The Times Literary Supplement App Reviews

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Most poorly functioning website. I’ve ever seen. Technical support is non-existent. In fact, it’s worse than nothing because, if you can ever get a response out of them, THE INFORMATION WILL BE WRONG! !

Terrible app, TLS REFUSES TO FIX. Fails every to authorize my valid sibscription every month. TLS refuses to fix, tells me to use web version, not iPad app. I’ve given up on TLS and canceled my sub.

Very poor app. Worst digital subscription app I have had the sad occasion to pay for using. Can’t remember my subscription information and provides no means to sign in to one’s account. Open the account tab and you are informed you are not authorized to view YOUR account information. All past issues locked for access by digital subscribers only, though you are and for several years have been a suffering digital subscriber. Sometimes the app remembers who you are and lets you in. Other times it does not and since it doesn’t allow you to sign in (how elementary a convenience!) you must again send an email to find out how to get in—when you want to read an issue now, not three days hence. This has been going on for 3 years and no web site improvements in that time. Tossing the app and keeping the print edition.

Do not let these people have your credit card number. The app is not very good but sort of works and the content of the magazine is not that bad. However, for a digital subscription, while you can easily sign up for a trial on their Web site, you can only discontinue the “trial” and avoid paying for a regular subscription by calling their call center, which does not make clear exactly when you may call. There is also an email address but all they are capable of doing is redirecting you to the call center. It’s obvious that the only reason for it to work this way is to make it inconvenient enough that you fail to cancel even if you do not wish to receive the subscription anymore. This sort of deceptive business practice ought to be illegal.

Just terrible. The app worked for a bit. Then it refused to allow me any access, and wants to charge me 2.99 to look at each issue that I already paid for. I talked with customer service who assure me they can log in as me with no problem. Gee, I wish I could be so lucky.

Unacceptable. I am a paying subscriber and can find no way to log in with this app -- it insultingly tells me I am unauthorized. A good way to lose subscribers.

Still Crap. Still need to have sub number to login and still need to,login all the time. Award for worst app and for worst help -- delete and reinstall is not a solution.

Loyal to paper, but grateful for app. A longtime subscriber to the hard copy edition, I am still loyal to the paper version but find the app a sensible and practical alternative when I’m on travel. Its main virtues are simplicity, clarity, and - frankly - a direct reflection of the printed version’s structure. Less is more. My only recommendation is to keep the articles’ titles identical to the hard copy edition.

Too big margins and no split view. I’m using iPad mini 6 for daily reading bz it’s light and compact. TLS on iPad mini 6 makes reading a struggle rather than an enjoyment. Apart from the two problems mentioned in the title, the typeface is either too small which forces my eyes to squint and stare at the screen or way too big which makes a huge wasted screen area and forces me to constantly slide my thumb. It‘s a tiring and painful to use the app despite the content of TLS is really great！

Works fine in a pinch. I prefer the paper — the feel, the smell, the look of it, the turning of its pages and folding it in half to tuck it under my arm as I make my way to wherever I’m not content to be without the TLS by my side — but there are times when I’m finished with the paper or when I haven’t brought it with me, and this app does well to provide a not-too-far-off-from-the-paper satisfaction. It’s not beautiful, as the paper is, but it’s all there. Too, the archive goes way back, so there’s always something new (to me) to read.

App continues to fail. App fails to download magazine content due to some kind of authorization service error. Customer service claims they are working on it. Makes a subscription mostly worthless. This continues with Feb 17 issue.

Updated but not improved. It still will not allow sharing an article but only sends a screenshot of the first page.

Login every time!!!. The app itself is wonderful. I just loaded it a week or so ago and love it. But I have to log in again every time. Why won't it stay? The iPhone version stays. Also, after their programmers figure out how to fix that, they might consider including the crossword. I'm keeping the paper subscription solely in order to get the puzzle.

