# Santa Cruz Sentinel for Mobile — user reviews > 67 indexed App Store user reviews of Santa Cruz Sentinel for Mobile by MediaNews Group, rated 4.70/5 from 53 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/santa-cruz-sentinel-for-mobile/id499677382/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/santa-cruz-sentinel-for-mobile/id499677382.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 45 · 4★ 4 · 3★ 1 · 2★ 0 · 1★ 3 ## What do users think of Santa Cruz Sentinel for Mobile? Overall sentiment: negative **Pros** - 👍 Great local news source - 👍 Good for staying informed locally - 👍 Simple and easy to use - 👍 Content is excellent - 👍 Good start for an app - 👍 Delivers local news without crashes - 👍 User friendly **Cons** - 😠 Annoying and intrusive ads - 😠 Outdated and old news - 😠 App is confusing and difficult to use - 😠 Poor design and user interface - 😠 Inconsistent updates - 😠 Slow loading times - 😠 Crashes frequently - 😠 Content is repetitive - 😠 Hard on the eyes (font and color) - 😠 Paywall issues for subscribers - 😠 Ads placed insensitively (obituaries) - 😠 News is not current - 😠 Difficult to navigate - 😠 Limited multimedia features - 😠 Poor organization of content - 😠 Typos and incorrect information - 😠 Full-screen ads that interfere with scrolling - 😠 News does not update regularly - 😠 Does not refresh stories - 😠 Most top news is sports related - 😠 Takes a long time to load stories - 😠 Blasts ads at you - 😠 New format makes it hard to distinguish ads from news - 😠 Cellular data usage is high - 😠 Headlines are cutoff - 😠 Sliding navigation is inconsistent - 😠 Obits are difficult to view - 😠 Weather is inaccurate - 😠 Fuzzy font and moving ads - 😠 Breaking news is always old - 😠 App errors out frequently - 😠 Ads with sound are unacceptable **Commonly reported bugs** - Takes user to beginning of article after clicking embedded link - App has many glitches - Does not update - Unable to access full articles - Home page does not have refresh option - Only allows reading a certain amount of articles before asking to sign in - App kicks user out of article without subscription - Does not refresh stories at times - Crashes a lot - Takes a pretty long time to load any story - New format is slower and less fluid - App does not work - News is days to weeks old - Breaking news not updated frequently - Old articles are time stamped with new times - App only loads articles about 1% of the time **Most requested features** - Full redesign for better customer experience - Invest in app development - Add a comment section or sync with online comments - Paid version with no ads - Link to contact someone for updates - Search feature - More photos - Categorize reports not immediately transferable into an 'extras' scroll box - Make font larger and print darker - Add a search feature - Allow zooming on photos - Fair and balanced reporting ## Newest reviews (18 of 67) ### 4/5 — Needs work *2023-05-28* When switching from reading the article to an embedded link and then back this darn app always takes one to the beginning of the article. Frustrating. I want to go back to the part of the article where the link was like I can do in almost all other news apps. Small town programming? ### 2/5 — Horrible *2019-01-18, version 7.3.11* Dated and old news ### 2/5 — Hard on eyes *2017-06-25, version 7.2.0* 1. Too-teeny font on "News" front page - make 'me much bigger, please! 2. Too-light-grey print in articles - make it much darker, please! ### 2/5 — Not working again *2015-02-24* I want to read the local news each day, yet this app often does not work. I am unable to access the full articles. I have had it for a long time, updating whenever necessary, and if it is not one problem, it is another. I will still read the Sentinel and support the writers, yet--Geesh---could this app please be designed better? It is frustrating. ### 2/5 — Inconsistently updated *2014-08-22, version 6.2.20* Crashes a lot. Difficult to tab down to read. Most "top news" is Sports related. Day four of seeing the same articles on this app. A newspaper should be updated regularly, daily- at least. Disappointing ### 1/5 — Beyond horrible *2014-07-07, version 6.0* Really just blasts ads at you. Hardly any local news at all; what is there is horribly organized (if at all) and interspersed with filler. Just awful. ### 1/5 — Add or story? *2014-07-05, version 6.0* The new format seems to be designed to make the user confuse a news story with an add by making them the same tile and mixing them in with the news. Super lame. ### 2/5 — getting worse *2014-07-04* updated for vers 6.0: this was supposed to be a performance enhancing release, but in practice it's the opposite. it's slower and less fluid in scrolling. it also needs more scrolling since the huge pictures mean fewer headlines can fit in one screenful. these changes make the app less pleasant to use. i also had to disable cellular data on this app to prevent it from chewing up my quota. had written: an easy way to avoid the annoying paywall on the web version of the sentinel. the quality of the journalism is uneven at best but if you're gonna read the sentinel the app is a reasonable way to do it. ### 1/5 — Not Happy *2014-07-01* The app now has a lot more pop up advertisement. The sliding navigation is inconsistent. And the overall loading time of each article is much slower. You fill the online version with negative news that happened in the Bay Area regarding violence and gossip which we didnt used to get. It makes you guys come off like TMZ. Although I do like the consistent tech updates. Also on the main menu, most of your headlines are cutoff so you can only partially see it. Please change the format so I can go back to using it. Thanks. ### 1/5 — New format June 2014 *2014-06-19, version 5.9* Absolutely horrible.. Change it back !! ### 1/5 — Not updating *2014-03-10, version 4.6.4.0* Please fix! There is no point in having a news app that doesn't publish "news". ### 1/5 — Not updating. *2014-03-08, version 4.6.4.0* This app was great until last week when it stopped updating. ### 1/5 — Needs major upgrades *2014-03-08, version 4.6.4.0* News is days to weeks old. Really bad design and performance. ### 1/5 — Out of date *2014-03-07* The news stories are always 3-4 days old even when the app says all content is current and up to date. A