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The Spectator Magazine App Complaints & User Negative Comments 2024
The Spectator Magazine app received 36 complaints, negative comments and reviews by users. Have you ever had a bad experience using The Spectator Magazine? Can you share your negative thoughts about the spectator magazine?
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The Spectator Magazine for Negative User Reviews
✓ Swiping to left to advance page is sometimes non responsiveAs tittle says..Version: 4.8.0
✓ The magazine content is excellent. The new app is rubbish .One wonders why it was necessary to turn the previously efficient app into something this complicated. There is no title page, so you can’t access previous articles, you can’t turn it sideways to see tiny cartoon writing, it sends a different article from the one you want to forward... some irritations are glitches, others seem fundamental. Having had a dual paper/digital subscription for about ten years, I’m experiencing the rage of being intentionally thwarted by the Spectator for the first time. Please revert. I’m not a Luddite, but these ‘advances’ are a significant setback in user-friendly access..Version: 5.0.4
✓ Comments gone and display problemsIn my view any app absolutely must offer - at minimum - the functionality and usability of the website version. If it doesn’t then what’s the point? So removing comments from the app is a big no no for me, and is one of those baffling decisions that is likely to infuriate a lot of your readers. My second gripe is about how the app actually displays on the home screen. Because you seem to have renamed it as “The Spectator Magazine” it doesn’t fit properly and displays as “TheSpectator…” Clumsy and inelegant. Just change the app name back to The Spectator, please..Version: 7.0.0
✓ Terrible AppNever works properly.Version: 7.0.0
✓ CBHGreat magazine for the variety of topics, originality of the pieces, and especially smoothness of the prose. But on an iPhone 6, not so much..Version: 3.2
✓ Where Have Comments Gone?I am a new subscriber. The app worked beautifully for a few days, but now no longer includes a comments section after each article. I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled with no change. Please advise on what could be causing this? Thank you..Version: 7.0.0
✓ New update doesn’t keep downloaded editions, whatever you sayUpdated review: No, Developer, the problem has not been resolved. Every time I open the app I have to redownload the latest edition (and sometimes older editions as well) or they will not open offline. My guess is that every time you update any part of the magazine it requires that the changes be downloaded before the magazine can be opened. This is a good manifestation of what everyone is currently saying: you don't seem to test the app properly (or at all) before inflicting it on the rest of us. Rather than attempting to defend the indefensible why not just try it properly for yourselves? ............ If I download the weekly magazine I want to be able to read it offline as I always used to be able to do. Instead, only an hour or two after it is downloaded the edition shows up as needing to be downloaded again and cannot be read offline, so cannot be read on the underground or on a plane. That can't be the intention (or if it is then the thinking is idiotic) so can this please be sorted out?.Version: 7.1
✓ Crap appThe magazine is as it should be but the app is really irritating. It’s slow, and doesn’t allow subscribers automatic access to things like coffee house and the daily updates. I get tempting emails about these about three times a day but to read them I have to log in with a long forgotten password. The point of an App is that it is an automatic portal to a virtual world. This app only takes you half way. Point two - it won’t let me post this review without using a stupid ‘nickname’ and everyone I choose seems to be taken..Version: 4.2.0
✓ Keeps crashingGreat content but app keeps crashing on 12.9” iPad..Version: 4.8.0
✓ Specie subscriberI just gave this one star. Not because of the content. I thoroughly enjoy Jeremy Clarke especially, but all the other content as well. When I can get to it, that is. I hope the people at The Spectator are reading this, because YOU HAVE RUINED THE APP. There wasn’t anything wrong with the old app. It was straightforward and worked perfectly. THAT’S ALL WE SUBSCRIBERS WANT. The new app is maddeningly convoluted. It takes too much time to find what I want to read, and once found, there’s no guarantee that a simple click will bring it up. You sold out to gearhead app designers and change for change’s sake. This is a frustrating disaster. Keep it simple, stupid..Version: 5.1.4
