National Geographic App Reviews

Until recently I read National Geographic on my iPad, which worked just fine. Now Im trying to read it on my iPhone 6S Plus, which isnt so great. The iPhone app is full of bugs, but by far the most irritating is that the app seems to be unaware of the right side of the screen. The text of articles hugs the left side of the screen, leaving the right third of the screen completely blank. Worse, the same problem exists when displaying photos. Thus the pictures occupy only a small fraction of the available screen real estate, making the "enlarged" photos barely bigger than a postage stamp. If this one bug were fixed I would be reasonably happy with the app. As it is, I dont think Ill renew my subscription.

Doesnt keep your place. Even if you just turn your screen off and on again it returns to the beginning of the article. Makes it utterly completely and totally worthless. Whoever is responsible for this utter failure should be fed to the cannibals that the National Geographic used report on before it became so politically correct.

Cant even logon. Youd think an organization as old and reputable as Nat Geo would have an app that works. Very disappointed.

Why do you think i own a 1975 issue of NG? Because paper that I (((own))) (((works)))!!! Thats right, even NG from the 1920s exist today! What about this? Well, the digital aspect didnt add anything of any significance but did add many problems! Download errors, storage problems (can you believe it!!!) to name a few.

The latest issue just says error where theres supposed to be a download button. Contacted nat geo no response. Frustrating to pay for something that wont work at all and cant be returned.

Ive contacted support twice about a problem and only got automated responses. Dont waste your time on this app - if they wont support it, why should you support them? Edit: was contacted by support. If you subscribe through iTunes you need to create an NG account at their website and sign in through the app - this resolved the "Error" download button issue for me. I do like this version of the magazine better than what I was getting through Nook.

Good to learn about our earth

Such good content, but such fundamental fails. Why do people subscribe to nat geo if not the quality of the photos? And now when I rotate my phone I can no longer see them full screen? Seriously? How is that an improvement?? And the articles. Theyre great. But really--whos reading articles that long in one sitting? The fact that the second my screen goes dark I have to scroll to where I left off is beyond annoying--its positively infuriating. Come on, nat geo. Youre too smart to get this so wrong.

There seems to have been a general problem affecting the January, 2016 issue that they have now fixed. But, there really is no customer support for this app, I dont know why they bother to give contact information! They did at least reply this time, but only to ask me for all my information, which I had already provided to them and they would have seen in the email if theyd bothered to look!

I purchased a subscription in late December 2015. Received an email saying that my January 2016 digital was ready to download using the iPhone/iPad app. Both are useless. The January issues download button just says "Error" on the iPad app and on the iPhone it doesnt recognize me as a current subscriber even though I validated and joined my print subscription 15 times. Ive written customer service several times and only received one email back saying it should work. Yes, it should but it doesnt....therefore the app is useless.

Love It!

Wont even allow me to log in, with address or account number. Ive had a National Geographic subscription my entire life and have witness the steady decline in quality and care.

The app. is lovely and easy. Our trouble was being able to log in initially, but customer service responded within the 24 hour period and fixed it. I think the problem was that we read the digital abroad but receive the print in the US so the log in couldnt figure that out. All is well now though and the issue is easy to navigate.

This app should be rated six stars when used on the iPad. Most of the complaints from iPhone users dont apply on the iPad. Photos are full screen and the color and clarity are awesome- even better than the print magazine, which I subscribed to for many years before going all digital. I can always come back to exactly where I left off in an article by tapping the viewer icon,as long as I dont do a full iPad shutdown (maybe even then-- I havent tried it). And the electronic version offers many extras compared to the print version, like videos, audio tracks from the authors, and interactive charts and diagrams. Definitely worth the price of a subscription.

It would be better if there is a way to do the bookmark anywhere I want.

National Geographic is a great magazine, and the app is a nice way to read it. It does now have bookmarks, which an earlier review suggested it did not. But the apps "how to" is laughable. It shows lots of options without any indication of how to actually get them. How to share articles, which it suggests is possible, is still a mystery to me. ------- Update: it turns out the How-to is out of date. The app could use some refinement and updating, but it functions well once you get used to it.

Videos bring the magazine to life with additional content. One of my favorite apps now.

Stupid app! Need to be a rocket scientist to activate it - finally gave up. Makes you follow an unnecessarily circuitous and bewildering route to register your account - by signing up, signing in, then signing out and in and going back and verifying by signing up which seems to send you back to signing in and out again. When you finally try to sign in you need to activate your account by signing up again??? (Simply further proof that in some app developer programmer labs the inmates are running the asylum.) My advice... stick with the magazine - its wonderful - and use their website as a visitor which is actually beautiful and a much nicer experience.

• Doesnt consistently retain prior downloaded issues, even with auto-archive turned off. Download a whole bunch of issues, upgrade something (iOS? This app? Not sure), and all of those downloads vanish. &%@^#*!!! • Doesnt permit simultaneous downloading of multiple issues, even when on a super-fast network • No option to queue multiple issues for sequential download • Inconsistent presentation of Resume (download) button • No option to auto-download new issues • Doesnt cache previously displayed banner images • Forces an annoying "jump into the issue as soon as enough is downloaded" feature, which cannot be overridden, yet for years fails to add modern download management, queueing, and persistent local retention of previously downloaded issues. This thing makes me not want to read NatGeo at all.

Mis-tap an advert/solicitation and one cant get out of it... Simply scrolling through digital contents is endlessly frustrating... Will seek a refund for my digital subscription... Way too much trouble to use...