App. Worst. App. Ever. Have been a subscriber for so many years, yet must re-sign in constantly and do not always have necessary info at hand. Joan Sindall Cambridge MA

Made a mistake. You are 5 stars

needs work. this app seems to constantly lose the login data. To login anew you need the subscriber number which is only found on the printed issue. So if you are away from home and don’t have access to a printed issue, you are unable to read anything. great.

Terrible. I have a print plus digital subscription, and the app almost never works. Says I don't have access. Can reinstall and sometimes that helps for maybe one issue. They've been trying to fix this since March. Whoever is working in their subscription/tech dept are a bunch of bumbling idiots. However, I did subscribe one month directly through Apple and everything worked flawlessly. Strange. I'm going to cancel with TLS.

Terrible. Will not allow subscribers to log in! Ridiculous

Smooth app, great content (June 2020). Easy to navigate & use app, with the best weekly book reviews & essays in the English-speaking world. You can buy individual issues for cheap, or use your TLS subscription to access them. The text font itself is clear and readable. A+.

Among the worst. Constantly have to re-log in. App is not user friendly. Once you're in it's ok to navigate the issue.

Just provide the reviewed title at the top of the page. To view the title of the work being reviewed requires an extra click, which opens a overlay masking the review. It is a remarkably stupid interface for a periodical/app that is devoted to book reviews. I’m not crazy about the revision to the print versions layout, but it is more useful than this bad design. Why is an icon of a picture frame part of the UX? What did the designers think that means to a reader? The logic of the most basic aspects of the app’s design suggest that no one involved had ever read an issue of TLS, which is probably the case. You do need to login every couple of weeks, which is annoying. Also, the login is unconventional, requiring an account number, but not the account password. I suspect this underlies many of the complaints in the other reviews. The LRB app is faultless in comparison, although it is pretty basic. TLS should study the competition, as it is. I cannot speak more highly of the archive access, through Gale Research, but this is a subscription benefit unrelated to this awkward app.

Keep having to redownload issues. For some time now, and even without the app getting any updates, it seems, I keep losing the issues I had downloaded. It’s a real pain to have to redownload things all the time, never mind that you still get logged out at intervals. Please at least go back to a version that kept the downloads. I love the journal and often like to revisit issues, and seldom get through the whole one within a week.

Very disappointing. I paid a lot for this app but their crazy verification system means I could rarely access it during the past year. I had to keep rewriting this negative review because they refused multiple nickname attempts. Will not renew

My access to History of philosophy has limited. Why? My subscription’s paid up. I have called and emailed multiple times for a rectification, but with no solution. It seems a technical glitch is preventing me from refreshing my familiarity with Western philosophy in the time of coronavirus.

The best. What a great online version of a great literary magazine. The intellectual world at your fingertips. What could be better than that

Continuing Problems. Download fails more often than not. Consumer staff takes two weeks or longer to reply to complaints. Deleting and re downloading of the app is time consuming and often fails to solve problem. TLS states not their problem.

Consistently good. Less ideal than print, on line still serves a useful purpose. On my iPad thus far everything works well and the formatting of articles is excellent.

Terrible. On new monthly plan and can't discern how to log in. Why can't my account number be retained like Every Other subscription app I use?

Bad programming. No thanks, log in if you can. Terrible!

Love the TLS!. I can’t imagine life without the TLS, and the App makes it easy to read on-the-go.

Great content. Diversity and quality.

Superb Reviews. The range of topics is staggering, the depth of knowledge is almost always profound, and the attempt to cover the best and the brightest (often not the most well-known) is constantly impressive. In our Era of World Mediocrity, the historic TLS continues to be a bright beacon of intellectual hope.

Was charged, couldn’t view. For about a year haven’t been able to view TLS but was being charged. About a year ago, I canceled subscription somehow, lost ability to view, but I kept getting charged. I messaged TLS who said they didn’t see me as a subscriber but iTunes was probably charging me. I asked TLS to allow me to view again since I couldn’t stop the subscription, but they couldn’t figure out the technical issue and told me to talk to iTunes. I just stumbled upon how to cancel the subscription on iTunes, canceled it, and immediately the app allowed me to view again for the 2 remaining days on last paid week. So a terrible experience.

