Toronto Star

The app suddenly plays YouTube videos with sound (content, not ads). You can't turn the sound off. You can't stop the video either, because there is an overlay menu that won't go away, which also means you can't actually see the video. App support shoots themselves in the foot with an inane email setup: They route incoming emails through a third party, which forwards them in a way that breaks the SPF record, so the emails are automatically declined.

Relatively smooth app with the added bonus of dark mode for reading articles. However, the notification and deep linking seems to be broken on Android. Every single link I tap on email or from the android notification leads me to a previous article I had opened from an earlier notification tap, but not the new article that was linked. I may have to restart the app, but it's super frustrating that this is happening.

Just subscribed yesterday. Had notifications popping up I didn't want those I want news when I access app only. Every single app in the world has notifications on or off in the settings. But not the star. When you try to turn it off it won't. Says you must redirect into system settings and after a few more cumbersome steps they were off. But why make customers do those extra steps that not one other app does? Toggle on or off why make simple difficult not a great first day with app

Overall a decent and well designed application. I appreciate the functionality to change the font size, however, the lack of the option to change the font to something more readable (a sans-serif for example) is a key missing feature for me. This might sound nitpicky, but it makes a significant difference in my (and many others) reading speed and comprehension. Providing more font styles would make your app more accessible and enjoyable to use :) (A+ on including a dark mode!)

The 'For You' section of the app does not work properly. You can't open any of the articles in the 'Authors' or 'Saved' tabs. Any time you try, you get redirected to the 'Recommended' tab without the article opening. This makes it pointless to save articles.

I like it, but it closes unexpectedly on me, which is annoying. Hi version 8.4.0 fixes the issue, thx .... upon more use I notice it is failing again, just closes intermittently... it is all fixed now, thanks ... just started crashing again this a.m. on samsung Apr 28 2022

Wish there was the ability to view and access features of ePaper (if included with your Digital Subscription), through the app, rather than still having to navigate to that through a separate browser. Otherwise... app is okay... with room to improve.

Love the app and content, but as of recently the back button resets the scroll to the top of the feed, instead of taking you back to where you left off. Annoying and new. Please fix.

I wanted to get a different perspective than the Government run cbc. Very disappointed. For me, this paper holds the Government narrative... I might as well just get the cbc app... at least it is free. It is extremely disappointing as a Canadian that i have to search hard, including going to news sources from other countries to get different perspectives and information as to what is happening in the country. Wont be renewing my subscription.

News especially international, is definitely not time sensitive. Most stories are days old. As if new is static and never changing.

After I read an article and go back to the main page, it jumps to the the top of the page instead of leaving me where I was. To read the next article I have to scroll back down to where I was. Terrible user experience, please fix this.

does absolutely nothing better that the actual site in browser. tired of you trying to upsell to somebody already subscribed. all of your "features" are solutions looking for problems. get the website to work properly furst. buzz off.

I wanted to put in specifics about me, so that the news might be customized for my interests, but it seems that you can't do that, except for my-local, to set your home town. Too bad.

I wish you could customize notifications and content better. Ex. I don't care for anything sports related so I wish I could omit it from my feed.

Doesn't allow sign in from email. I don't know what the password is since I use a password manager in Chrome. Not user friendly

Love it. I can find things and screen-print comics & short articles to save or forward to friends. Has never crashed. I read the paper version daily but there's extra stuff in here. And access to previous dates or other article by the same columnist. Also access to community newspapers. E.g Pickering, Oshawa, Markham, etc.

I subscribed to the Toronto Star for their election coverage. A few months later, I signed up for Apple News Plus, which includes the Star. Despite the fact that I never use the app and I’m getting the Toronto Star somewhere else, they’ve locked me into my subscription for a year. They also won’t set up the account so my subscription automatically expires at the one year mark. I have to pay $10 a month for something I never use then remember to quit in September. I have subscribed to the Globe & Mail, New York Times and Washington Post. No other publication locks you in like this. This is the only trouble I have ever had with a news service. DO NOT GIVE THE TORONTO STAR YOUR CREDIT CARD INFORMATION. THEY WILL LOCK YOU IN AND MAKE IT DIFFICULT TO GET OUT.

The app is hard to navigate. As a print subscriber it is difficult to access the paper fully, which should be available. Poor layout and design.

It's a pain in the dick to cancel. I emailed them to cancel then they emailed me back saying I had to call them to cancel. Why nit just make it easy and put that feature in the app? Great news content though.

Excellent... Only requires voice reading option on features for the visually impaired. That would complement the dark screen option greatly.

Love the Star, but this app is not great. It frequently logs me out, and tapping on push notifications of top stories brings me to the home screen, not to the news story I clicked on.

Average, not really well organized app to view just what u want n reporting is average. I recommend not subscribing

Thank you for your response. This still does not alter the font on the home page. And why not keep the adjustment aligned with the tablet settings? Keeping it that way allowed one setting to be applied to all the apps. The Globe and Mail, Washington Post, New York Times, CBC, etc. all work this way. This way of increasing the font size makes the star app an incovenienient outsider. Still it is an improvement over no font adjustment, if an annoying one.

I signed up and paid for a subscription but still couldn't access articles. I contacted The Star immediately but did not hear back for several days. At that point I was so frustrated that I phoned the number they provided and insisted they cancel my subscription. Word of advice to The Star. If you are going to start charging for subscriptions, it is good customer service to ensure that your IT is working properly before taking your customer's money. From a former Star paperboy in the 70s

While I really enjoy Toronto Star, the app's UI is simply terrible. They made it easier to swipe left/right to another article, but in the process, scrolling up/down can be unbelievably hard as the UI at times struggles to differentiate between scrolling an article vs swiping for another article. Edit: I sent an email on February 16, 2021 with similar feedback as above. Please feel free to relay my review to your dev and qa team.

Annoying to keep having to sign in when you have not used it in a short while!

I miss the ability to open a link in a new tab, as with a browser