# Octal for Hacker News — user reviews > 171 indexed App Store user reviews of Octal for Hacker News by Daniel Wu, rated 4.80/5 from 2,813 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id1308885491/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/octal-for-hacker-news/id1308885491.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 2,490 · 4★ 203 · 3★ 44 · 2★ 18 · 1★ 58 ## What do users think of Octal for Hacker News? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 🚀 Fantastic app - 👍 Convenient to use - 👍 Good UX/UI - 👍 Elegant, intuitive client - 👍 Beautifully executed - 👍 Wonderful app - 👍 Masterpiece - 👍 Very nice HN reader - 👍 Best HN app - 👍 Excellent HN client - 👍 Phenomenal app - 👍 Elegant! - 👍 Excellent User Interface! - 👍 Very nice app - 👍 Amazing app - 👍 Best HN reader - 👍 By far the best HN reader! **Cons** - 🐛 Can't even log in my YC account - 🐛 Occasional refresh issues - 🐛 Asking for network info permission - 🐛 Unreliable - 🐛 Ads - 🐛 X-Callback-URL not working - 🐛 Favorites are broken - 🐛 Commenting and voting broken - 🐛 Rotation bug - 🐛 Scrolling on comments is a bit laggy - 🐛 Forced two pane layout - 🐛 Doesn't work when using a tracking blocker **Commonly reported bugs** - Login and likes broken on iOS 16.0 - Restore purchase not working - App icon doesn't change - Editing a comment works but gives an error - Can't collapse comments - Upvoting fails very often - Refreshing comments doesn't load new comments - Messes up Screen time **Most requested features** - Dark mode option - Ability to browse history and upvoted stories - Markdown highlighting for comments - Ability to select text when tap anywhere to collapse comment is enabled - Downvote functionality - Ability to export bookmarks/favorites - Swipe to collapse whole comment branch - Larger upvote button - Ability to see points on own comments - Swipe to go back - Paginated behavior instead of infinite scrolling - Ability to filter by post types (Show HN, Ask HN, etc.) - Linking back to upvoted comments - Auto night mode - Larger font size options - Ability to see read news in grey - Telegram Night Blue color scheme for dark mode - Bookmark/offline support ## Newest reviews (15 of 171) ### 2/5 — Ruined by “UI improvements” *2026-08-25, version 5.1.0* The overhaul of the UI to take advantage of Liquid Glass has completely broken common workflows. Here’s an easy one: open a thread, switch to landscape (maybe accidentally), switch back to portrait. The app is now completely frozen with a broken UI state and needs to be force-quit. Come on. ### 3/5 — Best client I have used so far *2026-07-30, version 5.1.0* The Liquid Glass update is mostly great with one minor issue: the In-App web view now opens from the bottom, making the swipe back gesture no longer possible. A switch to change to the old behavior would be appreciated as swiping down from the top isn’t as easy. ### 4/5 — Good but missing some web features *2026-07-28, version 5.1.0* Good but missing fading comment text based on rep ### 4/5 — So simple, so (nearly) perfect. *2026-07-09, version 5.1.0* Love the app, have been using it for years. However, a recent update (accidentally?) removed the "collapse root" feature from the context menu. Pretty please bring that small affordance back. ### 4/5 — Excellent overall, but search needs work *2026-07-03, version 5.1.0* The UI is well designed, intuitive, attractive. It’s my preferred way to read HN. But I use the search a lot, and it’s very primitive. I typically have to switch to my desktop’s browser to find anything. The number one thing missing is a date filter. Preferably that allows selecting start/end dates, but even just a dropdown with common ranges would suffice. HN has a lot of content about topics that move quickly, so I often want to see results from the last X time period. But sort by date, and only see bad submissions that never got traction. Sort by relevance and see popular submissions from 12 years ago. And a hard cap on number of results, so I can’t dig deeper even if I wanted to. It leaves much to be desired. ### 4/5 — Pretty good *2026-07-02, version 5.0.0* The app works pretty well on both iphone and ipad, far better than the hacked news website. It's often pretty responsive, though sometimes there are delays when refreshing the home page or loading an article's comments. ### 4/5 — Worth it *2026-04-05, version 4.16.6* The most iPhone native HN app. I looked around at all others, and this one is just the best designed so it was an easy decision to make the one-off purchase and unlock all features. Though it lacks a few features compared to Hacki, and can run up against API throttling. ### 2/5 — disappointed that basic functionality like swiping to dismiss a post I don’t want to read is missing *2026-03-15, version 4.16.6* Title says it all ### 4/5 — Looks good but missing some basics *2026-01-23, version 4.16.6* First impression it’s a much cleaner UI than the archaic HN website. However, there’s a couple of important and basic features in the