local news videos embedded within stories or at full screen - Understand how weather will affect you with local forecasts, radar, maps and video - Alerts for severe weather and closings/delays appear on the home screen - See the latest traffic conditions on an interactive map - Help shape local coverage by submitting photos and news tips through Send It - Easily share interesting articles via e-mail, SMS, Facebook(R), Twitter(TM), and more - The latest on the Buccaneers, Rays, Lightning, Bulls and other Bay area sports - From Gasparilla to the Florida Strawberry Festival, we're On Your Side. Please review the app and let us know what you think.
