NPR One App Reviews

This app is slowly getting better. But the core problem still is that it tries to customize your feed based on what you like but, at the best, it does not give you enough control and, at the worst, makes a mess of it. It seems that there are two ways that it tries to guess what you like: 1) an “interesting” (like) button and 2) what stories you fast forward past (dislike). This sounds good but how people will actually use the app was not thought through. First of all there is no way to un-click the interesting button if you hit it by accident. Secondly, and more importantly, there are many reasons you may fast forward past something; perhaps you already heard the story when it aired before, perhaps you are not in the mood for another political story right now, because you love politics and have just listened to a dozen. The app makes no distinctions, or more importantly it neither allows you to make distinctions, or have control over your own feed. Why not let me “unfollow" a show? Why not let me “play later” for a show that I like, but is too long for me to listen to right now, or that I am not in the mood for? Why not allow me to have a couple of different streams… a “most recent” when I want to hear the news, or a “most interested” stream when I want to hear some more in depth, less topical shows? There are so many ways that more control could be given to the user.

First thing I listen to in the morning. Love the mix of news and clips from NPR shows.

Ive used the app for a week now. Its not as intuitive as the Pandora app, but I have discovered a few programs I was unaware of and very much enjoy. It would be helpful to have a "not interested" button. Id also like the opportunity to scan back through my feed so that I can tap "interesting" on those programs Ive heard but (due to multitasking) was unable to favorite. I look forward to seeing how this app develops!

Love!

This app has been a great concept since it launched, but the execution hasnt gotten the kinks worked out. Frequently replays content, will reset or disconnect when using Chromecast or even when turning the phone off and back on. I dont need to hear the local news summary five times in an hour. This app highlights how much better the experience is to get NPRs content directly on the radio or via podcasts. NPR should dedicate more effort toward supporting this app so it can live up to its potential.

The app is OK. I wish you could skip back as well as forward to stories and could fast forward or reverse a few seconds within a story. I wish the app presented stories grouped by day, in addition to topic. I dont want to hear a politics story thats four days old.

The future of radio listening - Im a big fan of your work. Great design and attention to subtle details.

So this app is useless. Or worse, harmful to your intellect.

Just started listening it is interesting.

I enjoy listening to the stories and podcasts on NPR One, but the recommendation algorithm isn’t up to snuff. It doesn’t do a great job of recommending relevant content. It seems to base recommendations primarily on podcasts, rather than content. Also, there’s no way to save a story for later listening. If I’m interrupted in the middle of a story and come back to the app later, the app refreshes and starts with the national newscast. Finally, it would be nice to have a Mac OS version of the app, so I could listen at work on my Macbook.

Until the day that NPR gets serious about supporting iPad and Tablets - in horizontal orientations - I won’t find this app too interesting. It could and should be universal in more than name only. Many, many other apps are.

Im so grateful to the user who pointed out that this app uses a lot of cellular data. I am just two weeks into my billing cycle and I have used more data that ever before. 5 stars if the app can be less of a data hog. I have been very happy with what is on my feed. I love being able to get the top of the hour news even if it is 20 past.

Can we get adjustable playback speed? Id love to listen at 1.5 speed like podcasts. Otherwise, its great! Its like listening to the radio with the ability to skip stories I find uninteresting.

After a month of non-stop huckstering on my favorite NPR apps for NPR One, I decided to try it. OMG, what a waste of bandwidth and computer programming! Outside of a terribly confusing interface and a non-working attempt to customize your listening experience, the app does not let you download podcasts. For over five years I have been downloading podcasts while connected to my home WiFi and then listening to them walking around the city, on the subway, in planes, and in hotel rooms that have unreliable internet. NPR One forces me to use data if I have not WiFi and does nothing if I have no internet at all. I thought the apps would be like a really intelligent podcast download device. Instead its more like a bad NPR radio. I recently read an article that said that many podcasters are creating their own apps so they can monetize their podcasts. A word to NPR: This is NOT the way to do it! Not only will I never use your NPR One app again, Im not too sure I want to even listen to NPR podcasts. There is an NPR News app that I used to use to catch up on the news when traveling to places without any good news or foreign countries that have no US news. Ill use that app when traveling. But NPR One is getting pressed hard and deleted.

I enjoy using this app except that some stories are much louder than others and I find myself constantly adjusting the volume because I either can’t hear or need to rip the headphones out. Please fix. Thanks!

NPR stations are the only radio I listen to so I was happy to find this new app. But Ive had so many ads for that big box store that I switched to podcasts instead. The app has improved over the last month. It used to be very glitchy. Not sure the "interesting" button helps fine-tune enough your next offerings but it seems to be getting better, too.

What I mainly like is that it starts with the news, and then allows me to select stories that Im interested in. Im still a new user, and as I gain experience, I hope that it allows me to decline programs that I dont care for. So far, Im impressed.

Beautiful design, great line up of podcasts. But not having a skip "X seconds" button is a symbol of UX design gone wrong. Obviously, NPR do not want anyone to skip adverts. And their solution for that, instead of working Hard on better ads (like Gimlet media does), is taking out a basic button that exists on every other podcast App in the Universe. The effect was just me deleting the App after a few uses.

Id been hearing so much about this app from my favorite podcasts. I downloaded it in the hopes that it would help save memory space on my phone by streaming the latest episodes of my podcasts instead of putting them on my phone. But it really doesnt seem to work very well at all. I never have the latest episode of a given podcast in my feed and its really hard to get to the podcasts I want to listen to, which is the whole reason I downloaded the app. I did discover one new podcast which is awesome and totally made the download worth it, but at this point Im going to delete npr one and go back to the podcast app.

This app is supposed to learn what you like and recommend other stuff youd like. Im not impressed by that function. Recommendations just arent that good. So I want to use it to just listen to the shows I like, and browse for more. Its not necessarily easy to do that -- hint, "follow" the shows you like, cuz they keep disappearing from the main list. The biggest annoyance is that the sleep timer doesnt work when you tell it to stop at the end of the current show. Instead, it plays the news, then keeps on playing what it wants to. For hours. Since I like to listen to shows while Im going to sleep, this is a nonstarter for me. Both the NPR News app and the Public Radio app do a better job of what Im looking for.