Refreshingly good
Possibly the very best way to keep abreast of what’s happening around the world in less than five minutes.
🚨 WARNING: Version 2 DISABLES all but 2 news sources.
🚨 WARNING 🚨
Version 2 moves to a subscription model, disabling features that were free before, and moving these features behind a subscription paywall.
Most notably, Hourly News v2 limits you to only 2 news sources. Restoring the ability to play more than 2 news sources requires signing up for a paid subscription at $5 per month.
Any previous in-app purchases you may have made — e.g., to add custom news sources — are not honored in the new app, and you will still have to pay a monthly fee to play your custom sources.
If you’re looking for an alternative, the app ‘Hourly Newsy’ offers many of the same features for a one-time purchase price of just $5: hourlynewsy.com.
Version 2 moves to a subscription model, disabling features that were free before, and moving these features behind a subscription paywall.
Most notably, Hourly News v2 limits you to only 2 news sources. Restoring the ability to play more than 2 news sources requires signing up for a paid subscription at $5 per month.
Any previous in-app purchases you may have made — e.g., to add custom news sources — are not honored in the new app, and you will still have to pay a monthly fee to play your custom sources.
If you’re looking for an alternative, the app ‘Hourly Newsy’ offers many of the same features for a one-time purchase price of just $5: hourlynewsy.com.
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What is wrong with hourly news app
Now you are charging to listen to your radio. Not happy.
Used to be better
They recently started charging and it’s not worth it…
Disappointing Hourly News 2.0 Update
I’ve been a loyal Hourly News listener for over a decade, but unfortunately, the new 2.0 update has been a major disappointment.
Since the update, the app regularly skips news updates between Fox News and Bloomberg, which defeats the entire purpose of using Hourly News to conveniently listen to multiple news sources.
What makes this even more frustrating is the new subscription requirement. I’m now being asked to pay for the service while still being forced to listen to commercials. If I’m paying for a subscription, I would expect a better experience—not technical problems and continued advertising.
I’ve supported and used this app for more than 10 years, so I don’t make this criticism lightly. However, the 2.0 update feels like a significant step backward. If the skipping issues aren’t corrected soon, I will be requesting a refund and canceling my subscription.
I hope the developers listen to longtime customers and fix these problems quickly.
Since the update, the app regularly skips news updates between Fox News and Bloomberg, which defeats the entire purpose of using Hourly News to conveniently listen to multiple news sources.
What makes this even more frustrating is the new subscription requirement. I’m now being asked to pay for the service while still being forced to listen to commercials. If I’m paying for a subscription, I would expect a better experience—not technical problems and continued advertising.
I’ve supported and used this app for more than 10 years, so I don’t make this criticism lightly. However, the 2.0 update feels like a significant step backward. If the skipping issues aren’t corrected soon, I will be requesting a refund and canceling my subscription.
I hope the developers listen to longtime customers and fix these problems quickly.
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Unfair
I will always listen to all your podcasts . Now I only get 3 , if not I have to pay .
Thanks but I’m not interested . You are NOT the only news source
Thanks but I’m not interested . You are NOT the only news source
subscription now required to play all sources
August 2026 … forget it…. Pretty much worthless now.
Too expensive for free news online recaps
Was great at first to just buy the app and then get the newsfeeds but now you have to pay per month and it’s too expensive for free news feeds that you can get online
Was excellent, now disappointing
I recognize that the complete rewrite meant they needed to charge more, but I found the requirement of premium for more than two sources to be very frustrating. Audio quality has also gotten fuzzier, especially on NPR.
Last week, I would have given this five stars. Today, three.
Last week, I would have given this five stars. Today, three.
Horrible “Update”
I’ve been using the Hourly News for nearly a decade. It’s been an amazingly wonderful resource. The recent update seems to be just a money grab it seems impossible, but the sound quality on all of the venues has dramatically worsened. (I know nothing has changed about my phone itself.) nothing able to actually hear the news. It’s kind of a significant problem with this app.