I guess I’m not the target user, but who is?. While I so far I haven’t had the login issues that others have reported, I have substantial complaints: 1. I prefer to select what to read based on the topic and author of the books being reviewed, but that information is deeply buried. Thematic heads like “SCIENCE” are often too broad to help. 2. The information that is prominent in the table of contents includes reviewers’ names that I only sometimes recognize, and review titles, selected for cleverness rather than utility. 3. In print, I read a bit of the review, then look at who the reviewer is, and return to the review. In the app, this is a cumbersome process. 4. On my iPad, the app will orient to landscape from either side, but portrait only one way, and not the way that would be most useful.

Great but elusive. A beautifully designed app - and the TLS is extremely well edited these days. It loses stars because it's too much of a bother for me to read. I used to be able to download issues. I can't anymore: it rejects my password. It flees from me that sometime did me seek. Like some other commenters, I can uninstall and reinstall the app. That works, but not permanently. I can't be bothered to do it regularly. I can use Safari with my iPhone and read the text in less attractive forms. Or there's good old paper. I can't believe an obvious bug, receiving other complaints, hasn't been fixed. Can't you bring in the Obamacare team?

Just go ahead and subscribe!. The Times Literary Supplement offers me a quality and style of commentary I otherwise cannot find anywhere else. Treat yourself to a delicious dessert of ideas that have consequences. Bloomington, Minnesota, USA

Once again my online subscription ended for no reason. Now I can’t send Thanks

The TLS App is awful.. TLS magazine is superb, but the TLS app is awful. I am not the first to complain it; many subscribers have complained about it. However, TLS management refuses to acknowledge it, and has no interest in fixing it. This is very surprising and consumer unfriendly. The management needs to wake up.

Sanity in a sad, sick world. Need TLS more than ever as a place of refuge Have been subscribing since 1988 and ever since then my cocktail party chatter has glittered as strangers flock around me to listen to me hold forth as I regurgitate all that I have read that week

Time Sink!. Cannot use this app from day to day without refilling subscription information each and every time. Search for info, copy and paste, hit ok, read—for a bit—repeat endlessly. ——————— Update: does anyone understand why they see the need constantly to login as a desirable feature? What does it to for them? In my best moment, I realize I should cancel and read via library subscriptions online.

Not an improvement. Completely new design, but you still keep having to re-login, just like before - have your subscriber number handy. The app defaults to highlights, rather than the edition you’re reading and your place in it. If you leave the app open to keep your place, it bounces up and down, I guess to show you what you were reading? Scrolling is jumpy sometimes. The TLS is great, but digital readers deserve a better experience.

Fix it. The generally excellent content is let down by the poor functionality of the app. Everyone seems to agree. Why not just get on and fix it?

Fix this App. Like other reviewers, I find I have to login to the app almost every time I use it. This has been going on for years, but the tech staff at TLS either don't care or cannot figure out a fix for the problem.

Drop off. I open the app to an issue, and it keeps closing. Not amused.

Waiting and waiting. This is an update to a previous review: they have fixed the technical problems and everything works well so I am giving it four stars. Why four? Simple--it just isn't as interesting to read as the TLS on paper, less satisfying because not as easy to browse. On the other hand, immediate access to the longer excerpts that appear in the print edition. So I am a very happy customer overall. Would give it 4.5 if I could. Earlier review: I really want this app to work. The few times it has, 5 stars. The multiple no times, no stars. No download authorized, I am told (though my subscription is active). Can't be removed from my device (why?). I called customer service on this and they said that there have been problems since March which were supposed to be fixed end of June (this is July). I heard back on an e-mail sent over a week ago saying things would be dealt with soon. Hmmm... Okay, I have been credited for an extra four weeks on my subscription, thank you, but what I really want is to be reading! Yes, you can sometimes (hit or miss) download by reinstalling the app, but the operative word here is sometimes.

