The Times User Reviews

Customer Experience

Positive experience6.9% of reviews
Neutral15.7% of reviews
Negative experience77.4% of reviews

~ Based on 363 written reviews from the US App Store.

What users say

Is The Times Safe?

The Times: UK & World News has mixed safety signals based on user ratings. AppsHunter Safety Score for The Times is 50/100.

This assessment is based on 33 user ratings, with an App Store average of 1.9/5.

Safety Analysis

21.2% of ratings point to a safe experience
3.0% of ratings suggest some concerns
75.8% of ratings point to a risky experience

~ Based on 33 App Store ratings for The Times.

Is The Times Legit?

The Times: UK & World News appears to be a legitimate app. AppsHunter Legitimacy Score for The Times is 90/100.

Based on 90 of 100 points across 7 verification signals from App Store and developer data.

Top reviews

Used to be good, non biased news

Always enjoyed the Times as they always seem to have a balance view but sadly now, it’s has turned into an anti reform rag. On the radio and online is constant digs at reform. That’s enough for me thanks

Great app.

Wonderful, I love it!

Share your guidance please

I also experience the same technical problems as many other reviewers when using the app on my iPad. The Developer response to the review is usually to ask the reviewer to contact The Times technical team for guidance. Can the guidance be shared publicly please as I am sure it will help all iPad users? I should add that the app works well on my iPhone.
Show more

Terrible v slow & laggy

Terrible user experience, keeps pausing mid article to load ads and videos. You have to wait, go and make a cup of tea, come back hope it’s ready to show you another paragraph.

Great when it works

It keeps logging me out and telling me my subscription is cancelled… as a paying customer that’s really annoying.
The fact that customer support is only available during UK office hours is ridiculous when it’s an international paper…

Response from developer

Thank you for your feedback. We're sorry to hear you've experienced repeated logouts and subscription access issues. We also understand your concerns regarding support availability. If you're still affected, please contact us via Live Chat or email care@thetimes.com with your username, device details and app version so we can investigate further.

Terrible UX

Every time I open the Times app I’m presented with yet another dialog box that I have to interact with in order to close the dialog.

It’s obviously too easy to include an “X” button to just close the promotional dialog: today, the thing that has made me cancel my subscription and delete the app was a dialog box that I had to “rub to reveal your gift”. I got halfway through “rubbing it” and realised I had better things to do with my life than pander to this nonsense.

I am actually insulted that the Times thinks I’ve for the time to sit here playing games when I’m trying to quickly catch up with the latest news.

Times: I hope your app tanks. I hope your newspaper tanks. Goodbye, good riddance, and good luck.
Show more

Rubbish

I cannot open or use the times App I have paid twice through Apple Pay?? Have downloaded 2 different Times App. Still can’t log in or read asking g for subscription AGAIN. I want a refund if 29:99 and 7:99 immediately please.

Too much wrong, ads, censorship, loss of privacy

This is still a problem (Aug 26) no reply from customer services after 48 hrs. Avoid if you can. News is ok but customer services poor.

Arrogant editors decide when to turn off user comments on some articles. I really really hate that feature and is censorship. Also comments don’t navigate properly within the app, sending users to website which doesn’t store log in details.

—- Also they have just stopped commemts Using an alias. I don’t think people should have to give real names especially if topics are controversial or the user has an unusual name meaning it’s clear who’s posting. I am annoyed because comments are turned off for some articles deemed by the sole opinion of the editors to not warrant them. It is not for the editors to censor in the way. They also block comments that don’t meet their criteria, which includes quite ordinary statements. I find this wholly inappropriate. There is no feedback loop to complain about this. Also, it is very annoying that the iPad app does not allow or integrate with reader comments. Journalism is generally ok , however sometimes obvious questions are not answered or considered.
Show more

Response from developer

I am sorry to read your review, we are keen to speak to you directly regarding this issue. Please do get in touch with us via a channel that suits you, mentioning app store, so we can resolve this for you at thetimes.co.uk/help

Awful experience on iPad

I have had the same awful experience as everyone else here. The app freezes, is very slow to respond and crashes. I emailed your customer care as suggested in all your replies to the reviews. I supplied full details of my device and software.This was on Monday. You say that you aim to respond within 48 hours but I have heard nothing.
Show more

Do not sign up for 1£ trial

the cancellation process is pure horror. one can see the description in the profile but for cancellation you need to phone or send email ....

