# ABC7 WJLA News — user reviews > 85 indexed App Store user reviews of ABC7 WJLA News by Sinclair Broadcast Group, Inc, rated 4.70/5 from 156 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abc7-wjla-news/id457643642/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/abc7-wjla-news/id457643642.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 135 · 4★ 11 · 3★ 3 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 6 ## What do users think of ABC7 WJLA News? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 🌤️ Weather functionality useful - 📰 Local DC news coverage - 🎨 Clean UI design (when working) - 📱 Metro status information **Cons** - 🐛 App crashes and freezes frequently - 🔊 No audio on videos - 📵 Refresh functionality broken - 📢 Excessive and intrusive ads - 🎯 Notifications don't link to stories - 📱 Portrait mode only (no landscape) - 🖼️ Low resolution images and videos - ⬅️ Back button too small and hard to activate - 🎬 Video-only format (missing text articles) - 📰 Poor article quality and writing - 🔄 Inconsistent content updates - ⚙️ Clunky navigation and scrolling issues - 🎮 Unwanted games and non-news content - 📊 Removed traffic and metro features **Commonly reported bugs** - App does not refresh - shows 'return to top' message - Story titles don't fit in scrolling view - No audio on video playback - Live feed never connects - Notifications flash too quickly to read - App hangs on launch or intro screen - Excessive ad redirects to App Store - Scrolling causes jerky screen movement - Top stories list jumps around - App locks up after selecting article - Videos freeze during playback - Floating ad logos obstruct article text - App crashes when updating **Most requested features** - Apple TV app support - Landscape orientation support for iPad - Customizable push notifications by category - Live TV streaming capability - Text article content alongside videos - Larger, more accessible back button - Traffic and metro information restoration - Better article formatting with maps - Audio transcripts for videos - Ability to select notification preferences - Improved refresh mechanism - Better content categorization by region ## Newest reviews (16 of 85) ### 2/5 — Clunky *2025-11-22* Story titles don’t fit in the scrolling view. Now the top stories arent showing, one has to review each tab individually. Top stories tab just says “return to top” and does not refresh. ### 2/5 — Landscape *2022-05-24, version 7.36.0* This app could us some updating. I read a number of local and national news sites, but this is the only one that only allows portrait mode. I prefer landscape, but maybe I’m in the minority. ### 2/5 — A grand and glorious platform to serve commercials *2020-04-11, version 7.30.0* All I want to do is see a video of a thief and all I get is a Toyota commercial. ### 3/5 — Need Apple TV app *2019-10-01, version 7.21.0* Where is the Apple TV app???? Maybe I don’t want to watch this on my phone. Something to think about. Please make an Apple TV app. ### 2/5 — Pretty lame *2019-08-14* As someone else said, you get a notification and it doesn’t take you to the story. I guess they think we’re staring st our phones waiting for the notifications. This station has gotten more lame in recent months in their reporting and it shows in what they decide to alert one to in the notifications. It would be nice if you could choose what you want to be alerted to instead of notifications about things that aren’t urgent and you could see on the news that night. ### 2/5 — No audio *2019-06-27, version 7.15.0* No audio on iPhone when you play live tv ### 2/5 — Notifications do not link to actual story *2019-06-20, version 7.15.0* Why send me a notification and want to me read more only for it not to link to the actual story. Taking me to the main splash page of the app and forcing me to search for the story is not helpful. ### 3/5 — No sound with iPhone *2019-03-07, version 7.12.0* I’m not sure why but all the videos play without sound. The rest of the app is useful in providing new local stories every 24 hours. ### 2/5 — No live TV *2019-02-28* I downloaded this app thinking there would be an option to watch a live stream of ABC7 but could not find that option. There are features to watch clips though. The website’s live player works poorly on a mobile device, so my only option right now is either my computer at home through my cable provider’s website, or on the physical TV. Please consider allowing XFinity to stream ABC7 to mobile devices even when they are not connected to their home WiFi. Thank you. ### 1/5 — AWFUL HORRIBLE APP *2018-09-29, version 7.5.0* The worst of any DC area broadcast station. No live news. Deleting you now. Your advertisers are idiots and will never sell anything by virtue of this monstrosity. ### 1/5 — Bait & Switch *2018-07-05, version 7.4.0* Flash-House ON FIRE! Or 2 Kids Ejected from SUV ! Wait for it ... Commercial for Anything-/ Then Weather Report ...Then Nothing... Bait & Switch: Delete This Non News Worthy App ### 3/5 — Holy PUSH NOTIFICATIONS! ☹️☹️ *2018-05-16* UX is nice and clean and the weather function is great. I turned push notifications on for alerts regarding weather conditions but there are SO MANY and mostly news stories I’m not interested in. The app should allow users to select what categories they’d like to receive notifications from. I read under notifications that they promise not to send “too many” and I laughed out loud. I received an average of 2/hr yesterday! Update to