Leave a Review Wondery
Content? Awesome. App? Degrades the value of the content.
It’s inexcusable to have an app that repeatedly crashes like this one. Want to binge? Be prepared to restart the app multiple times. Clearly the “premium” I’m paying for is the content and not the listening experience. I feel lucky to get through a 25 minute episode and that’s not the kind of feeling I want from a podcast player. This does not happen with any other major podcast app.
I don’t want to think about if I’m in the mood to be yanked out of a story when I’m in the mood for a story. And that’s ultimately what I have to consider every time I think about launching this app. Which sometimes leads me to other non-Wondery content.
The app owes the content an apology. I’m not asking it to do super fancy superfluous things. I’m asking it to play an audio file without consistently crashing. That’s it. And how bad is it that inconsistent crashing would be an improvement?Show lessPlayRage
Developer Response
Thanks for trying the app and we certainly are sorry for the inconvenience. We just released an update (version 1.7.7) that we believe will help remedy the situation you're experiencing. Would you mind deleting the app, then reinstalling the latest version and letting us know how it goes? For faster service, email us at support@wondery.com and we'll jump on any issues ASAP.Great content, awful app
I have written to Wondery support many times over the last year. I am shocked by how awful this app continues to be. As a premium subscriber, I expect at least an app that works. The problems are too many to fully list here. Using an iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Examples: open the app, app will take a full half a minute to render the home page (normal for this app). Click an episode to listen to, the app will crash. Force close, re open, click an episode (after waiting for the screen to render as if it’s on dial up internet.....) and it plays! Turn off the screen to pocket phone...content stops. Open phone again and click play. Turn screen back off- content stops again. Only plays if the screen is on.
These are only 2 of several regular issues. The only reason I haven’t deleted the app is that I’ve paid for the full year of ad free and love Wondery’s content. They desperately need new app developers though.Show lessgmailuser13
Developer Response
Hi again, we're sorry for the experience you're having. And thanks so much for sticking with us! We just released an update to the app that we believe will help remedy the experience you're having. I recommend deleting the app (so you're starting totally fresh) and reinstalling the latest version (version 1.7.7), then giving it another. In addition, or instead, you can also use your Wondery+ subscription in Apple Podcasts and many other apps. More info is at https://wonderyplus.com/apple-podcastsGreat content, horrible app
Let me first say that I love Wondery podcasts. The content they put out is great and top notch!
The app, though, has lots of bugs that doesn’t seem worth paying premium for at the moment. It often crashes, and freezes when I want to pause or go forward or backward a few seconds. Also, there’s been a couple of episodes that had ads and promoted the Wondery app so I didn’t have to listen to ads.... although I’m in the app so I DON’T listen to ads?? Sometimes it doesn’t keep my place, especially when a call comes in and I go back in the app after my call. Thankfully I got a few months subscription free through my Amex, but I wouldn’t pay for this after my few free months.Show lessnikkibabi88
Bad app - better on generic podcast app
I love sooo many Wondery podcasts! I thought this app would make it a better experience. I was wrong. The app seems to have a lot of bugs. It quits playing in the middle of listening for no reason. No interruption in internet service, phone is in same place without being touched... just quits. The app seems to need a complete “reboot” very often. Other apps will stay open in the background and you can come back to where you were really easily. This one doesn’t keep running and every time you go back to it, you have to reopen it from the home screen.
I have been a premium member for many months, but am canceling today. I have better luck with generic podcast apps.Show lessVMorek
Wonderful Wondery, Awful App 😢
I will keep this simple, Wondery is freaking great! But oh boy does this app need work.
It is a mess of an app that keeps crashing, and doesn’t just know what is going on in regards to what else the phone is doing.
