What users complain about in news and weather apps
938 English-language one-star reviews of 7 App Store and Google Play listings in this sector, posted between 2025-10-25 and 2026-10-24. Part of the Revunda study of 29,785 one-star app reviews.
Key findings
- Ads is the top complaint: 24.7% of one-star reviews (all apps: 3.6%), then charges, fees & refunds (11.2%) and login & account access (4.9%).
- 46.2% of all reviews of these apps in the period are one-star (all apps: 41.3%), rank 5 of 15 sectors.
- Biggest gap vs all apps: ads, 24.7% vs 3.6%.
- Highest one-star share among listings with ≥30 one-star reviews: CNN (iOS), 71.3% of its reviews; lowest: The Weather Channel (iOS), 19.7%.
- Most ads complaints: The Weather Channel (Google Play), 49.3% of its one-star reviews.
Complaint themes
Share of 938 one-star reviews mentioning each theme. A review can match several themes; 53.8% match none.
| Theme | This sector, % | All apps, % | Reviews |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ads | 24.7 | 3.6 | 232 |
| Charges, fees & refunds | 11.2 | 8.4 | 105 |
| Login & account access | 4.9 | 9.5 | 46 |
| Crashes & won’t open | 4.7 | 4.6 | 44 |
| Notifications & alerts | 3.6 | 2.0 | 34 |
| Broke after an update | 2.8 | 3.3 | 26 |
| Slow, loading & lag | 2.2 | 4.9 | 21 |
| Redesign & confusing UI | 1.9 | 3.2 | 18 |
| Customer service | 0.9 | 9.1 | 8 |
| Payment or checkout fails | 0.1 | 1.0 | 1 |
By app
7 listings with at least 30 one-star reviews in the period, sorted by one-star share of all their reviews. Top theme = the theme most of that app’s one-star reviews mention.
| App | Store | 1★ reviews (EN) | 1★ share, all reviews | Top theme |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNN | iOS | 208 | 71.3% | Charges, fees & refunds (31.2%) |
| Nextdoor | iOS | 193 | 66.3% | Ads (13.0%) |
| AccuWeather | iOS | 159 | 55.7% | Ads (30.2%) |
| FOX News | iOS | 165 | 55.0% | Ads (43.6%) |
| Nextdoor | Google Play | 85 | 31.0% | Ads (9.4%) |
| The Weather Channel | Google Play | 69 | 24.3% | Ads (49.3%) |
| The Weather Channel | iOS | 59 | 19.7% | Ads (28.8%) |
Most similar complaint mix: Streaming apps · Shopping apps · Smart home apps.
Method
Newest ~300 public reviews per listing from Apple’s customer-reviews RSS feed and Google Play, fetched 2026-10-24. Theme shares use one-star reviews from English-language storefronts, matched by one keyword pattern per theme (patterns and limitations on the study page). Keyword matching misses paraphrases, so treat shares as lower bounds; public reviews over-represent unhappy users.
Download the data
news-weather-app-complaints-2026.csv (CSV): the sector row, the all-apps row and every listing above, with counts and shares per theme. Licence: CC BY 4.0; please credit Revunda with a link to this page.
The free app check shows the top complaint themes in your latest reviews in a minute. The full report (€19 (launch price, €49 from 1 Dec 2026)) groups up to 300 reviews into issues with quotes and 10 ranked fixes.
Related
- Full study: all sectors, countries and apps
- Guide: why users complain about news and weather apps
- Shopping & grocery app complaints
- Banking app complaints
- Telecom & TV provider app complaints
- Streaming & ticket app complaints
- Airline & travel app complaints
- Food delivery app complaints
- Taxi & transit app complaints
- Parcel & postal app complaints
- Smart home app complaints
FAQ
What do users complain about most in news and weather apps?
In 938 one-star reviews (2025-10-25 – 2026-10-24), the top themes are ads (24.7%), charges, fees & refunds (11.2%) and login & account access (4.9%).
Which news & weather app has the highest share of one-star reviews?
CNN (iOS): 71.3% of its reviews in the period were one-star, among 7 listings with at least 30 one-star reviews.