# Shades: The News Game — user reviews > 115 indexed App Store user reviews of Shades by Shades Media, Inc, rated 4.75/5 from 569 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shades-the-news-game/id1581205588/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/shades-the-news-game/id1581205588.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 511 · 4★ 21 · 3★ 13 · 2★ 3 · 1★ 21 ## What do users think of Shades? Overall sentiment: positive **Pros** - 👍 Easy to use - 🚀 Efficient news consumption - 💡 Balanced perspectives - 🎨 Visually appealing - 🕹️ Fun interactive features **Cons** - 🐛 Bugs and glitches - 🔋 Performance issues - 🤔 Unclear onboarding - 📵 Paywall limitations **Commonly reported bugs** - App crashes - Navigation issues - Outdated content - Compatibility problems **Most requested features** - More content topics - Customizable user interface - Enhanced social features - Improved offline functionality ## Newest reviews (17 of 115) ### 5/5 — Excellent *2024-08-21, version 3.17* Wonderful app to be up to date ### 5/5 — I love shades *2024-08-20, version 3.17* Such a great app for getting my daily news quickly!!! ### 5/5 — Excellent Platform! *2024-08-16, version 3.16* This platform is unique from other apps that I have experienced and this definitely has a lot of trending feeds that can help me learn and interact. I also like how they have a poll tool for the user’s experience which I believe can help with the interaction aspect. Overall, I had an amazing experience! ### 5/5 — Great app! *2024-08-16, version 3.16* I just started using Shades for a few weeks now and it’s amazing. It’s easy to use and straightforward. It makes consuming news easy and enjoyable! ### 5/5 — Great app *2024-08-14, version 3.16* The UI on this app is so well made, and very easy to use. Very different and much more fun to use compared to other traditional news apps. Will be using this as my daily. ### 5/5 — Amazing concept! *2024-08-12, version 3.14* A wonderful, unique approach to a news app. I find watching and reading the news interesting, however this app gives a unique experience that makes reading news more fun and engaging! The streak feature is a really fun approach to invite more people to read the news and staying loyal to it. Love the concept! ### 5/5 — Something new and easy to access! *2024-08-10, version 3.13* I like how easily and quickly I can access top stories and global news with different topics as preferences. The short summaries of each news site/article on every story saves a whole lot of time rather than going through the whole article - great job! ### 5/5 — Easy way to stay informed *2024-08-08, version 3.13* Shades helps me keep up with the news without feeling overwhelmed. The articles are concise and the information is easy to follow. Highly recommend! ### 5/5 — Very Impressive *2024-08-06, version 3.13* New take on gaining insight from news sources without having to read a 4 page essay to find out what’s going on in the world. All I have to do is swipe, read for 2 mins, swipe, and read again! ### 5/5 — Stay informed without the stress or gloom of traditional news *2024-08-06, version 3.13* I oftentimes find myself avoiding the news on purpose, as it tends to drag me down and feel more pessimistic about the world. However, I knew it’s very important to stay informed and educated. I’m very glad to have found Shades as a better, more digestible option to engage with what’s happening around me! ### 5/5 — New Favorite news app *2024-08-05* As someone who doesn’t want to spend time reading pages full of text to keep up with current news, this app has saved me time and effort to become current again. I’m loving the fun vibes combined with less biased bits of news from all over. And if you get addicted you won’t mind! Mindless scrolling through social media- we’ve been there and after a while you realize you just wasted time and have no useful info! This is not that! ### 5/5 — a fresh take on news! *2024-08-03, version 3.13* this app is really interactive! everything jumps out at you and it covers many different types of medias and perspectives on current events. the userface is very sleek and intuitive, making it very easy to navigate through! i'm really fond about the feature where each news article allows you to comment on the post and share your insights! using this app was really engaging as well, especially since the app is tailors your news feed to your personal interests and preferences. ### 5/5 — Efficient way to receive news quickly! *2024-08-03, version 3.13* Shades is a great way to receive news in a timely matter where not a lot of reading is involved and is straight to the point. It’s also great that it gives you the option to learn more on a particular story given that there are links to major news corporations such as NBC, New York Times, and more. ### 5/5 — Great News Outlet for Gen Z Pop! *2024-08-02, version 3.13* As a gen z’er, I appreciate how easy and digestible it is to read the news on Shades. The user interface is fun and user friendly. I appreciate that Shades provides cliff notes of news articles that get straight to the point. 5 stars!! ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ ### 5/5 — New favorite app *2024-08-01, version 3.13* I love the concept. I’m super busy so I don’t have a ton of time to sift through news articles and this app has made it way easier for me. ### 5/5 — THE News *2024-07-30, version 3.13* I like the idea of a no agenda news source. I also like the visual aesthetic of the application. It’s very clean and has a bombastically playful side. I wish it had more content about games and TV in general though. If I just used this 1 app for all my news it’d be so perfect. ### 5/5 — Great for news *2024-07-30, version 3.12* Not really into news but shades breaks down everything for me to better understand and engage with news that I have never done before ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Forced registration for no reason *2024-09-16, version 3.20* As soon as you launch it, it requires registering and verifying with a phone number or email address with no explanation, and then forces you to choose a username, again with no explanation. No way to preview the app or simply browse without an account. ### 1/5 — Bring back baw *2024-09-08, version 3.20* I’ve had this app for almost 2 years now. I downloading it just because of the baw game, but the news stories were a nice touch. Please bring back baw and the word game! I unfortunately will no longer be using this app but I hope you guys manage to get baw to work in the new interface or whatever the problem was. Loved that game ### 1/5 — Makes no sense *2024-07-03, version 3.0.8* News app that asks me to verify my phone number 3 seconds into app usage? Makes no sense - uninstalled, loved the pitch though ### 1/5 — Clunky, ad-looking interface *2024-06-24, version 3.0.8* UI reminds me too much of the Snapchat ad section. Also just feels too cluttered in general. Give some breathing room (spacers, hiding related stories, etc). A bit boring to just see the same rectangles everywhere for stories. Multiple source/opinion thing is cool at first but I found myself going back to Google/Apple news to find more relevant articles from my preferred sources. ### 1/5 — keeps changing stuff and removing games *2024-06-08, version 3.0.7* bring the games back :( thats what made this app great ### 1/5 — Phone number to use the app? *2024-05-10, version 3.0.1* Nope. Fix your onboarding. ### 1/5 — I’m confused *2024-05-08, version 3.0.1* Help me understand why you require such a high cost field like a phone number to begin to understand what you’re about? This goes against everything I know to be true about onboarding new people, deleted ### 2/5 — AI everywhere *2024-12-26, version 3.32* I used Shades back when if was cf, and redownloaded it recently only to be bombarded with ai images. Almost every single news story cover is made with AI, which makes me concerned that their stories are written with it too. I’m saddened that this company has resorted to the laziness of using AI instead of paying real artists or simply using stock images! ### 2/5 — Liked it before the update *2023-02-16, version 2.0* I loved cf and I used it as my primary news app. After the switch to shades everything feels much more clunky and hard to navigate, and I liked the old simplistic design much much better. Everything takes much longer to load now too. ### 2/5 — Still biased. *2022-05-04, version 1.1.3* Although the app is easy to navigate and does make catching up on the news easy, when you click on where the articles are gleaned from, they are mostly taken from left leaning publications/sources. So no, CF is not unbiased and “down the middle”. When most of the articles come from CNN or the New York Times, I struggle to see how you consider the stories unbiased. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Shades *2024-12-22, version 3.32* Good app, easy to use. ### 5/5 — Excellent new way to view news *2024-12-18* Shades I feel is an upgraded New York Times app. It is super easy to use and allows for you to easily access news you want to see. The headlines are nice and are what you see as you enter the app, but once you are in your news tab, that is where the news game is changed. Additionally, the app is beautifully designed and nice to look at and play around in. There also are some fun games and quizzes. Excellent app! ### 5/5 — Amazing concept *2024-12-10, version 3.32* I love the idea of a balanced news experience! Too often we are confronted with bias in the news. I love that this app asks questions rather than making statements. Definitely check it out! ### 5/5 — Great app to get news *2024-09-01, version 3.19* This is a great app to get a variety of perspectives on the same topic. It’s easy to use and has great features. ### 5/5 — Quickest way to stay up to date in the world *2024-08-31, version 3.19* This app is truly breathtaking. It is designed in a way to receive unbiased news about various topics. Its use of vibrant colors and eye catching news titles is very clever. It allows you to understand everything that is occurring in the world without taking up a lot of time! ### 5/5 — Good layout and consolidation of news *2024-08-30* I like how this app collects and categorizes today’s news and make it easy for people to skim, react, and explore more. This helps a lot for me to digest news since there is so much news everyday and I am a busy person who doesn’t have a lot of time to keep up with the news that goes on. I also like the visual designs of the app as it’s very engaging and simple that it doesn’t distract me from reading the information presented to me. ### 5/5 — A must try!! *2024-08-29* This app is exceptionally unique and well thought out! I appreciate how it provides personalized shades alongside top trending ones, keeping you in the loop with everything that’s happening. It also offers multiple perspectives on a topic, which differentiates itself from other news sources. I highly recommend downloading/trying it out because you might just end up adding it to your daily routine. ### 5/5 — The all-in-one news source *2024-08-28, version 3.18* Highly recommend this. Love the layout and personalized content. I get to see multiple news perspectives on one app! ### 5/5 — Accessible and well-rounded news *2024-08-25, version 3.18* Shades does an excellent job of breaking down articles in a manner that is easy to comprehend for all types of readers. The article options are diverse, and the format of the app is very well organized. ### 5/5 — Multiple perspectives *2024-08-21, version 3.17* I love how this app gives multiple different perspectives and doesn’t make it one sided. The aesthetics of the app is super satisfying too. --- *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 2026-06-10.*