✓ Frustrating and near impossible to useThis is the third format of Spectator download I have used. The first one was the best. Each of the two “upgrades” has been worse than its predecessor. The latest is a disaster. This latest version makes it very hard to download successfully, and many times when I have been on a train or a plane I have found that the magazine did not download. When I read the magazine it does not bookmark the last page I read and so whenever I resume reading it takes a full minute to get back to where I was. Please either fix this app or scrap it..Version: 5.1.2
✓ Patrick BalshamI can’t even get to the article to read it!.Version: 4.8.0
✓ IT Dudes - what’s up with the app?Used to be fine, if a bit slow, and then the new version 5 came out which had weird counter-intuitive functionality, but then we got 5.1.4… this one turns my phone (iPhone 12) into a hand-warmer which, to be fair, is nice at this time of year, but it also drains down the battery extremely quickly. Yes, it is definitely this app. I’ve tried restarting and with all other apps closed. It’s definitely the spectator app. To top it off, this weekend, it seems to be crashing on a whim. Content obviously still excellent, but hard to consume with the above issues. Please fix it soon! Thanks.Version: 5.1.4
✓ Unutterably awful new appThe previous app was excellent - simple and functional and permitted quick and efficient access to the magazine and to coffee house articles. The new app is a rage-inducing piece of software junk. For example: when the new magazine arrives, access to the current week’s edition is lost; the magazine never remembers the last page I was reading; it’s all mindbuggeringly slow to load - critical when over a snatched breakfast is the only Spectator-reading opportunity of the day; never mind this paying subscriber - even the app itself frequently can’t be bothered to wait for itself to load and closes itself down. And I could go on. The current software developer needs to be sacked (and preferably disembowelled slowly with a blunt spoon) and the old app brought back. It is impossible to read and enjoy the Spectator like this..Version: 5.0.4
✓ Simply awful appThis app seems designed to frustrate its readers. Enjoying an article, but then called away? Rest assured you will never find it again; when you re-open the app it will have vanished, and there is no search function. Scrolling Twitter on your iPad and find a link to a Spectator story? Well, it won’t take you here. Better re-enter your password information in the browser. Exasperating..Version: 7.2
✓ Reeks of London BiasSome of the writers are ok as long you can stick a one note myopic viewpoint. It claims to be irreverent to authority but if you read this rag long enough it is apparent that it largely reflects the perceptions of right wing, Brexiteer Londoners who fancy themselves a version of intellectual free thinking. Judging by the remarks in the online Comments section, The Spectator attracts unedifying numbers of the British alt-right: bigots, bullies and intolerant boneheads seeking to shout down with scatological insult anyone with a different point of view. The overall tone is unpleasant. The Spectator promotes the ideal of freedom without responsibility of the individual, whether in regard to personal behaviour, to one’s neighbours and to the wider community, or to the outlying natural world. Its fig leaf is wit, by which the writers seek to seduce the reader to The Spectator’s louche perspective. Vile, in a word..Version: 4.8.0
✓ Great to have speedy delivery ~ BUTI was a print subscriber for years but waiting for Canada Post to get it in my mailbox became a frustration. Now I have my favourite magazine before it's at the newsagent's stand in the UK. Still miss having the rolled up copy in my pocket but the speedy delivery is making up for that. That was before the “improvements”. The website accessed by Safari or Firefox is great. The app is an absolute and total disaster - too many faults to list. A shame because I can no longer access this marvellous content without WiFi, not always available where I live..Version: 5.1.4
✓ Clever scamYou can subscribe for a year, but if you don’t renew, you lose all access to the issues that you purchased. You’re only buying access, not the actual magazines..Version: 5.1.4