web interface that are missing here: (1) dead/buried comments (those downvoted to zero or less) are not indicated, whereas the web interface fades them out (2) there’s no way to search inside a thread, something that’s easily done in the browser via ctrl-f. ### 5/5 — Fantastic app! *2025-11-27, version 4.16.6* I really appreciate having such a nicely-polished app. Thanks hacker :) ### 5/5 — Used to be better *2025-10-02, version 4.16.6* I often find the app doesn’t refresh on the main page, or won’t load certain pages after some time. I have to close the app and search for the post again. ### 5/5 — Perfect *2025-09-22* The application is well assembled. Convenient to use. Good ux/ui. It’s cool that you can open sites right away with the reading mode. ### 5/5 — Great! *2025-08-21, version 4.16.6* Excellent HN app ### 5/5 — Hackernews app with cleanest UI *2025-08-06* Tried a bunch hackernews apps, this one had by far the cleanest UI. Only feature I am missing is maybe to open hackernews links directly in the app, similar to how reddit or github links are opened in the respective app instead of the browser tab. (Though this might be sth ycombinator needs to enable on their site, so probably not sth this app can do anything about. ) ### 5/5 — Yeah, it’s good. It’s that good. *2025-07-12, version 4.16.6* I’m almost annoyed by how much more I like this one than every other HN app I’ve tried. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Terrible design update *2026-07-03, version 5.0.0* Why ruin UX for everyone and make the website open with half an inch less screen space? This is ridiculous. ### 1/5 — Last update not great *2026-07-02* Lost the option to never use the internal browser, dont know if its a bug or intended behavior **Developer response:** This has been fixed with 5.1.0. Thanks for the feedback! ### 1/5 — Random crashes *2026-06-19, version 4.17.1* The update released around June 16, 2026 randomly crashes when viewing an article's comments. This is an annoying regression for an app which has worked flawlessly for many years. ### 1/5 — Feedback spam *2025-12-28, version 4.16.6* Asks for feedback too often ### 1/5 — Wasted $7 *2025-10-06, version 4.16.6* Can’t even log in my YC account. ### 1/5 — Great app but major bug added *2025-06-30, version 4.16.4* Since last update, I get logged out every time I close the app. Please fix. ### 1/5 — Paid for premium - Restore purchase not working *2025-04-22* I paid for the app before, but now when I do restore purchases, it just is asking me to pay again, which makes no sense. Can you please look into it? Thank you. ### 1/5 — app icon doesn’t change *2024-10-15, version 4.16.3* when i changed the app icon, it didnt work. why and i pay 9 bucks lmao ### 1/5 — Nothing loads *2024-06-02, version 4.15.1* Stuck on loading indicator ### 1/5 — MAKE THE COMMENT HIT TARGET LARGER PLEASE *2023-08-20, version 4.14.0* Overall, as an aggregator - this is a solid app. There is one problem which drives me absolutely crazy: in order to read the comments, which is half the value of HN - hitting the comment button below the article title, you must touch this impossibly tiny hit-box which takes you 4-5 presses and eye-squints to get right. The other 85% of the time you end up opening the article again on your native browser. It's infuriating. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Nice clean app, happy to support *2026-08-27, version 5.1.0* Thanks for keeping things simple and clean and function ### 5/5 — Good *2026-07-04* Its pretty good **Developer response:** This has been fixed with 5.1.0. Thanks for the feedback! ### 5/5 — Just works *2026-06-13, version 4.17.0* The reader that just works. Got the right set of features and is only a few MB large. ### 5/5 — Excellent *2026-06-02, version 4.16.6* Neat and does the job ### 5/5 — Easily the best HN app *2026-05-31, version 4.16.6* One of my most used apps daily because I’m addicted to HN. This is a well implemented version of it, worth the few dollars for the upgrade. ### 5/5 — Clean Design *2026-05-27* Octal has the clean design I expect from a dedicated app that allows me to consume Hacker News. ### 5/5 — Best in class, with room to grow *2026-05-12, version 4.16.6* Been using it since launch, and the app has only gotten better, clean design, fast performance… It doesn’t do everything perfectly, and there’s room to grow, but it’s actively maintained and hits all the marks that matter. Four stars because there’s still upside… five will come. ### 5/5 — Excellent native experience *2026-04-14, version 4.16.6* Excellent native experience ### 5/5 — Great for iPhone, okay for iPad *2026-03-27, version 4.16.6* Missing a way to collapse/expand the sidebar on iPad in portrait or landscape without going into Octal settings and turning off Split View entirely. ### 5/5 — Love it *2026-03-05, version 4.16.6* Great little app that makes using the site on mobile a delight. Thanks for keeping it simple. --- *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 2026-09-02.*