# Santa Cruz Sentinel — user reviews > 54 indexed App Store user reviews of Santa Cruz Sentinel by MediaNews Group, rated 4.30/5 from 169 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/santa-cruz-sentinel/id461523626/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/santa-cruz-sentinel/id461523626.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 115 · 4★ 28 · 3★ 9 · 2★ 2 · 1★ 15 ## What do users think of Santa Cruz Sentinel? Overall sentiment: mixed **Pros** - 👍 Easy to navigate - 📰 Great for local news - 📱 Accessible anywhere - 🌟 Works great - 💡 Big improvement with new modes - 🚀 Updates quickly - 😊 App is stable - 👍 Convenient for morning reading - 📰 Replaces paper satisfactorily - 👍 Clear and precise writing - 🌳 Environmentally friendly - 💯 Reliable and intuitive app - ✨ Pictures are bright and clear - 👍 Good functionality - 💯 Love the options of use **Cons** - 🐛 Glitchy and cumbersome - 🐛 Frequently hangs on loading - 🐛 Print highlighting issues - 🐛 Return arrow issues - 🐛 E-edition hard to read on phone - 🐛 Ads are too many - 🐛 Annoying daily pop-up - 🐛 Broken cross-linkage - 🐛 Links to nowhere - 🐛 News is a bit behind - 🐛 Cumbersome and unintuitive - 🐛 Difficult to maneuver - 🐛 Links do not always work - 🐛 Poorly designed - 🐛 News timing issues **Commonly reported bugs** - Text to speech option does not work - Cannot log in, problem message - App frequently hangs on loading article - Highlighting puzzle and sending to printer works 50% of the time - Puzzle won't show up on screen - Icons highlight sequentially but nothing happens - Return arrow throws back to front page - E-edition harder to read on phone - Articles don’t pop out correctly or don’t continue from next page - Occasional glitches and little problems - System asks for nickname and it's taken - Too many ads to subscribe - App stops working and needs reload - Annoying daily pop up window asking for other edition - Broken cross-linkage to extended article - Links to nowhere - Newspaper reverts to top of current article when toggling apps - News is a bit behind with the news - Links from front page to back sections often never open - Text to speech reads only a word or two and stops **Most requested features** - Add rainfall measurements - More local news, less national - More positive news, less negative - More current news timing - Dark mode option - Option to not revert to top of article when toggling apps ## Newest reviews (14 of 54) ### 4/5 — Great app for Sentinel *2022-03-02, version 3.5.08* We just need rainfall measurements added in! 😊 ### 5/5 — Great App *2021-12-07, version 3.5.06* I like reading the Sentinel every day even when I travel. This app makes it easy. ### 5/5 — My morning paper *2021-11-20* Reading my local paper in the format of a newspaper ( though digital) helps me start my morning right. Satisfies my nostalgia for when the morning paper delivered on your porch was a thing. And reading local news is so much better than the horror show on the big news websites. ### 5/5 — Really convenient *2021-11-06* I often awake in the early morning for a short while. The online Sentinel is there for me to read. It is really convenient to read on my iPad while in bed. I get a good start to the day before falling back asleep. I can quickly scroll through and focus on those articles of interest. I especially like the new format of the app. ### 5/5 — SC rating *2021-11-03, version 3.5.00* Love the new format. ### 5/5 — E- edition *2021-09-29* I very much appreciate having the online option during the pandemic. Occasionally I experience glitches and little problems, but for the most part the e-edition seems to work well and seems to have improved over recent months. I now have a complaint: before sending my review, the system is asking me for a nickname, and the ones I tried have all been taken, and it doesn’t seem willing to let me send a review without a nickname. This has taken three times as long as writing the review, and my review is now a negative one because of this! Please do not attach my name nor nickname if you display my review! ### 4/5 — Easy to read anytime *2021-09-28, version 3.2.59* Enjoy the easy access to our local paper. ### 5/5 — Great newspaper *2021-08-24, version 3.2.59* Love reading it ### 4/5 — Great way to stay connected *2021-07-07, version 3.2.59* Since subscribing I continue to get too many ads to subscribe. Enough already! ### 5/5 — Good source for local news. *2021-05-05, version 3.2.59* All the time. ### 5/5 — Good app *2021-04-28, version 3.2.59* Easy to use ### 5/5 — Clear and Precise *2021-04-07, version 3.2.59* I find the Santa Cruz Sentinel to be well researched, well written and appropriately objective. ### 5/5 — Works great *2021-03-27* It nice to read the local paper no matter where you are traveling. Easy to navigate and set up well compared to other newspaper apps! ### 5/5 — Sentinel *2021-03-25, version 3.2.59* Extremely reliable app. Intuitive. ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Text to speech option does not work *2025-05-11, version 4.0.1* The text to speech option does not work hardly at all. It just reads maybe a word or two and then stops. That makes this app almost worthless to me. ### 1/5 — HELP! *2024-09-01, version 4.0.1* i can not even log in, it says there was a problem. is anybody else having this problem?😱 ### 1/5 — New app is NOT an improvement *2022-07-21* If it isn’t broken, don’t fix it. New app is more cumbersome to use. Worst though is that it frequently hangs up with Loading article message and no way to get out of that except to delete app. Also, I used to be able to highlight a puzzle and send to printer. That function works about 50% of the time. Puzzle won’t show up on screen and icons on the top highlight sequentially but nothing happens. And if I hit the return arrow to try again, it throws me back to the front page, not the previous page. Have contacted them repeatedly but no response and no resolution. ### 1/5 — Terrible *2020-04-18, version 2.9.35* It’s as though The Sentinel doesn’t want us to use this digital version of the paper. It’s so cumbersome and unintuitive to use. Even though it’s been promoted for well over a year it’s still an extremely poor experience. ### 1/5 — Too difficult *2020-03-15, version 2.9.35* The newspaper is too hard to maneuver My print copy is being discontinued So now all I have is the e copy. Sad ### 1/5 — Clean- up *2018-08-16, version 2.8.15* I thought it was only me. Please clean up your online newspaper. The links do not always work. My eye are straining. I get the printed paper at home but I travel for work and would like to know what is going on at home when I am away. Please fix this - clean it up ### 1/5 — Extremely poor *2018-03-20, version 2.6.50* It’s barely usable at the best of times. Very poorly designed. Links from front page to back sections often never open. The ONLY virtue is the ability to see the front page of past issues. ### 2/5 — E-edition harder to read on phone than website version *2022-02-28* The Sentinels e-edition format is very frustrating and difficult to read on my small screen iPhone-though I hate this format for other documents on my desktop computer also. Maybe I am a Luddite-but give me Firefox, Safari or even a PDF instead. ### 3/5 — No more gross ads *2021-11-05* I am so relieved the gross ear wax pop up as is gone! Ad content should be better monitored. The site generally works okay but it’s pretty glitchy. Sometimes articles don’t pop out correctly or don’t continue from the next page. ### 3/5 — Daily paper online *2021-04-05* I like reading daily paper online and not having to go outside to pickup paper that was thrown under the car or in the gutter and wet. Saving trees is important for our planet. Sometimes the app stops working and need to reload. Overall I appreciate the online copy! ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Mercury App *2022-09-13, version 3.7.0* Works great for print version online ### 5/5 — Easy *2022-06-20, version 3.6.05* Easy to navigate ### 5/5 — The on line App is flawless! *2022-05-28* I resisted for a long time moving from paper to on line app. But now after more than 4 years of use I love it. No more missed papers or searching in the bushes. And my IPad travels with me on vacations around the world. I can also email articles of interest to friends & family. ### 5/5 — A succinct, local mosaic. *2022-05-27, version 3.6.05* Unique. Divergent. Troubled. Inspiring. Poetic. Pithy. ### 5/5 — Big Improvement *2022-05-18* The new Read/Swipe modes are a big improvement, and just what I’d hoped for. Also, the app is much more stable when idle while I do other things. I can now return from another task and pick up where I left off without the long wait, the app crashing and/or needing to navigate back to where I’d left off. Now I can love the local news AND the app. Way to go, developers! Thanks for hearing user suggestions. ### 5/5 — It works! *2022-05-12, version 3.6.05* This app works great and replaces my paper paper very satisfactorily. Really, it’s even better. ### 5/5 — I use it every day! *2022-02-07* This app is the first thing I open & read every morning for years now. I rather recently learned to swipe, rather than tapping arrows to move to the next page! ### 5/5 — Courageous coverage of differing views, and great local news *2022-02-06, version 3.5.08* Keep up the good work! ### 5/5 — Love it! *2022-01-24, version 3.5.08* I can get my hometown paper anywhere I want! ### 5/5 — It’s a great way to read the Sentinel! *2021-12-09* I’m really enjoying being able to blow up the print so I can see it better, I also enjoy the reading section when the articles are very large you can click a button and follow along a little bit as it’s read out loud. Pictures are bright and clear, much better than a newspaper. I miss the tradition of going to the curb and getting my newspaper every day and having it laying around to remind me to finish reading it all day! --- *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 2026-08-12.*