Terrific App. Elegant interface. The storage of previously-read issues is a plus; it will take a lot of issues to fill up an iPad, and a lot of issues of the TLS to wade through is a nice problem to have. What marvels will the Basement Labyrinth produce next?

Aggravating password system. I use the app when I travel, and like to download issues before I go. The app frequently denies access, won’t let my password app supply the user/password, doesn’t like the password, etc. I understand the need to protect intellectual property. But if you can’t make access closer to the experience of picking up the paper and beginning to read, there’s no point in a digital subscription, and it’ll be easier just to throw a few issues in the checked luggage.

Won't stay logged in. I have to re enter my subscriber number every time I log on, which send me running for a paper copy to find that number, which makes me wonder why I have an electronic version at all!

Authorisation Failed. I can no longer access my subscription. I get an "authorisation failed" message. This has been going on for 2 weeks. ——————— A year or two has passed since I wrote the above ... I decided to try the subscription again. It worked well for a few weeks. Then today, it crashes everytime I try to read an article. Eventually the TLS will catch up with the technology of the 1990s and provide an adequate app for reading. But they will have spent YEARS damaging their reputation and readership by tolerating their (fantastic!) content to be distributed through such flawed, thoroughly crappy apps. TLS was a giant of the print world. It is awful that such a wonderful newspaper couldn’t find a successful way to digitize after decades of trying. They were titans, and I have always loved the writing. But, they are complete digital idiots.

Hostile to the Reader. I subscribed to the TLS, yet am continually asked to buy the issue. There is no clear sign in option. Once it is up and running, navigation is poor - download each separate issue, see what’s inside. It’s print by other means, an archive, not respecting the possibilities of online. Great content, once you get to it.

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Content 5, app 3. App could improve by adding ability to ‘annotate in the margins’ in addition to adding entire article to scrapbook.

Best place to get the latest reads. The TLS provide short sharp and succinct reviews of new publications. Also very readable are the reviews of films, current topics and opinion pieces. As an Australian reader I wish the TLS was less Eurocentric and covered more works from below the Equator

Great Magazine. I receive the TLS every Friday. It is my staple reading for the weekend. This app. Is easy to use. Fast and efficient.

Where is the crossword?. I live in Australia and travel a lot. I prefer digital to print because I can access the current issue immediately. But where is the crossword, one of my favourite parts of the TLS? Very disappointed. I contacted TLS re the lack of crossword twice and have received no reply.

Hopeless TLS. The TLS app for the iPad really is a disgrace. I cannot renew my subscription to both the hard copy and digital versions online, and now it has cancelled all the digital versions I have paid for but still not read. Does Rupert Murdoch know what truly incompetent fools designed this app?

Book titles. Content is good but app makes it hard to see quick summaries of the most important information - the titles of the books being reviewed.

Simple, straightforward. The TLS in app form provides Australian readers with instant access...better than waiting for a print edition! The interface is a little eccentric; the book icon gets you table of contents, while oddly, what appears to be a picture frame, but may be postage stamp, gives you thumbnails of pages..pretty straightforward once you twig. Reviews helpfully offer a tab on which can be found the details of the book. Text in articles is readily cut-and-pasted. This feature alone makes the app worthwhile and superior to print. Sharing can be done via Twitter in which your post will be illustrated with a first-page grab, with title of the article automatically inserted in the tweet. Alternatively, you can send a friend, or yourself, an email of the entire text. That's remarkably fair and very helpful. Some links within the text would be an improvement, especially in such a long running publication with a huge archive from which to draw such links. That would make it of much greater scholarly value. In addition, links might take readers straight to the publisher website for purchase details.

Not a good start. Recently I subscribed to the TLS and I'm able to access the archive, however I currently have no access to the App. I was given a logon commencing with a 4 and apparently there is a problem with this digit access. 2 calls to the UK to be told that the 'techos' are working flat out to resolve. No mention of problems or updates on the website...very poor.

TLS at last. I used to subscribe to the TLS but gave up because of the cost, so I am very pleased to find it now available digitally. The app itself is a lesson in how to do it, being both simple and clear without sacrificing function. I would give it five stars but for a small formatting bug which sometimes superimposes pictures over parts of the text, but imagine this will be cleared up soon.

