New York City Now app review: always be in the know

Introduction

The New York City Now app is ideal for residents of the city or those traveling to the city in order to stay on top of all the current news, entertainment, sports, events, and more. Rather than searching around on the Internet for the current happenings or reading a variety of newspapers you can find all you need in one convenient location.

The best iPhone apps for New York City-2021

Looks Were Overlooked

With apps there are two different areas that users look at and these are the content and the looks. In order for an app to be popular it has to succeed in both these areas. Unfortunately for this one it falls short in one of the categories and that’s in the user interface. There is nothing sleek, engaging, or fun about how this app is presented. It actually feels quite stale which is the exact opposite a news app should have on the user.

Best iphone and ipad apps

When you launch the app you’ll be taken the main menu of categories that includes news, business, weather, live traffic, entertainment, sports, and travel, or course with a main focus on New York City. To narrow it down even further you can click on the individual borough for more information (Bronx, Manhattan, Queens, Brooklyn, Long Island, and Staten Island). If you click on one of the boroughs you’ll find all the latest details in that area.

A Social Spin

This app has also taken a social approach by offering a Chat room/forum. When you enter the chat you can instantly comment and share it with the room and/or Twitter and Facebook. You can reply to particular comments that users have made and engage in conversation with them. If you’re new to the city, trying to find specific information, or just want someone else’s opinion on something relating to the city, this is a great way to do it.

So now that we’ve established the good about the chat room once again there is some bad too. Again this area of the app needs a serious facelift where the user interface is concerned. This chat feels so outdated and really doesn’t have you anxious to return. Considering there are so many other apps you can chat with people who live nearby I’m not sure how this app would come out as a winner or even a contender as a chat forum.

Pros and Cons

Pros

• Easy to use
• Local news, entertainment, sports, weather, traffic, and more
• Offers a chat room to chat with locals

Cons

• Horrible user interface that doesn’t make navigating the site fun or engaging
• No interactive features
• Chat room feels dated
• The way the stories are presented is stale

Final Words

Unfortunately when it comes to the New York City Now app I have a lot of negatives to say. I like the idea that this news app is city-specific but it just missed the mark so horribly and needs a major facelift before it can possibly hope to compete with other news apps. It's definitley not one of the best NYC apps for locals or tourists.