4.56★ from 282,365 ratings · version 12.13.1 · 57 of the last 68 written reviews are one or two stars
Dark mode removed in latest update
14of the 57 read·25%
Update removed dark mode setting that was previously available, forcing users to read on bright white background.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Dark screen — Where has dark screen option gone!” — ★☆☆☆☆“Settings button disappeared — Opened app this morning to find it’s been updated and there is now no settings button or menu button on my phone or iPad. I prefer to view the app in dark mode, so looks like I’ll go elsewhere for my news.” — ★☆☆☆☆“No settings cog? — The app updated and now the settings have vanished? Can no longer change text size and the ‘Dark Mode’ as advertised on images has gone. I only have a Profile icon too right which has NO app settings in? We need Dark mode back please ASAP!! Otherwise you need to remove the false images on the App Store you show!” — ★☆☆☆☆
Excessive ads and intrusive advertising placement
12of the 57 read·21%
Too many ads throughout the app; ads pop up while scrolling, play automatically, appear before videos, and sometimes precede sensitive news.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Ads and UI — The ads between the news stories are opening whilst scrolling and this then means you get spam email , also won’t be using the app while the background is white , it’s not easy on the eye.” — ★☆☆☆☆“Nepal floods with ads? — How disgusting and insensitive to run the title ‘Nepal Floods’ and directly underneath you have funny/stupid ads before the actual report on the devastation happening right now.” — ★☆☆☆☆“Adverts — Too many ads, all people see everywhere are ads, this used to be a fairly good news app but now has too many ads, deleted” — ★☆☆☆☆
Too many videos replacing readable articles
11of the 57 read·19%
App now prioritizes videos over text articles; users who prefer reading news instead of watching are frustrated.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Destroyed — If you want to read the news in structured format, don’t use this app. Just shoves a few videos at you and adverts - great sky, well done. Followed bbc in destroying a news app.” — ★☆☆☆☆“Favours listeners over readers — I used to enjoy reading the news on this channel. Now the text amount has been much reduced and replaced by videos. I don’t want to watch and listen, I wish to read my news. I now often move my attention to other news outlets.” — ★★☆☆☆“Too many videos, ads and no dark mode setting — This has gone from my favourite news app a few years ago to now a total inconvenience to use as I have to keep scrolling to see any articles. Absolutely rubbish. If you want adverts for none paying subscribers let us login using our Sky ID! Bring back the ability for ‘Dark Mode’ as I like certain apps to be in dark mode not everything because it can make the phone…” — ★☆☆☆☆
Settings menu and options removed
6of the 57 read·11%
Update removed settings cog and accessibility options including text size adjustment; users cannot customize app appearance.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Settings button disappeared — Opened app this morning to find it’s been updated and there is now no settings button or menu button on my phone or iPad. I prefer to view the app in dark mode, so looks like I’ll go elsewhere for my news.” — ★☆☆☆☆“No settings cog? — The app updated and now the settings have vanished? Can no longer change text size and the ‘Dark Mode’ as advertised on images has gone. I only have a Profile icon too right which has NO app settings in? We need Dark mode back please ASAP!! Otherwise you need to remove the false images on the App Store you show!” — ★☆☆☆☆“Update removed user settings and decided you don’t want to browse the news any longer. — The update to the app has removed user settings. Considering these were focused on accessibility it seems like it’s probably an oversight compounded by poor or non-existent quality assurance. The responses to other comments would suggest it was either incompetence or arrogance. Either way you can no longer change the text size or…” — ★☆☆☆☆
Videos crash and cause app performance issues
4of the 57 read·7%
Videos crash frequently during playback, freeze content, or cause app to crash requiring restart or sign-out.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Too many videos — I want to actually read the news not watch a bunch of videos. What’s more if I do watch a video it crashed half way through about 90% of the time” — ★☆☆☆☆“Constant App Issues and Non Relevant News — The app keeps crashing. I’ve tried reinstalling the app, but videos keep crashing and the only able to fix it after rebooting app. I would think the issue is with the video ads blocking content when the ads fail to play. Also, the ads at the end of the articles have not been vetted. Some are scams, or counterfeit products. Not a good idea for what should be honest news. The…” — ★☆☆☆☆“Video playback lets it down — Always loved sky news and it is the most used app on my iPad, for about the last year though the app seems to be going down hill. General articles are fine but video playing on this app is unusable, constantly crashes and restarts. Compared to other sites like YouTube or even other news apps the sky news app is falling behind” — ★★☆☆☆
Recent update made app significantly worse
4of the 57 read·7%
Users report app has degraded with each update; navigation changed unnecessarily and overall usability has declined.
›read 3 of these reviews
“Going backwards — Used to be the best news app but each update gets worse, no dark mode, just as many videos as articles, a total unnecessary change to the navigation to different categories, I’ve no idea how people who take something that works and then ruins it continues to be employed” — ★☆☆☆☆“Ruined the app — Sky News was my go to app for trusted news. Helpful written stories that could be read in a quiet environment. I’ve updated to the latest version, there is now no way to set a dark mode and far too many videos instead of written stories. When something works so well in the original version why ruin it?” — ★★☆☆☆“Poor update — No dark mode, poor layout, intrusive adverts. All in all a complete shambles of an update.” — ★☆☆☆☆
Apple publishes the most recent written reviews, up to five hundred, and that is what was read — not a search for bad ones. Why so many of them are angry. The complaints above come from the 57 most recent negative ones. Newest review 22 days ago (08.09.2026), last collected 21 days ago.