Great up, but could be better. I love the TLS, I’d love them more if their archive was available in the app and not just on their website.

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Good app with one or two annoying faults. This app would be vastly improved if two things were changed about it. First it should be easier and quicker to download an issue. At present it is a clunky process that takes a few too many clicks, making it hard to download multiple back issues. And second the app is constantly forgetting my login information which I then have to dig up and re-enter to download new issues. If these problems are fixed the app would be virtually perfect.

Cancelled. My issues will not download for the last several days due to problem with 'authorization service'. If not corrected in next two days I will set renewal to off.

Wonderful TLS, awful app layout. Please, please restore the multi column version of the app. Reading the screen wide columns is unwieldy. Worse, the charming illustration headings for Letters and NB are woefully pixellated and made ugly to see. At the very least allow us to switch between views according to our preferences.

Great app!. Never had any problem myself!

Formatting changes. With iOS 12 we have lost the much more readable two column format. This has been replaced by a single wide column of text, navigated by continuous scrolling, rather than page flipping. Together these changes make reading articles almost painful. If this can’t be fixed, I’m going to cancel my subscription.

Terrible. This app is terrible. I am now re-installing it and it is still only halfway after two hours. This after a month of problems accessing content and half a dozen emails and two phone calls.

Sign In. You seem to be incapable of sorting out a problem with your North American edition that has plagued me for years. It frequently asks me to log in again. With the London Review of Books and the New York ditto, once you are logged in you never have to do it again. Perhaps you could go to them for a helping hand.

Appalling Waste of Code. I must delete the app and reinstall for every new issue. Messages to app support have yielded nothing beyond auto-responses.

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Mr.. Same as others--keep getting "Authorisation Failed" when I try to access issues, though the app assures me that my "Subscription [is] active." I've emailed customer service three times over past week, and no response. Very frustrating.

Poor UI. Not that great

often doesn't work. there have been lengthy periods where the app simply does not work (when you try to download an issue, it says "authorization failed") - customer service explains these gaps in service as "technical problems" - it is simply not an acceptable level of service for the price!

Authorisation Failed Issue. I, too, have it. Customer service gave me a voucher number, but that wasn't the problem. They haven't responded to me since I reported that the problem was ongoing. Glad to know others have it; not glad that I can't read the digital version of the paper.

Login diminishes great content. The content is terrific, of course, but having to dredge up my sub number every time is a hassle. Please learn to recognise me, TLS app!

Why. Why won't this app remember a subscription? Every time I download a new issue I have to re- log into my account with a subscriber number. A nuisance.

Hey TLS.... Consider resolving technical issues out of respect for loyal subscribers. How many times do I need to contact technical support with complaints about sign in issues before you fix the problem? Regretting subscribing to 'the works'. You guys are a-holes.

broken not functional. several weeks without being able to ise; TLS does not know when it will be fixed.

Rarely works twice in a row. Great when it works. Usually, however, one must uninstall and reinstall every time. A pain with slow internet.

Loved till 3 weeks ago. Loved this until it stopped downloading because of 'authentication service' problem which they are either unable or unwilling to fix. Customer service is not helpful, just says they are working on it. Really, for 3 weeks!? I am about to cancel the whole thing and ask for a refund.

Have to keep reïnstalling. TLS is, of course, superb. But the app must be continually deleted and reïnstalled with reëntry of subscription particulars in order to download anything. Terrible nuisance, reminiscent of The Economist app when it was new. Likely, the app designers will eventually fix this bug. For now, however, I'll grin and bear the inconvenience.

Technical glitches spoil everything. A great paper ruined online by constant, repeating technical problems.

Pathetic. Pretty awful app. Keeps logging me off. Pages don't turn smoothly, but spastically. And the front cover cannot be viewed in full, but as thumbnail. Who the heck designed this?

