I want to love this app. Being able to listen to written reports is great! But there’s some problems: (1) The app regularly has performance problems: I have a iPhone 14 Pro. This app is *slow*. Unresponsive when initially opened, no optimistic updates (if I mark an article as read, I still see it for several seconds; and the app itself may lock up). There is lots of talk of the Audm app. I had it too, and it also had performance problems. They need to resolve them. I can’t imagine how the app performs on older devices (which are common!) (2) They are now rolling out AI read articles. That’s fine. It’s 2024. However, the articles start very quickly and end abruptly, and so when multiple AI articles are queued in a row the reading basically bleeds one into the other. The professionally read content often ends with credits, providing a clear indication of the end of article and transition to next one. (3) Minor, but as a subscriber, it always feels like an insult when they upload their podcast content to the app *without* the advertisements removed.

I use this app every day to listen to the Headlines and the Daily - and often a whole lot more. They’ve set things up in a very clever way where you can autoplay 4 shows with one click. No more endless fumbling through shows to pick something to listen to while you make your first cup of coffee. It’s a very simple and nice routine to start your day each morning. In addition to the awesome catalogue of NYT produced shows (Ezra Klein, Hard Fork, Matter of Opinion, etc.) there is unique content here as well. Specifically there’s these episodes called “Reporter Reads” where journalists read their own work. These episode aren’t available anywhere else. They’re excellent - and as much as I like professional voice actors - I really enjoy listening to people with their wonderful and unique voices reading their own work. There’s room to grow of course in terms of offerings, but check it out - and get in the habit of using the daily autoplay feature.

The NYT app is ok as a new app. Too much of a built-by-committee feel, but ok. A tip o’ the hat to the coders who had to harness the multiple agendas of the committee. As a replacement for the brilliant Audm app, though, it’s miserable because the extensive long form content, consistently professional narration, and scrolling text features are gone. (I especially miss the scrolling text, where I could glance at the screen to see a name spelling or to back up and reread a compelling paragraph along with audio. Great for remembering and digesting more complex ideas, easily ignored if wanted to.) I subscribed to and gave gift subscriptions to Audm for the long form journalism it offered. NYT Audio is short on long and long on amateur narration. It is a different thing altogether. Can’t you offer both? I have the NYT audio app on my phone because it is included with my all access subscription. It’s not something I would otherwise purchase, not because it’s bad, but because it is a completely different product than Audm.