allow customization and this definitely becomes a 4 Star app! ### 2/5 — Needs improvement *2018-05-10, version 7.3.0* The notifications flash up too quickly to be read. If I’m quick enough to click through, the referenced story is often nowhere to be found. ### 1/5 — No Screen Rotation *2018-04-21* I looked for an option in settings and in your app that would enable switching the view on your app to rotate the screen between portrait and landscape, and I couldn’t find anything. Am I missing something? If not, and you are taking suggestions on how to improve this app, it needs to be updated to enable viewing both ways. All of the other news apps I use are able to do that, and for that reason I hardly ever look at yours. If there is a way to do that can you let me know how to do it? Thanks. ### 1/5 — No longer shared with you must but *2018-04-11, version 7.3.0* Wth? I’m not going to buy an app for a news station ### 1/5 — No audio *2018-01-22, version 7.0.15* No audio today. Even after deleting and redownloading. Audio working in other apps. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Stories don’t load *2026-07-05* Whether it’s through a notification or navigation in the app when I try to go to s story/link the page just cycles but never loads it. I tried to uninstall and reinstall but that didn’t fix the issue. ### 1/5 — Does not refresh *2025-11-24* App does not refresh, just says return to top ### 1/5 — Poorly written articles and lots of advertisements *2024-08-14* Articles and poorly written with limited reference material. Discussion about places with no maps. User interface for photos is bad. Must accept cookies to see photos. Advertisement pop-ups. ### 1/5 — Poor *2023-09-12* Poor and incomplete writing ### 1/5 — AWFUL *2022-12-27, version 8.5.1* Live feed never connected pure trash compared to other stations. ### 1/5 — Worst update *2022-12-26, version 8.5.1* Why did you change it??? This has got to be the worst update. You don’t focus on real news, have items of no interest, and cut back on what you cover. Go back to your original format, please!! ### 1/5 — Update Terrible *2022-12-13, version 8.5.0* Please go back to the old one. Why change it when it worked fine. ### 1/5 — Annoying ads *2022-01-23* The ads are extremely annoying and are driving me to a different news source. The problem is that the sensitivity on the ads is set extremely high and you are shot out of the ap if your finger simply grazes the ad as you scroll through the news stories. There are numerous ads interspersed with the stories meaning you get shot out of the app constantly while reviewing the day’s stories. ### 1/5 — No sound *2020-01-10, version 7.26.0* No sound on my iPhone. ### 1/5 — No audio!? *2020-01-07, version 7.23.0* Audio is a great feature to have for videos. Unfortunately this app is missing just that. 🤷🏻‍♂️ ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Review *2024-06-18* Please give a few more sentences of pertinent facts with each story. ### 5/5 — Great update! *2014-09-19, version 2.3.1400* Way, way better! Finally a great app for DC news, sports and weather. ### 5/5 — Good app! *2014-01-18* I love this app and all however it has a few bugs that need to be addressed such as updating without crashing and they need to stop using Washington capital photos from 3-4 years ago when they run stories about the games!! ### 5/5 — Loved it. Finally a weather app. *2012-12-21* The old app had too many bugs. This layout looks much better. ### 5/5 — I love this app *2012-08-05, version 1.0.2* I have been looking for something like this for a while. ### 5/5 — Great App! Boo for the ad *2011-10-15* Wonderful app with a lot of great info! Is there any way to update the radar app a bit more often than 3 minutes? Though I don't like the ad for Toyota I can't take away a star. Keep it up! ### 4/5 — Even worse! *2024-02-03* A year ago I gave you one star. Now if I could give you zero I would. I don’t need stupid games! I want the news and NOT the Fox wanna be National Desk. Drop the games. Drop the National Desk and focus on the District, Maryland, and Virginia. ### 4/5 — WJLA app for iPhones *2018-06-30, version 7.4.0* Looks great, but I cannot get ANY sound. No place to unmute if that is the issue. Other local station apps do have sound so phone volume is at working level. I deleted app and reinstalled but still have no audio. My husband downloaded app to his (same version)IPHONE and it has audio. My audio works fine for all other functions. Would like for audio transcript to be available as well. Update 6/30/18: we were able to fix the audio issue! ### 4/5 — Where did the text go? *2015-06-29* If I wanted to watch video I would just watch the live TV edition. Video is not convenient for public places or work. Bring back the text! ### 3/5 — The back arrow!!! *2021-10-08, version 7.36.0* It takes forever to get out of a story because the back button is in the upper left corner is very small. On a iPhone 12, you can barely get it to activate. Most of the time I have to close the app completely and go back in. Which is very annoying! Please increase the size of the “touchable” area to go “back” out of a news story. Plus, it would be nice if you had a feedback option in the app to report issues. --- *Data collected daily from the US App Store and indexed by [AppsHunter](https://appshunter.io/). User reviews are verbatim App Store reviews. Ratings, prices and chart positions refresh continuously; this snapshot is from 2026-09-06.*