Analyzed automatically. Assessed 2026-10-04 from 620 user reviews, the store listing and its privacy label. We have not scanned the app's package, so nothing on this page was read from inside the app itself.
This analysis describes version 14.4.0 of the app, analyzed 2026-10-04 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version 14.4.0, updated 2026-10-01.
What the analysis found
Context 1
Measured and published because a reader would want to know — deliberately not a charge. The measurement alone does not show a harm.
One source only — shown, not confirmed 2
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
What reviewers said
Verbatim excerpts from public store reviews, shown as corroborating user reports. They are not Appworthy audit evidence, and a quotation is not proof of the finding it sits under.
Aggressive ad load
Great news, if you can find it between the ads. — MSNBC has become expensive, and they pay for this with advertising- a LOT OF ADVERTISING! Cheap, crass, brainless advertising, stacked up in long strings of ad after ad….. If you can stand…
MS NOW Horrible auto open of ads when scrolling — Love msnbc news but am ready to delete the new app because of the automatic opening of ads while scrolling when reading article. The ads take over the screen the same as if you clicked on…
ALL Ads! — No kidding. I tried to watch for like 10 minutes and the ads just kept on coming. Seriously NOT worth the time to download.
Paywall blocks the basics
MS Now is running out of money w/o Comcast and NBCUniversal financial backing. and they have their "events" every few months to raise money, now you have to pay for nearly everything in this app including listening to live audio. I've…
Have used this app (and listened to its ads) forever on multiple devices, usually at least four to six hours per day. I have consistently recommended it to other news junkies. Suddenly I'm locked out unless I sign in, I'm blocked from my…
not cool to remove the free audio portion of the app. this is boe a subscription or locked behind pay wall. with the lack of access to good journalism this a really terrible move to keep people involved when everybody knows we can't…
What this app sells
From the store listing. Billing terms are read from each purchase’s name — the stores don’t publish them — so treat them as a strong hint, not a disclosure.
How the automated analysis works
This assessment is produced automatically. Three independent signals are read — user reviews, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure — and each candidate finding is filed under the sources that support it.
No charge stands on one kind of evidence — with one published exception. A finding is either a measured fact that anyone can reproduce (an ad SDK is in the package; every subscription bills weekly; the privacy label omits a tracker we can see), or it is an interpretation — and an interpretation needs independent sources to agree before it reaches the catch list. The exception is a harm only users can see: a charge may publish from reviews alone, as “Reported by N users”, once enough reviewers raise it to clear that charge’s own published bar. That agreement rule is what replaced the human reviewer, not a model’s confidence.
There is no overall score, on purpose. A 0–99 number was published here until 2026-09-15. It was withdrawn because it discriminated too weakly to be the instrument — 44.7% of every pair of apps tied — and because a single number is a verdict where a count is an observation. What publishes instead is a row of measurements, each of which says what was counted and, where we could not look, says that instead.
Findings under One source only are real reports we do not stand behind as findings. They are shown because withholding them entirely would hide a genuine complaint, and labelled because publishing them as charges would be an accusation off a single source.
Several measurements above say “Not assessed” because no artefact we hold can answer them. A human review is what resolves those — and it can remove a favourable band as easily as add one.
Hands-on inspections are not yet open.