daily newspaper should have daily updates. Not enough access to local news. The top 10 and "breaking news" sections are repetitive. Each should have unique content. The new ads are annoying and random. The app is useless when the website had current and better content ### 1/5 — This app needs major upgrades! *2014-03-06* Beyond what has already been mentioned, the iPhone sentinel app needs a link to contact someone who can update the site with the day's articles. Too many times I have expected to read the day's articles only to find them oddly absent from the app. Irritating! And, there is no link on the app to give this feedback. Also, as a subscriber, I feel that I should not have to endure all the ads. Poorly designed app. ### 3/5 — Could be better.. *2014-03-05* This app has potential. I don't mind the advertisements, they are short and I realize the sentinel needs to make money to support there journalist. However this app is sporadically updated and the multimedia features are minimal. ### 2/5 — Cool......., but...... *2014-03-01, version 4.6.4.0* It's good for some of the local news. However, it is limited on some of the pictures. There is more than an acceptable amount of advertising. It would get 3 stars if the Sentinel website didn't limit the amount of times I can view it. ### 1/5 — Annoying ads and never updates *2013-12-27, version 4.6.4.0* Old news and annoying ads, can zoom on pictures or no pics at all ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Please redesign *2023-01-30, version 7.6.3* The phone app has many glitches and gives a less than desirable news outlet. Please consider investing some money into a full redesign to enhance the customer experience. Thank you in advance for your time. ### 1/5 — Waste of time *2021-07-12* I can skim and read a paper version of the sentinel in ten minutes. Ten minutes on the app pushes ads, and offers old articles, while interesting, are old news. I may only find three articles to read, and wonder where the other forty articles are, and what i missed. ### 1/5 — Obituaries used to sell ads *2021-06-27* This app is so annoying I have to steel myself to open it. I am canceling before the weekend ends. Too bad, because I want local news and find the monthly cost of receiving it at my door unreasonably high. Turning to the obituary of an acquaintance this week, I was shocked to see an ad for wrinkled knees instead of my friend’s face directly under his name instead of his picture! What insensitivity! If I were the family, I’d be horrified!!! Disgusting and in my opinion unforgivable. ### 1/5 — Confusing *2020-08-29, version 7.4.5* I don’t understand. Why doesn’t it update? I am an online subscriber and I can’t get the news? I like the way it is organized. ### 1/5 — Really bad *2017-03-09, version 7.1.7* Horrible. Home Page doesn't have refresh option so you're stuck looking at old news unless you restart your phone. How the Sentinel stays in biz remains a mystery ### 1/5 — Can't get the news when I want it *2015-08-10* This app is so annoying. It only lets you read a certain amount of articles before it asks you to sign into your press account if you have a subscription to the news paper. If I had a subscription, I wouldn't need the app. I tried the subscription but had to cancel it because it never got delivered to my second floor apartment. If you don't have a press account, the app kicks you out of the article. I think it only allows you to read a certain amount of articles for free per month because after awhile it doesn't require you to sign in. It's an on going cycle. I end up reading the articles for free on the website. This app is irritating and I'm deleting it. I can read the articles on my desktop or smart phone browser instead. ### 1/5 — Just bad. *2015-01-25, version 6.2.42* Awful UI. Bad ad placement. Asks for you to login. Why put up with all this only to read news stories that are barely edited. Full of typos and wrong information. They don't call it the Santa Cruz "Senile" for nothing. ### 1/5 — Good news source- intolerable ads *2015-01-11* I live in the Cruz and appreciate the local news available online. The first problem is that there are full-screen ads that interfere with scrolling through the news. If you land on an ad, you can't scroll past it unless you go to a story above or below the ad. In addition, the news doesn't update on a regular basis. It's also a combo of national press service stories and some local stories. All in all, this is a lousy app. Don't bother downloading it. ### 1/5 — Poor *2014-11-23, version 6.2.35* Does not refresh stories t times. Not worth the space. ### 1/5 — It used to be good *2014-08-11, version 6.1* Then they changed the format and it takes pretty long to load any story. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Well Worth The Subscription *2023-01-24* I am SO happy with this purchase. I HATE the “local news” online that only showed me SF, and neighboring areas for Bay Area news. Finding this app let me get the local new I WANT to read about! Best purchase! Love it! ### 5/5 — Great source for local news *2014-03-30* Content is excellent, good way to keep up on local happenings. Ads? Yes, but how else does this content and app continue to exist? ### 5/5 — Santa Cruz Sentinel *2013-11-20, version 4.6.2.0* Wonderful!!! Use the app frquently ### 5/5 — Read it every morning *2013-10-05, version 4.6.0.0* Great app for the local news. ### 5/5 — Great App! *2013-09-04, version 4.5.2.0* Thanks for making this available to us! If anything, add more photos! ### 5/5 — Great *2013-08-11, version 4.4.0.0* Local good stuff ### 5/5 — Must have if Santa Cruz Resident *2013-08-09* Love this app, if your a local its a great way to stay up on whats happening around town! If your not a local but love SC its a great way to keep up. Honestly a little skeptical when it comes to buying apps but havent made a smarter choice than with this one when it comes to getting local news! ### 5/5 — Sentinel Review *2013-07-29, version 4.4.0.0* I love the simplicity. Great ap! ### 5/5 — I don't need any more news & information apps *2013-07-15* This app is so easy to use and it replaces all my other news apps ### 5/5 — Two thumbs up *2013-07-12, version 4.3.0.0* Informative and user friendly --- *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 2026-08-21.*