Response from developer

Thank you for your feedback. We understand that calling to cancel may feel inconvenient, but it is part of our policy to ensure security and proper handling of subscription changes. Please email us at care@thetimes.com for assistance, and our team will guide you through the process or arrange a call to complete the cancellation or subscription update.

Impossible to sign in

Content is good, however, the app developer should be fired. It is rare to find this many poor reviews about the app and the login process even more rare to see how The Times is completely ignoring the evidence of this atrocious service.

Response from developer

Thank you for your feedback. We're delighted to hear you're enjoying our content. We also appreciate your comments regarding the app experience, as reader feedback helps us continue improving the service and overall experience for all subscribers.

No longer lets me log in

I like the quality journalism of The Times, but the app no longer lets me log in. I have had to cancel and ask for a refund. I’ve tried uninstalling and restarting and reinstalling etc etc.

Getting better

Was freezing really badly but seems to be much better after most recent release

Experience is slow and so frustrating

When I can read an article, it’s generally good. But the experience is really slow. Pages take ages to load. Scrolling across pages is also really poor as images load. Then the app has enough and crashes.
They must do better. I keep subscribing to have a newspaper; but I’m close to saying enough is enough.
Show more

UAT login?!?

I took out a trial subscription yesterday and can no longer login. What I try logging in via Apple News I’m shown a UAT subscription login and can’t login. We shouldn’t be seeing UAT tagged UI in a production environment. Is this why I can’t login? Is prod auth somehow pointing to UAT backend?

Comments error

Comments don’t load

Response from developer

Thank you for your feedback. To help us assist you further, please email care@thetimes.com with your full name, CPN, a description of the issue, your device and app details, if possible, please include a screen recording showing what happens before and after going offline. A customer care adviser will respond within 48 hours.

Can no longer download offline

Why can’t I just download the print edition offline? You added all these unneeded features but removed the core one.

App keeps crashing

I have been very critical of the experience with this app but over the last week or so the problem seems to have been sorted and the app no longer crashes all the time

Pretty poor app

I have deleted and reinstalled this app so many times now that I’ve lost count. The articles themselves are well presented with a useful timeline of other related articles to help you dig deeper.

If you want an interactive experience, however, prepare to be disappointed:

I regularly get signed out for no reason. Posting a comment will often result in a completely random allocation of where it appears, making many comments sections nonsensical. Replies to comments very often appear as stand alone new posts.
The recommend function crashes multiple times on any given day.
Comments sections for some articles are just tagged onto those for a preceding relevant article. This just makes the whole thing unreadable.
The app seems to have an extremely annoying autofill/predictive text kind of function regardless of whether or not you have that function activated on your phone/tablet. It leads to multiple gobbledygook comments. The word “of” will invariably appear as “off”. Anything ending with an “ing” will almost inevitably end up as an “inging”. These are minor things I know but still very annoying if you’re old fashioned and like to make grammatical sense.
Show more

Disappointed

I should’ve read the reviews before subscribing. No access to any articles. No help at all from The Times “support” or Apple. If you enjoy spending money on apps that are functionally useless, I cannot recommend this one highly enough.

Response from developer

Thank you for your feedback. To help us assist you further, please email care@thetimes.com with your full name, CPN, a description of the issue, your device and app details, if possible, please include a screen recording showing what happens before and after going offline. A customer care adviser will respond within 48 hours.