Austin American Statesman User Reviews

Customer Experience

Positive experience31.0% of reviews
Neutral6.7% of reviews
Negative experience62.3% of reviews

~ Based on 268 written reviews from the US App Store.

What users say

Is Austin American Statesman Safe?

Austin American Statesman appears mostly safe based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for Austin American Statesman is 82/100.

This assessment is based on 4,759 user ratings, with an App Store average of 4.1/5.

Safety Analysis

76.6% of ratings point to a safe experience
6.2% of ratings suggest some concerns
17.2% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 4,201 App Store ratings for Austin American Statesman.

Is Austin American Statesman Legit?

Austin American Statesman appears to be a legitimate app. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for Austin American Statesman is 90/100.

Based on 90 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Epaper, something went wrong, Tap to try again. (Novel Fix—Special Case).

7-17-26. Trying to access Austin American Statesman epaper I got Something went wrong, Tap to try again. Went through restarting iPad & app, clearing cache, logging out & back in, deleting & reinstalling app—nothing worked. **FINAL WORKING SOLUTION: Both Cellular & WiFi were enabled & active on the iPad. Once I turned one of Cellular or WiFi off I could access epaper again. Likely an unusual situation but keep it in mind if you are using an iPad to access the e-paper.
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No e-edition

This is the second day in a row that the digital replica of the paper does not appear. I’m about to cancel. When it does work, the new format is great.

E edition

All of a sudden, the app will no longer show the e edition? It will show all of the curated stories..

App Breaks All The Time

Second day in a row that the e-edition doesn’t work. Contacted them, they do nothing.

Easy to navigate.

Local flavor, other local communities just a click away, 30 past days of papers is super convenient. Headline articles easy to punch up. The app is the way to go, not just the single paper reader on my iPad.

Meh

Really not a lot of content other than high school sports, weather and games

STOP

STOP this constant Popup for rating and review

Web page

This survey request happens multiple times a day - nothing more than spam. I will cancel my subscription if this continues

E-Reader Layout is Excellent

June 2026 Update: the new e-reader update is a dramatic improvement from the previous version. Gone are the distracting static banner ads that occupied valuable screen space. Gone is the static and unnecessary navigation bar at the top of the page. This new layout now offers a full screen viewing experience, which is especially helpful for those who prefer reading the paper in its native print layout. Thank you for listening to my earlier feedback.

Original Review:
I’ve used this newspaper reader app for 15+ years for the sole purpose of reading the paper in its original printed form. I use an iPad and prefer to zoom on the printed page rather than click on an article to open a webpage.

Prior to August 2025, this app used to allow for easy reading and simple navigation of the newspaper from beginning to end. However, since August 1, the most recent app update is frustrating and a huge step backwards. The app now has useless navigation bars at the top and bottom that are static and consume 20% of the screen height. Plus there is a static ad across the bottom that consumes another 15% of the screen height. So your visibility of the paper is only 65% of the actual screen height, which negates the benefit of having a larger iPad screen. The latest update also no longer allows click to zoom navigation. Instead, clicking on the printed article now takes you to a webpage link and there is no option to change this feature. If you want to zoom on the printed page you have to manually use two fingers to carefully zoom in and out, which is cumbersome. It also has pop up ad every few pages that must be manually closed. For the static navigation menus, I cannot understand why a simple dynamic retracting menu can’t be used to maximize the screen view since the menus are not needed 99.9% of the time. And the large static ad banner would probably be more effective if it wasn’t occupying screen real estate 100% of the time.

I understand the need for maintaining advertising revenue so I can give a pass and accept the ad features. However, for someone like me who prefers reading the paper in a printed layout, the app is no longer enjoyable. It’s just needlessly difficult. Sure I may be old school (50+) for preferring easy navigation of the printed layout. But it’s old folks like me that are actually still paying full price subscription (for the past 20 years) to support local journalism. It shouldn’t be that difficult to make this app a high quality reading experience - just like it was prior to the latest update.

I sincerely hope someone reads this review and considers it as constructive feedback.
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Old news

News is 2 days old before it appears in Statesman.

Meh

New interface is untenable

Login nightmare

Ever since Hearst took over and changed the app, it has been a terrible experience. I am very disappointed with the change.

E edition

Try using it yourselves

E edition

Hasn’t worked for several days 4 calls over the week hasn’t resolved the issue

Unreliable app

Every few months I have to delete and reload the app because the e-edition will no longer load. Then it sometimes fails to recognize my subscription. Hassle

Meh

Too many pop up ads

Too many popups

Stop annoying your paying customers

E edition unreliable

This is the saddest app

The Ap doesn’t work is horrible and never has worked and the updates don’t fix it

While it is possible to log in to the Ap it is nearly impossible to figure it out. Here are the steps one has to take that I figured out by luck. Press e edition press login get error message press login again. Login in again get denied, go back to beginning page, press e edition then you can get to the eediton the headlines login Doesn’t work at all
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Hard to access e paper

Needs simple way to access