WOOD TV8 - Grand Rapids News

I’d love to give it 5 stars but there are too many ads embedded everywhere. It disrupts the stories with gifs and pops ups. Give us a version with no ads, even if I have to pay, and you’ll get your five stars.

I am grateful you carry the President’s Press Conferences but am greatly disturbed and upset that you apparently refuse to carry it all. You show part of it and in recent conferences have cut out doctors or other government leaders who are giving us needed information. I am not sure if you have decided whether or not that it is all relevant, but that should be for us to decide. We need the office of the Presidency supported and not undermined. We need to hear what our leaders are doing or not able to do. When you cut away from our leaders then your newscasters try to say what has just been said. In a coronavirus pandemic an hour a night or what is needed is part of your purpose in serving the community and nation. I turn to other channels to get more until they cut off the conference. Saying we can go search for the rest somewhere else does not cut it fo me. Please consider these comments seriously.

June 2018: This app has finally arrived. It works smoothly and seems to be quite stable. The interface is clean, uncluttered, and intuitive. There are a number of ads, of course, but they are not overwhelming or overly intrusive. This is a great source for local news and important developments such as the weather and school closings. January 2017: I haven't reviewed this app for three years now, but my previous comment stands. I don't find it as bad as some others, and I do find it a good source of information for local news. Weather reports in school closings are vital information for me. However, this latest update has crashed it. It opens and locks on the screen that says "fetching articles". Jan 2014: Latest update is causing crashes. Can't use the weather button at all as it crashes the app. After some very bad versions, this app finally works well. The UI is clear and works smoothly. Navigation is very good. All in all this is now pretty decent app and good for local news, weather, and school closings.

I have no problems on the app whatsoever but the one bug that I have is that every time I try to go and watch early morning daybreak or eight W. or news eight at noon when I watch the live video I love watching that I enjoy the app big fan of wood TV8 love you guys I grew up watching wood TV8 and I love watching wood TV8 and it has all of the news and weather to watch and look out for! So keep updating and keep updating the app and maybe add some more features in new features and I would love to have wood TV eight on Roku

My Go-To station for news and weather has been Channel 8 for over 50 years. I know that times and audiences change and that means programming does too. The quality of the newscasters and the meteorologists rank very high with me. I just wish the “behind the scenes” personnel could pay more attention to what is on screen. Often the captioning is not accurate, and sometimes the person on air has to request the appropriate caption. I know you probably cannot do anything about my other complaint. I’d rather hear the whole news/weather story in its entirety than to get it in disjointed snippets over the entire broadcast.

I upgraded my iphone and now I have to be careful when I swipe up to close the intro ad I end up closing the app. Then I get to the story and after every paragraph there is an ad, I understand that ads are needed since the app is free but my goodness do we really need 5+ ads a story? Then I get the issue where the ad takes up my screen and every time I try to scroll past it the app thinks I clicked to see the ad and opens it my browser and I have to close the app to get out of that loop. Easy fix is to just have a ad banner that stays at the top or bottom and just scrolls different ads, not to hard. The swiping to get rid of the intro ad can be a click button, solved…

I was quite irate when after a update when I click on a news link and instead of being able to have the option on clicking on the video to watch the news story, it now automatically plays, and there is no muting or stopping the video. Before the update you could read only the news story and not worry about burning up data to watch the story. Nothing pisses off a wife more at 4am when I wake up and look at my phone for the latest news when she just got home from a 12hr shift at 2am from working in the hospital and automatically the news story you just wanted to read only starts playing video.

This app is garbage. Truly. Someone needs to say it. The advertisement that overlays the opening welcome screen (swipe up to remove) is beyond annoying. The volume of ads throughout the experience are painful. The strength of woodtv is your weather and your app makes it insanely hard to get any detailed forecast. The app is horrible. Honestly… at the risk of sounding like a Karen you really should throw it away and start over - this is genuinely a worst-in-class user experience. It has been for YEARs (even with your old app). Think you need to hire someone who knows what they are doing.

I followed a weather alert from WOODTV to the app on my iPad yesterday. It did not take me to the story but a page that had stories vaguely related to the alert. From there I could not get back to any kind of directory. It just seemed stuck. I finally had to just close out of the app since I could do nothing at that point. This update’s about two weeks old so (I’m embarrassed to admit) this is probably first time I’ve used it. The app use to work well. Now? I am giving you a very generous two stars for now. Fix this mess.

The number of ads in this app is far greater than the number of news stories. The ads randomly open other web pages and the App Store without me clicking on them. Here’s the best part there’s a whole section of ads that are like not ads but fake news ads that look just like the real news stories. It’s really shameful in my opinion. I’ve put up with it for years because I like to stay informed about my community. I’ve had enough though. Maybe I’ll try MLive instead.

