National Geographic Reviews

No longer have reason to use app

cancelnatgeo

Added since first review: still no downloadable version of the magazine, but I am curious if that is what is available by subscribing to AppleNews+. Don’t plan to renew my National Geographic subscription. Can no longer read offline. Sorry I renewed my subscription. Tried to rate zero star, but wasn’t an option. Really frustrating that I also lost all the issues I had downloaded to my ipad. Observed that non-English versions of Nat Geo mag app are the old format that allows actually reading the downloaded magazine. Why only screw up the English version? Or is the developer plan to eventually make all language versions equally as bad as this current English one.

Terrible upgrade

DO NOT USE THIS RIDICULOUS APP

Can’t download and can only get content if you have WiFi! Useless!

NatIonal Geographic has stolen by digital back issues with a “update”

docgompf

This may be my second review, I’m not sure. I re-downloaded and logged back in while I still have a subscription (I won’t be renewing) to find that National Geographic still has not found a way to allow me to access my back issues for off-line viewing. Seven months now my digital magazines have been gone. I have traveled several times and really missed the NatGeo reading that I would’ve done had they been available for download... as they were for years until they were hastily removed from long time subscribers’ digital libraries. They are hurting the people who cherished there magazines the most! Also, I’m wondering if the magazine will start refusing to cover climate change issues because of the new ownership... scary thought that people with money will buy up legitimate news and science education sources that dispute their anti-science beliefs.

Horrible update

Chemist a

The developer’s response is inadequate. Not only did we lose the download functionality going forward, they also reclaimed (i.e. confiscated or stole) my already paid for and downloaded issues. To make it worse they claim we were notified before the change ... of course no mention of total loss of offline magazine access. My subscription is now canceled. If this is fixed so I can download issues and read offline (like kindle books for example) I will resubscribe. Until then you’ve removed my primary reason for the subscription. Congratulations. Update: just got an email to supply valid card for renewal. Ha! I subscribed for the offline digital magazine especially for air travel. Without offline reading capability I most certainly will not renew!!!!!!!!! Lost back issues, terrible waste of money now. Won’t login, .... minor tweak of an update fixed nothing. If I can’t login and down load full magazines including my paid for back issues by my next international trip in mid January the subscription will be canceled. Most likely forever.

Horrible App

rrslssr

I remember when Nat Geo introduced their first app; it was wonderful, it was innovative, it was usable off-line. This app is trash. Perhaps something less than trash.

Unbelievably BAD!!!!!

Cyberconsultant

I’ve gone back and forth with Support... and this STILL doesn’t work right! They even mix in messages from other subscribers in Israel with their replies! I contacted their privacy email address about this. No surprise, ignored! It is painfully obvious that their executives are incompetent and don’t use their own products. Otherwise, they’d see what I see. Another historically great American institution in the process of being destroyed... Who hired these people?

Sorely Lacking Download Feature

MoneyMike1994

First, let me say that I am a loyal subscriber of the magazine and will continue to be. However, I’m very disappointed by the inability to download magazines in this new app. I was looking forward to catching up on the last couple months on my flight back home but it looks like that won’t be happening, since the download feature is gone. Every other type of media I consume on my iPhone-photos, podcasts, music, other magazines, even Youtube videos (for a price)-can be downloaded, why should National Geographic be any different?

Doesn’t even load when I have internet.

Emmandaline

I’m a Peace Corps volunteer, so I only have access to ‘real’ WiFi in the capital city of the developing country in which I’m serving. This means I can use the app less than once a month, and it is no longer practical as a tool to share science, world culture, and nature photos with the people of my community. Also, though a customer service representative from Nat Geo assured me that the new app’s developers were working on providing a way to download issues, time has proven it is not high in their priority list. When I am in-site and using my country’s cell phone as a hotspot, the app won’t work because it eats through my data so fast I can’t access a meaningful amount of content. Here in the capital, the photos load so slowly that it is hard to navigate and text jumps around while I’m trying to read. This review only gets a second star from me because I suppose if you have US quality internet and it works how it’s supposed to, you still get what you pay for. This app is a fun novelty for rich old people who want to look at high quality videos from their living room armchair, not for travelers.

Say it isn’t so

Colorado Dave

I loved this app and the Digital immersive version of National Geographic. I recently purchased a brand new iPad and I was excited to see how my past issues would look on this new 12.9 retina screen. To my disappointment it appears that Nat Geo has taken away the ability to download and restore my past paid for purchases. With this in mind, I would never pay to download another issue nor subscribe, not knowing if it will be mine again to read at my chosen time. Poor form Nat Geo.

The Writers and Photographers Lose

Badmanboom929

Go with the print version if you care about reading National Geographic. Not being able to download the magazine for offline use is a fail. These devs have to know that the target audience of a National Geographic publication would much prefer the magazine’s digital counterpart as opposed to what is essentially a link to the website. I feel really bad for the writers and photographers. Their important and beautiful works will reach less people as more unsubscribe from this absurd change. Furthermore, not every catalogued issue behaves the same. For most older issues, there’s no easy way to access the magazine’s subscriber content. Even if you’re logged in, you only see the magazine articles available to everyone. Within a free article, you have to click a link to the magazine’s date of publish. THEN, regardless of whether you’re logged in or not, you have to sign up/sign in to view the subscriber content...which now contains ads... Not to mention some of the free article’s links aren’t active. By the way, you have to do this each and every time you navigate away from the issue you’re reading. And if you click “Sign In” it redirects you via Safari, or whatever your default browser happens to be. Check out July 2014 for an example of what I’m describing. If you want an example of a digital issue that’s just outright broken, check out September 2015. Can someone tell me how to read the cover story article via the app? Sure those are old issues, but I paid for them, I should have full access in digital format at all times. Another inconsistency are the photographs. Some articles have photos embedded within the article, making for a very pleasing reading experience. Some have all the photos thumbnailed at the top of the article...which is garbage. I’m pretty sure National Geographic hired a group of interns to put this together for free. Again, the real losers here are the writers and photographers. Sorry ladies and gents out there in the field, sometimes risking your health to bring us amazing content, but you’re gonna lose a lot of readers to this “update”. If you want to keep the content online only, you should have made that known as part of the digital description instead of just “reworking” the app so radically. Also, and this is important, anyone who wrote a positive review for this app is working for the dev team. Don’t get tricked. I mean, look at this 5 Star review from Pastorlarry...”A Rarity Among Masses”? Come on, man.

National Geographic Reviews – Page 8