BBC World Service

Pauses or stops playing after a time. Don't know how to stop this from stopping to play. Very annoying having to push play button every few minutes. Update, 2/20/25. Worked great for a long time, but now won't load, then says streaming is unavailable. Now 1 star. update 7/1/2025: was working great again for Months, but there must have been another upgrade recently that makes me have to open, close then open app again before it works.

Lots of audio issues! If you already have it open and are listening and want to listen to the LATEST live news, you have to close the app and relaunch it. Often even doing that won't work. What results is whatever you had been listening to, continues to play OVER the live audio. So then you have to uninstall the app and reinstall it. But again, if you make the mistake of wanting to switch from the old live news to the latest, it'll all happen all over again. I gave up! Now I just read stories!

I depend on the BBC World Service. Most of the time, this app works flawlessly, providing this worldwide journalism with some left-leaning bias, to be sure, but still unparalleled global coverage in broadcast journalism. The app did stop working for a couple of weeks this winter. I was still able to listen live through the BBC Sounds app (also good for its search feature), but I am grateful to have this World Service app back to depend upon daily.

I went from 5 stars to 3 stars. Content is still 5 stars but the app has multiple technical difficulties recently ( Sep 2025). Podcast stops around 18 mins and when I go back in, it starts with ad again and in some of the podcast you cannot roll it forward to where you were, you have to re listen the whole program again. If I pause because I want to speak to someone, etc, same happens. The podcasts are listed the wrong way, it goes into earlier instead of later episode when finished one.

It works well, but you cannot start and stop the player in 'sleep mode,' with a headphone button, or the top menu on a phone, without having notifications allowed (which I don't want). You also have to close and reopen the app. to reload new content. The ads are tolerable and the rest of the app. works okay. It is definitely not as good as the old BBC iPlayer and you cannot save podcasts for later playing like the old app. So, while this app. is good for streaming, I still use spotify.

Great. Just wish that, if we sign in as normal when on holiday abroad, we could access ALL of BBC Sounds, as before. After all, we have paid a lot for the licence fee, and the BBC should be able to do this by customer ID, rather than by location. Location shouldn't be relevant to whether you can receive the service, when you are registered as a licence fee payer in the UK.

Ever since I updated the app the performance is annoyingly underwhelming! With the old app, I could go to other apps and perform so many tasks while the live stream kept on going. With this one, once my screen goes to sleep, it shuts off and most times I would need to restart my phone before getting it to work again! Please do something about this. BBC has been a staple in my life since the days of shortwave. Do not make me turn against my favourite news service!!!

Since I have downloaded the app I have listened to all the episodes of "The Assination" and "The Fall of Shaw" programs from start to end. And I was really enjoyed both programs and they are at the top of the class. And I will be doing a lot of listening for sure. I am happy that I have come across this app and sure recommend to just anybody without doubt. Kishan Vasireddy

I'm a life-long fan of the Beeb so this current BBC World Service app is a real disappointment. I was pleased to see the option of following programs i value, but the tha case of the 'Climate Question' i'm getting a repeated 'this stream is currently unavailable' message. I also followed 'Witness History', but when a 9 minute program is preceeded and ended with trailers an unnecessary introduction, i shut the app down in frustration. Similarly with the interminably full-screen adds.

Vastly inferior to BBC sounds. Not possible to download programmes and so is unusable outside of cities. When signal is lost, the programmes restart from the beginning. Better to use the website to browse and download programmes. Absolute chaff.

This app used to only play for 10 or 15 minutes after the screen lock. It used to drive me crazy. It was a common problem, and I tried every solution posted on the net about how to resolve it, to no avail. The BBC wouldn't admit it was the app's fault. I upgraded the app yesterday and it now doesn't have that bug anymore. I can now listen to the BBC for more than 10 or 15 minutes. Yay.

The BBC World Service News app is an exceptional source of reliable, up-to-the-minute global news. Its clean, intuitive design makes it easy to quickly find stories that matter, while the comprehensive coverage delivers depth and context across politics, business, culture, and more. The app’s alerts are timely without being overwhelming, keeping you informed wherever you are. For anyone who values trustworthy journalism and clear reporting from around the world, this app is a must-have.

love it ! I get all. my news, world news and otherwise in one place. the BBC is the measuring stick to which all other media is measured. I hear a lot. people dissing the app. I'm in Vancouver, Canada an expat. I don't seem to have any of these problems and I agree BBC sounds was a better app but recently I think in Canada they've asked to use the other BBC app and that seems to work for me so I say still a big fan

The schedule posted in the app is incorrect a it appears to be the Europe and Middle East schedule, while the audio is the Online schedule. A bit confusing when the 2 schedules don't match up. Would also be nice to be able to change to a different audio schedule depending on my preference. Sometimes, I'd prefer to have my own region's schedule instead of the Online schedule.

I used to listen to the BBC Word Service everyday, but I grew increasingly frustrated with the fact that more often than not they cut the interviews too soon in order to move on to the next thing, and they often cut the interviewees mid-sentence. The last drop for me was when they cut a very relevant interview about the pandemic in order to air yet another sports update. So I decided to find a news show that doesn't make me feel like I am on a roller-coaster.

I miss my BBC android widget! I love the BBC and listen so the time on three radio. I used to keep up with the BBC with the great widget that was the main thing on my Android phone's home screen. I would like it back please. It just vanished from my phone and isn't in the choices in the BBC app any longer. Why? 🤔🤯😞

Excellent content & very useful On-air SCHEDULE, but I can't understand why there isn't a SEARCH option! I heard about an interesting episode, but missed its podcast name, so unless it's advertised again, I'll miss it. I'd prefer to see many smaller PODCAST ICONS instead of the current few HUGE ICONS, & would really appreciate Podcast descriptions. Transcripts would be great for those of us with hearing issues. Also, BOOKMARKS & the ability to DOWNLOAD for offline listening would be wonderful.

Was my main source for daily international news. Advertising popup is borderline bearable. Short slowloading mediocre Videos starting with 30 second advertising is a waste of time. The advertisement is getting more agressive every week, covering up the entire screen. The only way to get past that full page ad is to open it. If you don't value your own time, BBC is a great App for you!

Ever since the latest update, the app doesn't work right. I have to open ot, then close it, open it again. Then it goes to a 5 minute recap of the news, so I have to go back in and switch to live. Since I listen while driving, this process becomes difficult and dangerous. I used to open the app and live coverage would automatically come on.

I've had BBC as one of my go-to apps for years, however this week the app kept crashing upon opening. Today I uninstalled and reinstalled the app and now most news is gone, only videos and podcasts. Worthless. In addition, the app used to be clean and easy to quickly read headlines and choose stories to read Now, it looks like it was designed by a methhead.