This app used to be my go-to for local news and information around Grand Rapids, MI. Anything I might have heard about, I knew I could rely on WoodTV8 for laying out the info clear, concise and helpful. Now, they have chosen the route of seemingly ONLY posting political information while very clearly indicating whose “side” they’re on...just like all the ‘big guys’ who are paid off to report only info that bashes their opposing beliefs. Really sad to delete this app today, just miss the home-grown stories. The app itself could use some help too, in case that’s what you came here to find out.

This app is now completely “stuffed” with app-slowing ads. Adding to the madness, many ads are duplicated numerous times throughout the articles. In fact, there is one big ad box that must be removed b4 even seeing anything. There are also ad links to hoards of phony news articles that, to me, puts in question this news organization’s credibility. In short, this app quality went from Excellent to Poor over the many years I have used it; disappointing to say the least.

Others have already said it. Story text is obscured by the video. Gigantic ads larger than the story itself make reading the stories you ARE able to see almost unbearable. EDIT: So much wrong with this update. They’ve had sketchy updates in the past, but this one has to be the worst. Since the update, the weather page displays exactly the same number for the high temp and percent chance of precipitation. It has become so unusable that we have switched stations.

Getting to the weather is not as easy. The radar his horrible! I can’t get on the app at work because it automatically starts playing videos. I can’t have that while I’m working. When you click on a story and hit the back button it doesn’t go back to the home screen. The upgrade has defiantly been a fail! I’d deal with it if I could at least get good weather info and not have a video come on every time.

Excellent app. for news, school closures and more. It seems the most recent update has added video auto play to news stories. It was startling. Be aware that there is a very clear setting that allows you to disable auto play.

Have been ‘with’ WOOD my entire life. (Over 45 yrs) and this is where I’ll stay. Never really read the paper, but always keep informed here @ news8. When I found out I could receive info via my fone, I signed right up. Never had any trouble or problems. 😊 Thank you!

If I want to read about a story that has a video, instead of watching the video, only 2 lines of text show below the video. Each time a new video plays, the volume is reset to zero. Having to turn it up, rather that turn it on to a preset level, is a pain. I have stopped opening the app because it has gotten worse. On the upside, I have more time available away from this app.

Performance of the app makes it almost unusable now on an iPad mini 2. Lots of forced advertisements, takes a very long time to load up, and then is very laggy. Can’t even get the weather to load. Maybe the iPad mini 2 hardware isn’t enough? But why would a news and weather app need so much power to run? Seems it is not optimized at all. Previous version ran fine.

I really prefer to get news and weather info from channel 8, but there are way too many ads thrown in my face. I hit the x to get rid of them and an told "we'll try not to show that ad again" and the same one immediately pops up! Please do something about this. I come to get news and weather not see advertisements. If this doesn't stop I will go elsewhere!

Many times the video is choppy and repeats multiple times. Other times the video is not available. I deleted the app and reinstalled it to no avail. I love wood TV eight and the anchors and wish the app was better! I miss the news!

I love to watch News 8 on my iPad using the live streaming feature! I run into a lot of problems though with it just stopping, or fast forwarding, or going blank. Not sure where these issues are coming from. What I HATE about live streaming is when the program cuts to commercial and the ads blared at FULL BLAST!!!! Please, how about some volume control? I’m not deaf!!

I was getting really frustrated with the app but the new upgrades have made a world of difference! Waiting through the ads SO tiresome and I considered trying another app. This change is fabulous!!

Finally a platform that is as useful as it is informative. The crashes have stopped but the screen freezes every now and then. The redesigned home page is logical and intuitive. You’ve come a long way baby. That was then. The crashes are back and the screen lockup’s are a new benefit.

Among the many things that make viewing and listening to your content are the advertisements. I understand the need for commercials, but why have the banners during the news clip. They overlap the view and Wood TV programmers have chosen to disable the full screen mode. Come on what good is your app if people give up on the clumsiness of it. I’ve gone from a daily viewer to a rare viewer.

I am 77 years old and grew up with only 3 channels available most days depending on which way to turn the aerial. My family chose channel 8 to watch all the time. Bill Allen lived nearby and I his daughter was my first girlfriend.

I have not been able to get WOOD TV since July 4th!! I am going to end all TV viewing if not returned by the end of the month and listen to the Radio I only watched News 8 for 27 years that’s when I moved to Grand Rapids

It’s a quick way for me to stay informed. They refresh their news updates constantly.

I like the news updates/notifications. But the app isn’t setup in a manner where you see relative information in one place. I like the way it was organized before they revamped it. It also just shuts down on me sometimes. But I like the instant news notifications.