No stars. The TLS app is unstable, unpredictable, and maddening most days. Occasionally it will work without a lot of pampering and pleading, if the TLS wasn't so important to me I would not use it.

Mixed Feelings. The app is handsome in many respects--the quality of the photographs is excellent. But it and its sister website are hard to use. And if you increase the type size, you get something considerably less handsome. The app can be hard to sign into.

You'll lose your money - don't subscribe!. Wish I had listened to earlier reviewers. Purchased the "digital subscription" through the TLS web site in mid-July. They emailed a code with which I should have been able to access current and all past issues through the app. But I can only get issues from mid-May through the week BEFORE I bought the subscription - app wants to charge $3.99 for all other issues. So far, no response from TLS customer service. You've been warned!

Top Book Review. The TLS is the most respected international book review. The app is well designed and is a must for anyone who wants to read scholarly reviews of the best new fiction and non-fiction books.

All the bad reviews on here are true.. Simply the worst app ever coded. A global multinational can do no better than this. Incredible.

Utter disaster. Every time I try to download, I am forced to delete thewhole app, reboot, and reinstall the app. I want this to work. Getting an all-digital edition was a big mistake.

Sign-in problems. Every time a new issue comes out the app forgets who I am and I have to sign in again. Deleting and reinstalling app doesn't seem to help. Dearth of documentation in Settings. E.g., no directions for deleting issues. Also, no indication that American subscription numbers have an extra digit so that, when signing on, you should only type in the first seven. TLS cyber efforts have always been dicey, and this is no exception.

Screwed me on subscription. They updated the app to use in app purchases and now I can't access my current subscription that I already paid for last year. In order to read the latest versions they want me to pay again even though my subscription is still active. Pathetic app where the tech team constantly screws things up.

Degraded app. I have cancelled my subscription. What follows is the record of a good app gone bad. Original review: I have not encountered the authorization problem others report. The app is working fine for me. While I am sure that something could be added to it, I am quite happy with it as it is. It combines simplicity with function in a fashion that can only be described as elegant. The layout results in a degree of readability I have seen in no other iPad app. I just wish it were independent of Apple's Newsstand, so I could keep it right on top of my iPad home page. Update May 16, 2015: I have reduced my rating for this app. In both this and the previous version, the reader could select specific articles from the current and previous issues, to be saved and read later. But the previous version provided a table of contents for bookmarked articles. All the reader had to do was scroll down the list and tap on the article he wanted to read. The new version presents a carousel which requires the reader to swipe through every page of each of the saved articles until he gets to the article he wants to read. This is tedious. It might make some sense if each item on the carousel represented a new article, but the carousel displays every page of each article. Suddenly, a list of 20 saved articles has turned into a carousel of 200 pages, with no hint of the location of the article the reader wants to read, assuming he remembers saving it. Further, articles saved under the old version are in the carousel but do not refresh - that is, you see the title and a blank page. So a previously well functioning bookmark feature has been downgraded significantly. Further update May 20: Reduced my rating again. Since the Scrapbook function has been made less useful, I decided to resort to sending articles to Instapaper. Oddly, the Instapaper option does not appear in all issues of the magazine. But it doesn't matter because it turns out that this functionality, which existed in the previous version, no longer works. In addition, I had downgraded to the previous TLS app so that I could get rid of the carousel, but downloading the current issue seems to have put me back on the current version of the app. Further update June 19, 2015: I have emailed Support with my complaints and received not even an acknowledgement. There goes another star.

Crappy. Requires constant re-authorizing. No obvious way to delete downloads. Poor customer service response. TLS gets a very generous C-minus for this ill-conceived effort.

Nothing but problems. This app is continually denying me access to new issues; the digital subscription has been a complete waste of money.

Money-stealing app!. Subscriber via iTunes since 2014 but no issues in 2016 are available to download. TLS is unresponsive, and meanwhile they've stolen $9.99 per month from me. What's the problem?

Brilliant publication, idiotic app. If you can't offer a working app to your subscribers, go back to the drawing board. Requires a password change every login and still doesn't work. An embarrassment for a venerable publication.