# VNL News — user reviews > 90 indexed App Store user reviews of VNL News by Gray Television Group, Inc., rated 2.43/5 from 269 ratings. - Source: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vnl-news/id493274942/reviews - App overview in markdown: https://appshunter.io/ios/app/vnl-news/id493274942.md - Rating breakdown: 5★ 56 · 4★ 22 · 3★ 26 · 2★ 26 · 1★ 121 ## Newest reviews (18 of 90) ### 2/5 — Enough of the ads! *2026-06-11, version 6.0.5* Enough of the ads already! Used to be a good news source but the ads and the news stories are ridiculous. ### 2/5 — Worst Journalism I’ve known *2026-04-28, version 6.0.3* If it’s not a horrible app that makes you watch ads to get emergency news to keep you safe. It’s the sensationalism of everything. ### 2/5 — Annoying *2026-03-06, version 6.0.1* Ever since the recent update I can’t clear the non existent notification off the app on my phone. I am probably going to delete now because I can’t stand having a notification showing on my screen. ### 1/5 — Adds *2026-02-24, version 5.0.15* So many adds. More adds than a recipe web site. What a bummer. Can’t hardly get past the first add anymore. ### 1/5 — Ads *2026-01-16, version 5.0.15* Got an ad that said there’s a new update to this app. Looked just like the IPhone message. I closed the app and checked the App Store, and sure enough there’s no update. Use this app with caution they don’t screen ads and you will get scammed. ### 1/5 — Stop showing ads with sexual images. Temu etc… *2026-01-02, version 5.0.15* I shouldn’t have to worry about pretty much naked women popping up on my phone when I’m reading one of your articles. It sucks, especially being a mother of 5 children. ### 1/5 — Notifications *2025-12-25, version 5.0.15* I only have breaking news notifications on, yet i get notifications for everything. ### 2/5 — I just don’t like it. *2025-11-17, version 5.0.15* It is not easy to watch a video. You get a message with breaking news. Then you watch 2 ads, then you think you will see a story, but instead the ads start again. I typically give up and do not find the story that was “breaking news”. Also, the breaking news alert stories are often not actual breaking news stories. ### 1/5 — VNL *2025-11-14, version 5.0.15* Stop with the advertisements already . Can’t even get into the app without constant ads ### 1/5 — Yikes *2025-10-29, version 5.0.15* Possibly one of the worst news apps I’ve where used. Horrendous layout, works 1/4 of the time. Ridiculous advertising throughout the app. Not sure what is worse the app or the actual website. ### 2/5 — Pop up ads *2025-10-03, version 5.0.15* The ads that appear when I open your ap are very annoying and make me want to find my news feed somewhere else. Be better. ### 2/5 — Poor reporting *2025-07-07, version 5.0.15* Most reporting in incomplete. Many reports are missing fact important to the report. If you don’t know what the hazard spill is tell us. If you are not smart enough to ask the question don’t write the article. Poor info is worse no info. I often see “stay tuned for more info “ that I have never seen come. Weather reports are much better. ### 1/5 — No need to take over the tv for hours with weather alerts *2025-06-21, version 5.0.15* On Friday evening (June 20) I was trying to watch Jaws (it was the 50th anniversary of when the movie came out). Imagine my dismay about an hour into the movie when the weatherman interrupted and decided to take over the channel for the next two hours - so I was unable to finish watching the movie. I appreciate them giving us the latest news and weather warnings but there’s no need to go on and on and on. Absolutely ridiculous.👎🏻😕 ### 1/5 — Do better *2025-06-21, version 5.0.15* Storms rolling through the area and no live weather content…. ### 1/5 — Ads are horrendous *2025-06-05, version 5.0.15* For an app that wants to give you news, it is truly horrific the amount of ads this thing serves up. Every time a story comes across your notifications, You have to watch a 30 second ad usually of nonsense before you can even read the story or look at the video. I’m talking about the really annoying ads that have a video of a game or something dumb that you can’t skip. And when yo do want to skip, You can hardly find where the X is to do it… This thing is so bloated. It could probably serve as a hot air balloon. ### 1/5 — Just. The. Worst. *2024-03-03, version 5.0.13* 80% of the stories you get are of fires, rapes, murders, and people in car crashes. If that’s your thing, then maybe you’d like this app which takes “if it bleeds it leads” to the next level. The local stories are horribly written by what appears to be middle school English students. Even the AP stories they pull in for filler are all of the things listed above, but just out of Florida or some other crazy state. As far as the app goes, it crashes every so often. But it’s not terrible. The content is just garbage. Like a tabloid at the grocery store check out line. ### 1/5 — Bias news source *2024-01-09, version 5.0.13* It seems this news source is more interested in reporting on agenda and bias headlines than reporting facts! ### 2/5 — Ads *2023-05-30, version 5.0.7* I don’t like an ad to always pop up when I first go to app site. Can I block the ads that pop up first before I actually get to site? ## Most critical reviews (10 lowest-rated) ### 1/5 — Can’t forward stories *2026-07-27, version 6.0.7* That need to go back to the old app. Seems all local news channels are using this app and