WBUR
| Category | Price | Seller | Device |
|---|---|---|---|
| News | Free | WBUR | iPhone, iPad, iPod |
Highlights:
• Elegant, intuitive listening experience with all your favorite WBUR and NPR programs and podcasts
• 24/7 livestream of WBUR’s radio programming
• Save programs for later listening
• Never miss a moment of your favorite shows with a seamless rewind function to programs already in progress
• Simple mobile donation option
• Track listening history
The WBUR Listen app is free, so please consider supporting us with a donation. The app is funded by your generous contributions.
iOS Features, in detail
LISTEN (home)
• live stream
• schedule
• recently listened to programs
• on demand program list
NOW PLAYING (audio player)
• equalizer to navigate back to audio player
• buffer/progress bar
• scrub forward/back
• jump forward/back 15s
• play/pause
• sleep timer
• live stream
• details about program
• DVR go back to start of program
• Donate
• on demand stream
• details about program/episode
• save for later
• share
• on demand offline play
• details about program/episode
• save for later
• share
• donate
• browse the app while audio is playing
DVR functionality
• scrub or rewind back to start of currently airing program
• at end of program, shift user to currently airing program
• start current program if user resumes play after being paused for 4+ hours
• notify user if they scrub back to a point before the 6 hour buffer (for long programs)
DONATE
• donate heart on NOW PLAYING screen
• first time donation: show terms
• first time donation: allow user to change donation amount
• initiate text message to send donation
• future donation: one tap to text message donation
• manage donation amount in SETTINGS
• record of all submitted donations in HISTORY
ON DEMAND
• programs and podcasts
• Notifications for new episodes
• episode list (by date)
• episode details
• play episode & continue playing down list of episodes (up to 10 hrs)
• save episode
• more info > episode details
NOTIFICATIONS
• toggle on new episode notifications for a program or podcast
SAVE FOR LATER (on demand only)
• save on demand episodes bookmarks them to be listened to later
• list of saved episodes on saved screen
• play episode (if available)
• continue playing down the list of saved episodes (up to 10 hrs)
• download episode for offline play
OFFLINE PLAY
• download individual saved episodes for offline play
• SETTING to automatically download saved episodes downloads all future saved episodes automatically
HISTORY
• usage stats
• hours listened
• number of episodes saved
• number of times donated
• listening history
• historical list of all episodes listened to in chronological order by date
• on demand
• name of program + name of episode
• more info > episode details
• play episode (if available)
• live programming
• name of program + Live Stream
• visit program on demand page (if available)
• donation history
• historical list of all donations in chronological order by month
• summary of total amount donated by month
• on demand
• name of program + name of episode
• more info > episode details
• play episode (if available)
• live programming
• name of program + Live Stream
• visit program on demand page (if available)
SETTINGS
• automatically download toggle
• default donation amount
• Watch onboarding video
• About
• Contact Us
Reviews
App keeps shutting down
jveiga42
Use to love WBUR’s app, but I’m having an ongoing problem with it shutting down while in use. I use it mostly for podcasts and find It’s very sporadic about when it wants to work. I can choose the podcast and look at the available episodes, but as soon as I try to load the content it exits out of the app entirely. This has been happening for months both after my phone has been on or when I first turn on my phone in the morning. I’ve tried reinstalling it and closing it after a “failure to launch”. Unfortunately nothing seems to deliver the content most of the time. I really like the app and features, but it’s getting to the point where I may just stop trying altogether. Hopefully someone will figure out a solution soon.
Can’t live without it
PASJL
All the shows I love whenever I want them. Remarkable local and national coverage available on demand. I frequently take advantage of the ability to restart a program that’s already in progress. Header says it all. Can’t live without it
New intro is so annoying!
MooseBZ2017
I love WBUR and the app mostly works fine, but the newish intro, “Welcome to WBUR....” every time you open the app (for me several times per day) is so annoying that I now mute my phone for the first 10 seconds to avoid hearing it. Dude, I know what station I’m listening to and that it’s a news app. It’s also nonsensical. “Get it!”? I ALREADY DOWNLOADED IT.
Content is great; buffering a constant annoyance
John Lammers
It’s billed as rock solid, but it has serious problems. I’d love it if this were as reliable as Spotify or Netflix or any given podcast app, but it’s really not. Maybe “we’re trying—please bear with us” would be a more honest assessment. I like the app for the ability to stream NPR shows without waiting for them to post in podcast form, but it’s always on the edge of not worth it. I’m not trying to throw the devs under the bus, but I don’t want people making priority decisions to think this app is good enough—it’s not.
Unreliable
Jimmy the Tweetmaster
It worked well until I upgraded to ios12 on my iPhone 7. Now it’s so inconsistent and drops the connection so regularly it’s unusable and infuriating. And the last update was a year ago?? What?
Poor buffering/quits too often
Flagstaffequestrian
I listen regularly for long-ish periods of time. Fairly regularly it just quits. My iPhone is up-to-date, and my battery was replaced recently. When this happens I have to actually go open my phone, quit the app, and relaunch it. I’ve complained twice and get answers that are perfect for somebody who is never used an app on a phone before.
Great programming; horrible software.
ggianop
I know, it's free. That's what it's worth. Can't listen to a show. Looses stream constantly. Hangs & becomes non-responsive. Much prefer other radio streamers of wbur programming & podcasts of programming. The app misses the value add opportunity to provide links & visual content to 'more info...' on current running programs. It has potential as a place to see details about a story, links to related stories & background info, bibliography, pictures, book references & reviews, ordering info, recipes, etc. But, first, it has to work...
Persistent Bugs - Fix Them
Harvard_Bob
I’ve listened to WBUR for many years. This app has had significant problems with buffering and crashing over many generations of iPhones and operating systems. Yet they continue to persist. Why hasn’t WBUR invested in the software maintenance to fix them? The interface is also archaic confusing and difficult to use. A very modest effort could clean up most of the problems in very short order. Why don’t they address the problems?
Always some kind of problem
Cheap b****
As much as I love and continue to use this app, there seems to always be some issue with it, whether it skips fragments of a program, or just plain won’t stream the live audio, or it crashes. Currently, it’s crashing when I try to play live audio. I also suspect that running it recently affected my phone’s ability to make or receive phone calls. I had to reboot my phone to get my calling ability back. I did recently update my iOS to 12.1 and that may have triggered some bug. But at this moment, the app will only play content from the program list. It will not play live programming and it keeps crashing. Please fix your app! Thanks!
