# Big News - Smart Reader — user reviews > 40 indexed App Store user reviews of Big News by The Not So Big Company, rated 4.30/5 from 54 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/big-news-smart-reader/id1582306019/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/big-news-smart-reader/id1582306019.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 38 · 4★ 4 · 3★ 7 · 2★ 1 · 1★ 4 ## Newest reviews (14 of 40) ### 3/5 — All View Points *2026-01-21* I do not see conservative options like fox news to add and or follow? Am I missing it as I like to get all view points…. ### 3/5 — No app updates since 6 months ago? *2025-06-10, version 1.7* There has been no updates since 6 months ago. Great app but has the company stopped working or something and what happened to the big mail Mac and iOS release? ### 4/5 — L’applicazione migliore per le News *2024-08-21, version 1.6.1* Probabilmente l’applicazione più appagante graficamente per le news. Sarebbe bello se fosse più aggiornata, dato che sono 7 mesi che non riceve alcun aggiornamento e qualche bug c’è. ### 3/5 — Awesome *2024-04-03* Best looking reader I’ve found. But lacking swipe gestures for navigation between articles and mark read/mark all read features. ### 4/5 — Bene ma.. *2023-12-10, version 1.6.1* App ben fatta, sia graficamente che funzionalmente. Utilizzo ormai da tanti mesi quest’applicazione con tante soddisfazioni. Unica pecca? con gli ultimi aggiornamenti sono stati introdotti diversi bug sparsi all’interno dell’applicazione che rovinano un po’ l’esperienza del servizio. Se non fosse per questa cosa avrei dato volentieri 5 stelle, peccato. Se la situazione dovesse cambiare sarò felice di aggiornare la recensione ### 3/5 — Needs this: *2023-08-16* Mark read on scroll. Mark all read. Needs a mercury type parser so Twitter, TikTok and instagram pics show up in the articles without having to go to the website. ### 3/5 — Needs this: *2023-08-13* Open Twitter links in native app. Needs a mercury type parser so Twitter and instagram pics show up in the articles without having to go to the website. ### 3/5 — Surprise Features? *2023-03-04, version 1.4.1* I like this RSS reader a lot, though it’s a bit buggy. The gesture to zoom in is dodgy, often causing stories to be accidentally swiped away. I also wish you could tap on embedded images to open them, and then use a zoom gesture if needed, similar to the way Reeder does it. Too many stories display tons of blank space above the content as well. Automatic marking of stories as read once they’ve been scrolled past would be an appreciated feature. Maybe some of these things are available in the “Surprise Features” the developers promise as part of the $4.99/mo “Max” subscription, but I’m not willing to sign up just to find out. If anyone out there has paid for that and can disclose the surprises, it would be helpful to know if they’re worth upgrading for. ### 4/5 — Almost Perfect *2022-09-27* The UI is fantastic. I love how easy it is to discover and add feeds to follow. The auto-categorization of articles works really well. I also really enjoy that you get an email so you can add newsletters as well as RSS feeds. That being said, I think it’s missing some key features: - There’s no ability to mark articles as read - You can import feeds, but can’t export them Overall though, this is a really beautiful RSS app. ### 3/5 — Pretty good, but can’t be my everyday… *2022-09-25* RSS app until there is an app option to change the “startup default tab” away from “today” to “following.” I don’t want the categories, I just want the latest stories. Until then it’s just nice to occasionally use. Add the app option and move from 3 stars to 5 stars, easily. ### 2/5 — Looks great but very few options in terms of outlets to follow *2022-09-13, version 1.3* Title ### 3/5 — Prometteur *2022-05-27, version 1.1* Interface soignée. Pas encore testé avec la réception de newsletter. L’appli pourrait me faire basculer de mes lecteurs RSS habituels mais il manque des options swipe pour « mark as read » ou « mark all as read ». ### 2/5 — Good design poor experience *2022-05-12, version 1.0.8* I find frequently that images dont load, even after uninstalling and reinstalling. ### 3/5 — Not very functional *2022-04-20, version 1.0.7* Adding an RSS feed URL results in the app declaring it can't read it - through other apps seem to have no trouble pulling a feed. And it doesn't support any feed management options such as Feedly, Inoreader... The best it can do is OPML, which didn't import via the share sheet as instructed. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — I guess this app is abandoned *2026-01-19, version 1.7* Originally I love this app, which uses RSS to limited sources to only I want to read and have no distractions from unwanted sources or all contents in home are based on what I often read. Compared to Apple News which have full of ads and bugs, and Google News which have poor algorithm that suggest contents to user based on their interest and feedback to the content suggestions. Although it have downside, which automatically generated topics in home always duplicate or unrelated to selected contents and unable to turn off, and addon features in the subscription plan did not very worth to, it still my favourite news app. However, it seems the app is no longer being supported and abandoned. The app only has one minor update last year since I first installed it. Meanwhile, the developer’s another app, Big Mail 2, has been fully abandoned and died even in TestFlight, and the developer seems also been disappeared since then. It’s sad this app is abandoned forever, seemly. Maybe it’s time for me to move on to another app. ### 1/5 — Crashes on setup *2025-06-25, version 1.7* Bad experience, crashes thru setup can’t even go to the end of it. ### 1/5 — No *2024-06-30, version 1.6.1* Bellissima graficamente ma richiede un abbonamento, non è possibile acquistare una tantum ### 1/5 — Shares content as its own, rather than as its publisher’s *2022-11-07, version 1.3* Tragically, if you share a story with another app or a person, this app shares it as a “Big News” story, and not as a story produced by its original publisher. This makes it impossible to use with active reading or bookmarking apps like Pocket, Instapaper, Raindrop.io or Readwise Reader. That’s a real drag, and a huge knock against other independent app developers. ### 1/5 — Another ridiculous subscription model *2022-03-28* Absolutely zero reason this should be sold as a monthly or annual subscription rather than outright one-off purchase. More developer greed. **Developer response:** We have a subscription to cover the ongoing costs of running our email and push servers. It also allows us to continuously keep developing new features for the app. Thanks for the feedback, though. ### 1/5 — Doesn’t work. *2022-03-19* Can’t get past the ‘Get Started’ screen. Just spins no matter how many times I try… **Developer response:** Hey there, sorry to hear you’ve having issues. Please get in touch with us at hello@notsobig.company and we’ll be happy to help you troubleshoot. ### 1/5 — Terrible experience *2022-02-28* After upgraded, always shows “The data couldn’t be read because it isn’t in the correct format.” Waste of money and time. **Developer response:** Hey there, sorry to hear you've ran into issues – I believe we fixed the broken feed you added, but please get in touch with us at hello@notsobig.co if there's still a problem and we'll be happy to help troubleshoot further. You can also request a refund via the app in Settings. ### 2/5 — Missing Import/Export to OPML *2023-10-31* Good looking app. Missing ability to import or export to OPML. Missing ability to mark all articles as read. ### 2/5 — Bella graficamente, ma con tante mancanze *2022-12-05, version 1.3* Note positive sono la grafica minimal e il fatto che riesca correttamente ad estrapolare il testo dell’articolo senza dover sempre aprire la pagina originale colma di pubblicità (cosa che in altri reader mi è successo). Per il resto ha tante mancanze, tra cui: non è possibile cambiare l’ordine degli articoli, ma vengono mostrati sempre i più recenti per primi. Avrei preferito il contrario. Non è possibile segnare tutti gli articoli come letti in una sola volta, per poterli poi nascondere. Per alcuni siti mi è capitato che non visualizzasse correttamente l’immagine dell’articolo e tutti gli articoli di quel feed avevano tutti la stessa immagine stock. ### 2/5 — At least the first day was alright! *2022-09-18, version 1.3* Let’s get this out of the way. Big News is an ambitious project with some ambitious features. I won’t lie, I’ve been looking for an app like this for a long time. Played with it, added a few feeds, works great! Exactly what I wanted. Almost immediately paid for premium. Then I start noticing little things. The animations tend to grind when you swipe between headline cards. That’s fine, early days, things will get better. … Until this morning. I read the news in the morning. Why not use Big News? “Request failed.” “You’ve lost connection.” I get teething problems are a thing, but that’s really got to hurt the experience, right? A newsreader that can’t obtain news? Close the app. Reopen the app. Same thing. I’ll update this review after it’s been sorted. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — The best news app I’ve ever used *2024-11-19* I’ve downloaded almost every news aggregator app out there and there always seems to be something frustrating or missing about them. Not Big News. This is easily the best news aggregator app and it allows to customize the sources I want to follow. Do yourself a favor and subscribe! ### 5/5 — Très clean *2024-05-12, version 1.6.1* Belle interface et design soigné qui valorise (enfin) les contenus de nos newsletters. J’ai testé plein d’apps avant et à chaque fois, et celle-ci sort du lot. Bravo aux développeurs. 👍🏻 ### 5/5 — Big mail when *2022-10-14* Best news app I’ve seen so far, thanks to not so big company for making such great app. Im aggressively watering for big mail to release ### 5/5 — Awesome *2022-10-07, version 1.3* Looks amazing. Works great. My new fave newsreader. ### 5/5 — This is a true Apple News killer IMO *2022-09-15, version 1.3* Honestly I upgraded and replaced Apple News with this app. The UI/UX is simple incredible. It’s an enjoyment to read articles here. The only small issue I find is sometimes a privacy policy or some other pop up gets the screen reader (scraper) a little bit confused but this isn’t really fault of the app. If I had one request it would be a Mac app 👀 ### 5/5 — Big News is a joy to use *2022-06-25* I’m really impressed with the polish of this app. It’s my favourite way to consume news and replaced Apple News, Unread, and Feedly. No annoying ads & no doom scrolling; just my favourite channels, feeds, and newsletters all in one place. Get it! ### 5/5 — Best iOS RSS Reader ever *2022-05-17* And it’s free! This is the beat iOS RSS reader I’ve ever used. **Developer response:** Thanks for the five-star review! ### 5/5 — Just what I’ve been looking for! *2022-05-07* This app gives a great summary of the news from the sites you choose to follow! It’s easy to use, has a great UI, and also doesn’t encourage doom scrolling. Highly recommend **Developer response:** Thanks for the five star review! ### 5/5 — Really really good *2022-04-18, version 1.0.7* I’ve been looking for literally years for a really specific set of features in a news app. This is like the devs read my mind. Absolutely excellent! ### 5/5 — Wow! This is a god send. *2022-04-03, version 1.0.6* I always wanted an app like this to keep up with news and media. This app has - 1. Clean UI 2. Good UX 3. Less clutter and better organisation of articles in the feed. Great work and kudos to the developer team! --- *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 2026-08-26.*