makes me wonder if it’s a 3 headed monster ### 1/5 — Hard to follow *2026-07-22, version 6.0.7* The app used to flow nicely but now its all over with ads and small print. Hard to read and headlines are not great. ### 1/5 — Whatever happened to local news you could count on *2026-06-12, version 6.0.5* It seems though the Valley news live app is following in the footsteps of apps such as CNN or USA TODAY. If you don't pay for a subscription you don't get news. You would think that an app dedicated to journalism would be able to support providing news when they have so many ads that pop-up. It's not a free press in this country! ### 1/5 — Adds are ridiculous *2026-04-02, version 6.0.2* We get an "Emergency Alert" then have to watch a bunch of adds before we are informed what's going on!! I can find better ways to stay informed 🤦‍♀️. Terrible app!! ### 1/5 — Poor Writing, Trashy Ads, Clickbait, and Annoying Games! *2026-03-12, version 6.0.2* I’ve had this app for a long time and appreciated getting timely area news and valuable info each day. However, over the last year or so, the stories have become very poorly written which distracts from their content and also makes me wonder if the info is even accurate. The poor quality writing is unprofessional, not to mention annoying, and it’s loaded with spelling and basic grammar errors that should’ve never made it to the posting stage. Another disturbing feature is all the ads that are interjected throughout and at the end and are presented as if they are real stories when they are nothing but trash and wasted space. They have no place in a news app. I’m sick of this continually disappointing quality and also the recent awkward changes which worsened the usability of the KVLY app. For those reasons I will be deleting it. ### 1/5 — I hate the update *2026-03-08, version 6.0.1* I hate your new interface. Now instead of swiping from story to story, I need to back out of each one, find the next one on the list and tap into it. This is not progress. I also don't like the full screen ads on launch. I realize you need to pay for the content, but full screen ads with timers are very annoying. ### 1/5 — Update *2026-03-08, version 6.0.1* Terrible new update! ### 1/5 — Hate the new app *2026-03-06, version 6.0.1* Nice that the ads stand out way more than the News. ### 1/5 — Notifications *2026-02-27, version 5.0.15* No matter what you set your notifications to, you get to many. I had mine set to only breaking news. I instead got notified all time of the day, anytime someone clocked into work (which is not breaking news) ### 1/5 — Needs an update *2026-02-25, version 5.0.15* App on your phone or even in a browser on a computer is atrocious. You would need an 8 hour seminar to teach my grandma to watch the news that way. Please fix the bugs and make it more accessible. ## Most praised reviews (10 highest-rated) ### 5/5 — Thank you for including national news. *2024-11-18, version 5.0.14* We recently traveled out west and along the way ate at McDonald’s. We appreciated the news of the McDonald’s E. coli coverage and one of us was a victim of that disease. Thanks to your coverage we suspected what it was and a visit to the emergency room confirmed it was the exact strain of E. coli that was linked to McDonalds. Also, you had the article on the recalled carrots from California. The place we visited in California had those carrots at that time and of course did not know of the recall yet. Therefore, we were exposed to E. coli in two different places on one trip. The two recalls were involved with different strains of E. coli so there isn’t a question of where the disease came from. Thanks to the news coverage including the dates of the recalled carrots, the place that used that brand of carrots and currently had some in the fridge, has disposed of them. ### 5/5 — KVLY *2024-02-28, version 5.0.13* I look at this app every day a lot of times twice a day. Always informational. ### 5/5 — Gréât Coverage *2022-12-11, version 4.4.18* My go-to viewing is KXJB and KVLY. I can also catch you LIVE on Paramount + Just an FYI and keep up the good work, Gray’s. Cheryl Davidson Wathne Roseau, Minnesota ### 5/5 — One of Few *2022-11-10, version 4.4.18* Its one of few ways to get news for the growing city of Fargo. Thanks for that! ### 5/5 — Stream loading *2022-01-27* Would be great if there was a stream that interrupted the LNN stuff whenever you went live on any channel. Ch 4s feed always has loading or stopping issues. ### 4/5 — Great other than one bug *2020-07-14* The app works great other than I have to delete and re-install the app for the temperature to update on the widget in notification center. ### 4/5 — News app *2017-08-25* I can't read any news when I get to the home page I press news I can't read anything it's just white.😞 ### 3/5 — Great app but... *2020-04-01* The app is great and easy to use but way too many notifications are sent, just minutes apart, that say the same exact thing. I've considered turning my notifications off for the app but I don't want to miss something important. ### 3/5 — News reports rarely added *2019-12-30* Bad wether in area and I went looking for newscast in the video portion, for updated information. Nothings been loaded for 2 days. Don’t keep promoting an app that isn’t kept up. ### 3/5 — Ads cover story *2019-03-13, version 4.2.1* Ads are on top of part of the news article, so you can’t see part of it. --- *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 2026-08-11.*