First Things App Reviews

Wonderful publication, looks great on the iPad, but I would really like to see links to the articles incorporated into the table of contents or the menu. It's a little thing, but that's how you make a Apple Newsstand publication look really professional.

I faithfully updated the First Things app to the latest version a week ago and now I lost all saved items. It does not save editions that have been purchased for offline reading. It only shows items though December 2018. When I sent a request for help, I was told that the publisher did not release Jan, Feb or March 2019 for Maz ( the app creator) to put online. On another IPad Pro that thankfully have not updated to this version of the app, I still have access to all downloads and especially the 3 2019 issues. Do not update to this version!

The app is the unfriendliest ever. Can’t undeline, or copy, the look is terrible. Just an aweful app

Pages emulate magazine layout and are not optimized for small screen. 2-tap inflates text beyond screen. Impossible to finagle into readability. Same with iPad. Print also incompatible with Retina display and mildly blurry. I instantly regretted this buy. Asked for and received a refund, which took multiple calls and disconnections. Those tasked with supporting this app knew little about it. Great publication, on paper.

The most recent update made this app unusable, and I am unable to find a way to fix it. I am going to cancel my subscription and see about getting a refund.

Six months and one update later this app is still worthless. I paid for the full subscription and can not access any issues. Currently the app simply crashes every time it is turned on. Avoid this app until some genuine improvements are made.

Needs work to utilize full screen of newer iPhones, and to make text an appropriate and readable size.

Longtime subscriber, loving the share feature

Non-reflowable text is user-hostile & makes this app difficult to impossible to use on an iPad mini. If your app is just PDFs then just email people PDFs instead. Better yet, make a proper app.

I am happy that First Things has made the move to Newstand but something is wrong. When I click to open it in Newstand it keeps crashing. Even after I reboot the iPad.

While the magazine's content remains impressive, the interface is buggy almost to the point of unusable. Zoom gets stuck, and the app freezes when using zoom. Also, the "new" sash remains even after reading, and swiping pages in landscape mode can cause freezing.

Poorly designed app. Hides content and attempts to take you to the website, which requires a different subscription. The app should display your library of issues. But that's blurred out and in the background. FT customer service is unhelpful and will refer any request for help to iTunes. They even claimed I didn't have a subscription. Right. I bet there's a big black market for FT subscriptions.

The app is OK but the content is to die for! That’s it.

I am a subscriber and have entered every possible bit of information and still cannot access this application. Terribly frustrating.

It seems to me that the point of having a digital subscription is that it should be accessible on your iPad. But this turned out not to be the case for me. Their customer support was no help. Had to cancel. Too bad. It's a great magazine.

I have not used previous versions of the First Things newsstand app, but the current version looks excellent on the iPad.

Still the premiere journal of religion and public life, First Things is a pleasure to read even when standing in vehement disagreement to various perspectives elucidated within (and contrary to some perceptions, there are various perspectives represented within the Great Tradition, Protestant, Catholic and Orthodox). The format makes both browsing and reading a real delight on the iPad, with back issues available for easy perusal and current editions appearing in a timely way.

I would love to be able to access First Things on my primary device, my iPhone, but I am not able to. I was told that the iPhone's display was "too small to appreciate the content." I consume content on my iPhone all day long. And, iPhones have bigger displays now. Can we please get First Things on iPhone? Edit: You can now get First Things on iPhone!

This application has lots of potential for new accounts, but for those of us that have been long time faithful print subscribers, it is useless. Beware of the loop. Initial call to First Things refers subscriber to Apple for solution and wished "good luck". After contacting Apple, the subscriber is referred back to First Things. And so the looping begins. Good luck accessing your digital subscription of First Things using the First Things app.

This recent update is nonfunctional.