Columbus Dispatch App Reviews

Change is suppose to be good . Not with this app

The updated app feels and looks like a website from 1999. Its clunky and difficult to navigate. Did they do any UX testing with this version? The old one was basic but user friendly.

I have a terrible time. Ive paid for 52 weeks of unlimited access but I can not use it. I email and call and plead for help but never get a response. Sad. When The Dispatch goes under they have only themselves to blame.

The new app is about as good as the home delivery service.

The app has serious issues. I can log in to Dispatch.com but not into this app - really bad design on the back end.

I give it one star since it is now asking me to log in since all my free reads are used up. I dont have to do this with USA Today which has much more news. Update: even worse. Now it has even more adds with a one every time you start it yet still not free. It limits you to a set number of articles read. Get USA TODAY it better and total free.

This new version has a smaller font and is more difficult to read. Who makes these decisions? Bring back the larger print, it is hard enough to read on my phone.

Clunky and hard to navigate but ok

This is the all-new replacement to the old Dispatch apps which will cease working the first week of Feb, 2016. its now a combo app, with html news, and also the e-edition for subscribers as its own sub area. The e-edition has the look and feel of a newspaper on an iPad and isnt quite so convenient on a phone. However, it has a bug where you cant save the login, forcing you to enter your username and password every time. Someone commented about the font size, and you can increase it by tapping the hamburger menu in the top left to display categories, then tap the gear at the bottom right and article text size is at the top.

This new app pretty much takes away the pleasure of reading a paper, and makes it like every other news source. Im not going to continue subscribing to the Dispatch, because I can get all of this info on the 10TV, WCMH4 or other local apps. Theyve mixed up local and national news, and there is no separate section to go directly to local news. Big fail on this app!

The new version of the Dispatch app is a big fail, at least as regards the E-Edition. I must log in every time I access, which is annoying in the extreme. Once I do access, I find 20% of my screen is lost to useless headers, footers, page turners, hints, searches, settings and so on. Do I really need a (large) progress bar to measure how far into the paper I have read? This app was developed and approved by people who DO NOT READ THE NEWSPAPER! I dont think Ill continue with the e-subscription if it stays like this. It is that bad.

Thursday, 2016 Feb 4: Unable to access the facsimile edition tonight. The rollout of the new software seems to have been poorly executed. - Friday, 2016 Feb 5: Got the facsimile edition this morning. As someone remarked in another review, its a letdown from the facsimile edition provided when the paper was locally owned. Its cluttered, now, with the facsimile shrunken inside unnecessary and unwelcome extraneous material. As a result, since its smaller, its harder to read on the iPad screen. Before, it was clunky; now, its both clunky and cluttered. The designers and programmers are getting bad guidance. Those of us who care about the Dispatch dont want to watch it become just another anonymous profit center in its new owners large stable of small local papers. Yet, that seems to be happening. Local newspapers are too important to the health of this democracy to be treated like this.

Its very annoying to have to login every time you want to read the paper. Also, you cant use your finger tips to expand the size of the article you are reading. Third, the tabs to reach section of the paper (Metro, Sports, etc.) are gone. Thus, you have to page through the entire paper if you want to get to a specific section. This new version of the Dispatch app needs lots of work.

‘Nuff said.

Please stop making us sign in for the e-edition. Its a major pain.

Nice that the Dispatch content is there, but the app is atrocious. Nearly 1/3 of the screen is taken up by unneeded headers/ footers. Simply getting rid of this would greatly increase the usability of this app.

We cancelled home delivery of the Dispatch and went completely digital because the paper was often delivered too late to read. This app is so bad, we may be done with the Dispatch for good. App is hard to log into, unstable, clunky, and the graphics are bad.

This is the absolute worst newspaper app that I have used. Let me list some of the ways that it really falls short 1. Make users sign in every time - check 2. Ads block out content - check 3. Tiny print in e-Edition - check Looks like the app devs are totally clueless on how to make a usable app.

Just installed on iPhone6 and app works fast and accurately. Arranged some better than prior versions. Very useable now and best app of theirs Ive ever tried.

Downloaded and after 15 minutes I deleted the new app. Ill stay with the e-edition. If it is dropped I will drop the Dispatch as a whole