If you are listening to the app and you get no other phone interactions (phone call, text, other app notification) then all is gravy. But once you get one of those notifications the app completely breaks down, it reset! That’s a bummer.Show lessJosh5803
Constant crashes and not an intuitive GUI
I typically use other apps to listen to podcasts but the ability to listen without commercials is nice. However I wish the app worked all the time. I am using an iPhone 8 max, so I don’t know if the age of my phone is the issue. When I get ready for my morning or afternoon commute I start the podcast that I want to listen to and head out. This morning the app crashed 3 times (just closed) before finally playing through the podcast. Finding and playing podcasts in the correct order is also frustrating. Sometimes I’ll just listen to commercials so I don’t have to deal with the Wondery app. I really want to like this but Wondery still has some work to do.Show lessJfjjfjfnf
Constantly Shuts Down When Paused
I enjoy the Wondery podcasts and paid for a premium membership to boost their work and avoid commercials. But anytime I pause a podcast for more than ten seconds I lose the ability to restart. I must go to the podcast which restarts and spins for several seconds before showing the pod I was listening to on the bottom. It never goes back to where I was page-wise so I have to go the my library and find the pod I was listening to again in order to access episodes. For such great content, it’s a really poorly designed app. If I hadn’t paid the fee I’d listen on my other podcast app on which I can pause as long as needed before it takes me to exactly where I was. Such a bummer.Show lessLauren Reader
Terrible app
Tried it and it’s too much trouble ... Like another reviewer said, it resets every time you pause, doesn’t pause for phone calls. Etc. also, was looking for a particular podcast I KNOW is on Wondery and it only took me to an episode of a different podcast .. the episode had the same title as the title of a whole podcast.. that was the only listing .. no sign of the original podcast I was searching.
. I got interested in a snippet from that episode and decided to go back and start at the beginning of that season but all the episodes were out of order and I couldn’t find the first. I give up.
It’s faster to skip thru ads on different podcatchers than try to deal with this one.Show lesssoonerbrat
Ads for your podcasts are still ads
I shelled out the yearly subscription cost despite the app being slow, buggy, and not working with Apple car play. I did this because I think wondery makes excellent content, but primarily because I truly hate ads. After the one month free trial, I thought it was a good investment despite the issues, which I wrote off as being par for the course for a new app. Btw, the issues haven’t gotten better, app is still slow and doesn’t work on Apple car play, but I’m lucky enough to be working from home rn so realistically not an issue.
But the true cardinal sin...
Now there are pop up ads. Full screen with a hidden x you have to hunt for. As previously mentioned, I hate ads, in any form (like most of the free world). Pop ups are some of the most offensive and it interrupts the already lackluster experience of using this app. They are ads for your own content, but they are still ads!
Hopefully you read this and make a change to fulfill your promise of an ad free experience (that I paid $35 for!). I suggest using notifications, like every other app does, to advertise new content to your users and ditching the obnoxious full screen pop ups. Please!Show lessAMKimmel
Echoing Robert Whites review
I was prepped to pay for the content. I really enjoy some of their podcasts. I got so frustrated during my free trial that I cancelled early. Podcasts starting over after anything happens in iOS was already enough to put me over the top. But another super irritating thing is I listen at 1.5x most the time and that would reset and you’d have to cycle back through the speeds to get it fixed but if you do that too fast it wouldn’t pick it up right. It’s like the state management in this app is completely an afterthought. I’m usually pretty forgiving as I myself am a software developer but it’s like there was zero testing done on the features that exist.
I think the primary reason I ended up dropping the subscription and why I’m writing this review is because most people listen to podcasts while driving and this app effectively makes it unsafe to use unless you’re okay listening to the same episode repeatedly and slowly due to all the bugs.
I’m honestly stunned the app has over 4 stars in aggregate. It currently fails as a podcast player which is a shame because the content is excellent.Show lessWeAreOnePeople
Developer Response
Hi WeAreOnePeople - thanks for the feedback. We've fixed the issues you've described, including preserving speed settings across sessions and across multiple episodes in the same listening session. We're also hard are work on many other performance and functional improvements. If you have tried the app again and have more feedback, we'd love to hear about it - you can drop us a line anytime at support@wondery.com and we'll dig in ASAP.