✓ No app supportI had read the SPECTATOR for years in print and was thrilled to have the ease of the APP. I love the writing. HOWEVER, subscribing thru iTunes (which is the only way you can do a monthly sub) has become a nightmare in using the app. For many months the app is not recognizing the iTunes sub on any iOS device. Mini iPad, iPad or iPhone. I have submitted several 'ticket' and no one responds with a viable solution. There is no web id for iTunes users and no matter how many times I delete and reinstall the app there are NO DOWNLOADS of the current mags. Nor can one use the iTunes sub to access the website ... This is really unforgivable - the app has not been updated since 2014 and there was a major iOS update this year. It's sad. I doubt I will hear from any one at the SPECTATOR. If I do I will come back and write another review. Do not purchase this app..Version: 3.2
✓ New version difficult to useThe latest update is in many ways a visual improvement, but the magazine is now difficult to read. If you use the menu to skip ahead to an article, and then try to resume reading the magazine from the start, scrolling to the next article takes you back to the article you reached from the menu, rather than just the next page. So scrolling from page 1 to 2 actually takes you to page 40, if you’d been reading page 40 beforehand. Can this please be addressed in the next update?.Version: 5.1.0
✓ Podcast playback poorMagazine reading and latest news is great. However, listening to podcasts is poor. There is a tab for audio leading to podcasts which you can play. However, clicking it leads to another subscription site upon which the Spectator log in does not work. You can play the podcasts but playback stops as soon as screen times out or you close the screen to perhaps go for a walk while listening. There is also an absence of normal podcast control such as skip forward / back. I really want to browse and use all content within one app so perhaps this needs to be addressed..Version: 4.8.0
✓ Multiple problemsThe old app was fine — but this one is riddled with bugs and design flaws. It can’t play downloaded podcasts. It doesn’t allow you to read in full screen, but always has bars at the top and bottom (unlike the old app). It can’t handle verse layout, but re-wraps all lines into prose format, making it very difficult to read anything written in verse, e.g. regularly in the weekly Competition (again, the old app handled this correctly). I have also had multiple issues with crashing and failure to download issues when it says it has. My advice: get the Spectator Australia app; you can access the Australian edition with a UK subscription; this includes the full UK edition, plus additional Aus content you can ignore if you wish, but uses the old app which works so much better. It doesn’t do podcasts or Coffee House though — but then this app can’t play the podcasts it downloads anyway, so no loss there..Version: 5.1.4
✓ Problem trying to read offlineI have been a subscriber for over 10 years, first through Kindle then through the iPad app. I love the Spectator and have recommended to many. However, a recent update to the app has made it impossible to read downloaded issues offline. After about 20 minutes of offline reading, the app boots me out of the downloaded magazine and requires a login. As my favorite time to read The Spectator is on flights, this is a real problem. Either I am forced to purchase expensive internet service on the flight (if available) or I have to read some other less enjoyable publication that does allow offline reading. PLEASE FIX THIS!.Version: 5.0.4
✓ Why fix what ain’t broke?The previous version of the app was great, perfect even, so why change? “We’ve listened” I am told by the developers. Well, it’s gone backwards. I now can’t read the magazine in order, I have to jump around by section. How annoying. And all my favourite columnists quick search function? Gone. And searching for articles by authors by clicking on their name? Gone. Worst of all, it reloads every time one leaves and returns to the app, so one loses the article they were reading. The ironic thing is that this debacle would make a perfect article for The Spectator itself. Fortunately the magazine remains excellent, just such a shame they wasted money on an unnecessary “upgrade” to the app. Five stars for the magazine, one star for the new app..Version: 7.0.0
✓ It's Right Wing but not Wing-NutI've been reading the Spectator for years. It's basically a magazine for political junkies but as an ex-pat I find it keeps me in touch with the zeitgeist in England. They are now full on fascists. Delingpole and Moore are the first ones I'd put against the wall. Then that asswipe Taki. It’s a disgusting magazine and I’ve cancelled my subscription..Version: 4.1.1
