Readly UK Reviews 2,150

Dreadful app update. Who on earth in charge of UX/UI signed this off? Can't find a thing, all my favourites I spent ages curating have disappeared, foreign titles no longer on the app. An absolute mess and will be cancelling my subscription.

Absolutely terrible. Without warning from enjoyable to very very unhappy. Horrific app difficult to navigate and without the support they say. they are obviously not reading the reviews. The old app was fantastic. I have probably used it from its inception, easy to navigate and I could have a split screen. This new app is too small for me to read and if I enlarge I cannot then turn the page without D enlarging. Recently read has gone okay you can press the buttons but it’s just not as easy and simple. 😢😢😢😢

Readly UK has shut down since takeover. It says that 'UK is no longer a suppotred region' and when I press 'contact us' it simply says 'oops that's not working.

This used to be a good website until a forced update basically ruined everything. My wife enjoyed doing sudoku interactively but now you have to print them same with crosswords. It is so bad in fact that they have withdrawn the option to cancel your subscription presumably because everyone wants to. I am fairly certain that this is illegal. If it's not it should be. I pay mine by PayPal so I was able to stop any further payment and I suggest you do the same. If you contact customer service they reply with some inane question in my case they asked me what I meant by interactive. When you reply that's the last you hear from them. They do say that if you are trying to cancel and payments are taken then you will be fully refunded but how are going to prove that. Why don't they suspend taking payment until any issues are sorted out.

I have been using Readly since it first launched, and I’d recently become bored of the slowly reducing titles. I cancelled my subscription a few weeks ago and was counting down the remaining weeks considering whether to continue or not. Then I opened the new app and within a few minutes of checking it out, I was relieved that I had cancelled my subscription. I’ve not even bothered seeing out the last few weeks, it’s dreadful. It looks awful, it’s terrible to navigate and pretty much every title I read is removed from the list.

I was toying with the Apple News subscription and suddenly they have gone from a drastically reduced list to being better value than Readly and much easier to navigate.

Shame as after around 10 years, they’ve lost their way and their reputation.

Gosh how highhanded of the company. Imposed a new format with no warning. Impossible to download the new app onto my usual device. Asked for help from their helpline and no response.
Have managed to download it to another device and horrified to find the usual very easy intuitive app has been replaced by an awful looking layout with none of the usual features.What is the point of annoying your loyal customers. There are plenty of other apps for this including free ones. I for one am cancelling my subscription.

Why would you change so drastically without any prior notice? My saved magazines all deleted to be replaced by an inferior app with a jumbled navigation. OMG do you need to improve this or you will haemorrhage subscribers. In reply you certainly didn’t send me an email prior to the changes. However I’m getting more used to the navigation so have added two stars.

I’ve been banging on about how good Readly is for years to anybody who would listen. Then they got took over and released a new and “improved” app. My rating says it all. Here are a few of the things removed that make a once excellent app next to useless…

* Bookmarks not carried over from old app.  I had lots of these saved up to read and they have all dissapred.  I am gutted about this.  
* No longer an ability to auto download issues.  
* No longer an ability to bulk delete bookmarks/favourites etc.
* saved titles used to be in a separate tab, making it easy to see them.  Now these are listed without pictures and seem to be ordered randomly.  This is a massive downgrade in experience.  
* Titles that used to have article view no longer do (I have found many examples of this.). This is a huge step down.
* On iPad and iPhone titles keep crashing constantly and having to restart app. 
* Search function has become next to useless. Results out of order or not bringing anything even though I can see the articles. 
* On iPad and iPhone new issues used to be all one page so it was easy to see each morning. Now it involves scrolling to see this more difficult. 
* When I finish a title it is no longer clear that I have done so. It still says new.
* On the webpage, scrolling is very unintuitive.  It’s more difficult now.
* When I save a bookmark on the webpage sometimes it doesn’t appear when I open the app on iPhone/iPad.
* Newspapers and Magazines are lumped all together - these were much better when separate.  
* I keep coming across text on the app and webpage in another language, not sure if it’s French but it’s off-putting.  Also, some of the English written on the site/app has clearly been written by someone who doesn’t speak English as a first language (incorrect grammar, syntax etc.) 

So overall, Readly has done the impossible - it’s gone from 5 stars to 1 overnight.

The new App is a big step backwards, you now cannot complete any of the crosswords or puzzles in the newspapers or magazines. They have books of different types of puzzles, which all you can do is look at. What is the point.

I’m now looking for an alternate magazine provider.

Since the transfer was announced I stopped receiving notifications of new issues.
My account on the new app doesn't show my email address just the text "my email address", or any options to receive notifications of new issues.
I raised an issue with support, with screenshots of both webpages showing the problem.
Support signposted a link to my account to change notifications (where there isn't any option to do so!) and told me to contact support (the same team that sent me the reply!) to change my email address.

Incompetence beyond belief. I contact support who tell me to contact support?????

I show them proof that options don't exist and they tell me to select a non-existent option?

Now I can't even log in.

I think their data transfer has gone wrong on my account, but this initial response from support is absurdly inept.

Once again an easy to use app has completely changed and is now not worth the subscription fee. I'm very disappointed

The new app is a step backwards as well as several publications no longer being available. It was much easier to see favourites previously, archive button for back issues is covered by menu. A real shame.

App has been destroyed and I cannot cancel my subscription. A backwards step nobody asked for. Ridiculous. NOW CANNOT CANCEL SUBSCRIPTION. They reply here with AI slop to insult us further.

New app is crap, used to be so simple to see what I had downloaded, now who knows.

App has just been updated and is worse than previous version, with fewer magazines available and my stored magazines from previous months have vanished. Went to cancel subscription and website states that cannot cancel at the moment and to wait a few days. That takes me to next monthly payment date. Lots of other people saying very difficult to cancel subscription. I’d suggest that other people avoid signing up with these people in case they find it difficult to cancel subscription. I will be instructing my bank to block future payments to Readly.

Been a Readly subscriber, on and off, since 2020.

For me it has never held a candle to either Zinio or Press Reader. Magazines especially seem to come and go but stayed with Readly.

But, wow, this new company and new app????? Give me a break. Deffo a big 100% thumbs down.

Removal.of page results on search, never been a date order filter. The service is getting worse and worse. No confidence the takeover will make any improvements.

UPDATE: After a week of waiting they have processed my refund. Thank you.

However, it's still a subscription trap - you take up the free trial and if you forget to cancel, there's no reminder via email, they just take it out of your account.

The UK government change to subscription renewals can't come soon enough.

THIS IS A WARNING TO ANYONE TRYING A FREE TRIAL TO CANCEL THE AUTO RENEWAL IMMEDIATELY, YOU CAN REINSTATE YOUR MEMBERSHIP ANYTIME OF COURSE.

You can get a lot of the magazines on the Libby app, which you can join for free with your UK library subscription.

They removed my favourite mags without any warning. Their reply to my query?

'As part of the transition of Readly to Cafeyn, these titles are no longer available in your region.'
A heads up before this months subscription was taken, would have been nice, or before I wasted time trying to access content that had been removed, wondering what I was doing wrong.