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No longer free
No. I won’t be subscribing. It’s disappointing to see this change after years of listening.
Subscription service sucks
I had this app forever. Recent update and now it’s $3 a month ? Not worth it , especially when I bet we will still listen to internal ads. Deleted this promptly
Glad to enjoy the updated Hourly News 2.0
I’ve been using Hourly News for a long time ie. years. It has gone thru various bouts of support/ non-support, and I was worried that the developer lost interest. But, I’m delighted to see the recent love given one of my favorite apps, so thank you for that and the new widgets plus the new Apple Watch app.
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This used to be my go-to news app
For nearly 5 years, I used this simple app to listen to multiple news sources daily. It’s now switched to an awful subscription model that makes no sense - given that they are simply linking to others’ FREE content. Sad to uninstall this after many years of a great little app… :(
Bye Bye!
I’ve used this app for over a decade for free. Now they want $2.49 a month! Nope, not worth that, goodbye.
Now subscription
I paid for the app when I first got it, and now they are charging a subscription fee.
Not worth it.
Not worth it.
Great app ruined by subscription ensh*ttification cash grab
This app was simple, easy to use, and did what it said on the tin. I’ve used it for over ten years. And yet yesterday, I loaded it up and got hit by a demand to pay £5 monthly (after an initial “discount”) for the same thing I’d been using for all this time (plus a few minor new bells and whistles I didn’t need)! £5/month, nearly as much as major streaming or audiobook services? That’s insanely greedy.
Honestly, if you’d asked for £5-£10 a *year* like some other apps do to support development, I would have happily done that. If you’d asked for £0.50-£1 (at an absolute maximum) a month, I would probably have begrudgingly done that. But your ensh*ttification of an incredibly overpriced monthly fee for a simple but previously good app has destroyed ten years of goodwill from me.
Honestly, if you’d asked for £5-£10 a *year* like some other apps do to support development, I would have happily done that. If you’d asked for £0.50-£1 (at an absolute maximum) a month, I would probably have begrudgingly done that. But your ensh*ttification of an incredibly overpriced monthly fee for a simple but previously good app has destroyed ten years of goodwill from me.
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Response from developer
There is a 50% discount on monthly and annual subscriptions for long time users like yourself. You can also use the app completely subscription free for up to 2 sources. The subscriptions fund the development of a complete rewrite, since the 10-year old version 1.0 was buggy and needed a lot of work. Whatever you decide, thanks for the years of support on the first version of Hourly News.
When is an upgrade a downgrade?
I’ve been using this app for 15 years and it performed very very well and now all of a sudden they came out with a new update that restricts the number of sources you can play. This type of downgrade of functionality for long-term loyal users is a slap in the face and frankly it’s a bad commercial decision because two sources is worthless. So I’ll be deleting this app and after 15 years no longer use it. Unless you’re willing to cough over some money to do what you could do easily in Apple podcast I’d skip this download for now until the developer comes to their senses.
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Response from developer
There is a 50% discount on monthly and annual subscriptions for long time users like yourself. You can also use the app completely subscription free for up to 2 sources. The subscriptions fund the development of a complete rewrite, since the 10-year old version 1.0 was buggy and needed a lot of work. Whatever you decide, thanks for the years of support on the first version of Hourly News.
No longer a great app.
New:
News is free but now this app isn’t. Just as easy to tie together news podcasts for free. Started charging when it had started getting glitchy, starting even though app was open, and multiple channels not auto playing like they are supposed to. Time to delete.
All good things come to a greedy end.
News is free but now this app isn’t. Just as easy to tie together news podcasts for free. Started charging when it had started getting glitchy, starting even though app was open, and multiple channels not auto playing like they are supposed to. Time to delete.
All good things come to a greedy end.
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A travesty
Thiss app used to work perfectly so the developer decided to fix it. With the latest version I can only do a subset of wha I used to be able to do. Please put it back to the way it was.
