Everything is back to normal with the technical aspects of the app! HALLELUJAH! The app goes back to 5 Stars because, after the latest fix, The Athletic has the best sports content with the best writers around. Thank you for all the app fixes in recent weeks! Please don't do that again!----------------------------------------------------------------You've recovered much after you blew up the usefulness of your app a month or two ago, but there is still a few glaring item you continue to overlook with your many updates to recover: the app still no longer syncs read articles in My Feed across devices and the website like it used to do. And, you still can't swipe left or right across articles in My Feed using an iPad though you can again do so with an iPhone. A thing I loved about how the app was previously set up was that articles you read on, say, the iPad also showed up as read on my iPhone and the website. Please fix these remaining problems you introduced to what previously was one of the best sports subscription apps available and I'll go back to a 5-star rating.

Let me start by saying that The Athletic is one of my favorite sites as both a sportswriter and a fan. There’s a lot of quality content on the site that I have no problem paying for. The problem I have is with the experience that comes with the app. For the recurring cost, I’d expect something that works more smoothly and loads articles properly. Ever since the most recent redesign of the app, it has been freezing on the intro screen at least half of the times that I open it. After getting through those freezes, the app will kick me back to the home page whenever I switch to one of my team filters. When loaded, the stories themselves are generally slow and unresponsive, which further hurts the experience. There are other minor complaints, such as not having articles load in the app after being clicked on from newsletters or social media feeds, as well as not being taken to the comment that’s made on your thread when you get a notification, leading you to try to figure out which story you commented on in the first place, which typically doesn’t have the response to your comment anyways. (Desktop is always ahead of the app in terms of comment threads being updated). Overall, the quality of this app is nowhere near the value of free sports apps, which is a shame, because the writing is great.

Seemed interesting when this first launched, but now it’s just as bad as a decade or two ago at ESPN. It really is just an updated version, now that their plan is to hire big names, not talented writers or columnists. Don’t waste your money. Speaking of ESPN, Keith Law literally had my account (comment portion, anyway) for the most banal critique I’ve ever written; verbatim: “Lol Keith’s analysis of these ‘prospects’ is silly, but to each their own.” Oh, the humanity! It’s so lame. No need for it. Thought it’d be more legitimate when the Times bought it. Not so. Shame. Used to be solid. Addendum: Don’t wanna sound like a right-winger decrying the lack of free speech! Not at all. But in the first couple years, it really was interesting and fun to comment and engage right below the stories. Now? It’s SLIGHTLY-better ESPN with comments that need to be banal as heck to even make it on the platform. Shame. Thought when the Times acquired TA, there’d be a bit more liberal takes. Nah. We all love the Times, but they’re a corporate entity first and foremost. Really is a shame because TA used to be very good. Oh, and they promote white supremacy in the comments AND articles like it’s going out of style. Especially NHL related stories. A but with MLB, but I must say their “big name” MLB reporters are the best they have or the four major sports. Buy at your own risk/peril. Take care.