The absolute best station for news and weather in West Michigan. Bill Steffen and the Storm Team 8 team are the best there is. I live in North Carolina now, but still follow them daily. Accurate, dependable, educational. You’re simply the best! Bill A.

Decent app, bunch of news but literally 98% of the notifications I get are about death. Where’s the positivity? I know it’s there I see it when I scan through the news but why only notifications for death and injuries? This would be all that bad if notifications were rare from here but I get at least 10 a day.

They really screwed up the format and usability of the app with the last update. The text is now huge and awkward to navigate. Not sure what they are trying to do here but should probably think about some testing before they release this stuff. I will give it a few weeks before I delete the app.

I find WOODTV very annoying most of the time, especially when they are self promoting:" you'll only see this on 8". Can't stand that kind of childish and unprofessional behavior. Also the same with the adds for WOODTV, they are done in such a way that it grates on my nerves, the voice is very abrasive. I find myself more and more switching to other local channels.

II also follow the news from WFLA in Tampa Florida. They not only cover news from around stamps but also around the country. At times they posted news from West Michigan that were not covered by WOODTV 8. I wondered why would a station in Florida cover our local news when our local NBC station didn’t cover it. There was also news about Jack Doles that WOOD TV 8 did not cover.

In many ways this is a great news source, BUT the app freezes all the time. The only thing you can do is close it completely and start over.

The news articles don’t load 90% of the time and you have to keep trying until they do, very irritating. The other functions of the app are even worse like the function to open up for the storm team 8 panel is impossible to open. And if by chance it does open, the data takes way too long to load. Worse app ever!

This app is very annoying when you open an article it automatically plays a video and you can’t turn it off. I don’t want a video, I want to read an article. Please turn off the video, or put an option to turn that feature off so it doesn’t automatically play the video.

Want to check on the Tigers? Ok, if you want to know what they did two weeks ago. Many of their links aren’t updated so they’re virtually useless.

I have a bug to report. Two actually. First, I got a news notification when I don’t have it enabled. Second, went to report the bug and only had general help on the app so came here and went to the website which told me to go back to the app and use the feedback option, which doesn’t exist on the screen they showed me. Nice catch 22 guys.

So when it works, you have the pleasure of swiping up on every single story. Some of the advertisers even pole fun at this with instructions that say swipe up, as in yeah, we think this is silly too. But most of the time, it doesn’t work. You’ll get a plain white screen and a bender ad at the bottom, with zero actual content. Skip this app. It’ll only sour your view on the whole channel.

No such thing as real news anymore. This app is no different. Now they “upgraded” it and its terrible. Used to be okay now it’s a mess. Tons of advertising and the simplicity is gone. I’m all about change but this change is bad. Hard to navigate, can’t easily check the weather in other cities like you could before.

Have made some improvements. Not having to watch repeated commercials with each video I click on. Still too many though. Sensationalism is still too high. Also 8 will many times report one side of a story. Get both sides and report “fairly”. What is reported as racism isn’t racism once all the facts are sought. Not in the best interest of the community.

This television station does not hide the fact that they lean way to the far left as far as political standings. During these difficult times we need networks to be telling us the news fairly and without bias, and unfortunately, this station has become very liberal in their ‘reporting’.

The most recent version of the app is incredibly frustrating! I would like to be able to check the weather details without the video forecast playing automatically with no clear option for stopping it. Please fix this!

Seems hard to navigate to the different news types and some are duplicated. I dislike the boxes below on the main page. Main page only has 3 topics. Difficult to navigate to another section once leaving the main page

Best news in the west Michigan area and constantly improving Easy to use and has up to date info great app and station

Was told to update the app March 2024. Previously the app always came up with an ad your could swipe past but now the whole screen is an ad or large picture and I can only read one or two lines at the bottom of the screen. Not going to use this app anymore

Well done update that makes sense. I was about to dump this app before this update. Thanks for listening.

This app is not friendly user. It gets hung up in ads all the time, I like to read more than watch a video. Sports score part is terrible, and not kept up to date. It’s become more of a Ad site than a news site.

Ah, another article claiming that anyone who questions vaccines is “buying into a hoax” and my favorite...Russian bots have been spreading “misinformation.” WoodTV you are making your oppression of free speech so blatantly obvious it’s mind blowing. Maybe you should interview one of the thousands of doctors and former vaccine developers to hear their side...then it wouldn’t be so obvious as to which side you are really on. #biasednewsreporting #1984

This is weird as I see adds pop up in the app. Even when you go to the website there are adds. It’s not easy to find information like weather or news without some stupid add popping up or it not loading the page. So, rating it 2 stars is actually being nice. Might just delete it.