✓ Wrong article orderUnfortunately after the last update the articles in the weekly edition no longer proceed in the same order as the print edition in the magazine. The Spectator has decided to lump all the columns together, all the features together etc, rather than the general mix found in the print edition and previous versions of the app. This is very disappointing and could have been avoided. Additionally, the font is uglier and the scrolling is much jumpier than before..Version: 7.3
✓ App Keeps Deleting DownloadsWriting a second review after having spent the past few days travelling and attempting to use the new App, with little success. Twice I had downloaded the latest edition of the magazine, ready to be read on a flight, and both times the download had been deleted when I attempted to start reading. This morning I double-checked the magazine was downloaded, in case it was my own technological illiteracy, and it’s done so again! Close to useless if you’re planning on using the app to read whilst offline/travelling..Version: 7.0.0
✓ I finally got it to work!!I’ve been a Spectator reader for many years, but the new app doesn’t allow me to read when I’m not connected to the internet. Is it just me? I download the magazines and can read them when online but if I’m in the garden, on an aeroplane, by the beach with no internet it defaults to the login screen and gets stuck. Any ideas? *** UPDATE *** After a few emails to tech support, who were very helpful, if you delete the app and reinstall it, everything works perfectly. You will no longer be asked to login all the time and can happily read off-line. Well done Speccy!.Version: 5.0.4
✓ PoorMagazine won’t download in app..Version: 4.7.0
✓ Spectator - a curate’s egg of a journalThere are some great columnists writing for the Spectator and these are to be found in the first third of the journal. There is an awful lot of padding in the Arts section which is more or less entirely London centric and provides irrelevant comment on shows to be seen that are completely unaffordable excursions for most people. Deborah Ross is the pick of the reviewers for cinema. The books reviewed are mostly dull tomes that few people other than the reviewers will read and even fewer people will buy. The latter pages of the Spectator make a stab at levity with the High and Low life columns which are readable. The chess and bridge sections are waste of space. I have no idea who would be entertained by Melissa Kite’s column and this I would junk along with the wine and turf pieces. More Rod Liddle and Lionel Shriver would be good..Version: 4.2.0
✓ Offer?You offered a free trial if I added the app. NO FREE TRIAL on the app, so I deleted the app. That's bad customer relations and now I am no longer interested in subscribing..Version: 2.1.1
✓ Do you never test these updates?The latest update isn’t very good. The magazine is no longer able to be read as a magazine rather it is now a random selection of articles. The order of them doesn’t correspond to the printed magazine and despite downloading the ‘magazine’ for later offline reading that doesn’t seem to work. Previous updates to the App have been disappointing and it seems this is no different. Can we please have the magazine back as a downloadable magazine? Thank you..Version: 7.0.0
✓ Subscription issuesLovely prose - incompetent accountants. Stop double billing us!.Version: 7.2
✓ Awful new app - goodbye Wood, hello TreesUsed to look forward to Thursday mornings - new Spectator digital edition arriving. Into the (previous) app where the content was listed - a nice clear overview with enough info to decide whether or not to read. Not any more. The new app is designed to make you trawl through everything at tree level - if metaphors can be mixed - with the same article appearing several times as you wander about. What overviews/menus do exist have too little information to enable a quick decision. Some readers may enjoy the discovery method, but I’m afraid I’m not one of them, so cheerio Spectator - until you bring back a more structured app..Version: 5.0.4
✓ Why can’t you read comments through the app?This is a very readable app and very reliable. But, I can’t see the comments left on articles. This means I increasingly need to log in to the web version to see the comments on an article, making the need for the app almost pointless. If I am missing something I am happy to delete or amend this review. But if it is the case you can’t see comments on articles then I feel this app is seriously lacking something and is worse than just using the website..Version: 7.2
✓ Significantly DegradedLess intuitive and clumsier than prior versions. Call this one a fail and bring back the predecessor please..Version: 4.0
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