Verithiathe honest score on any app
Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
Head-to-head

6abc Philadelphia vs Citizen

6abc Philadelphia 4.7★ · Free + IAP 45
Winner Citizen
Citizen 4.7★ · Free + IAP 65

Citizen is the better choice for real-time safety alerts and community reporting, despite its aggressive premium push, while 6abc Philadelphia struggles with app stability and a high volume of ads.

Full reviews: 6abc Philadelphia · Citizen

Citizen offers real-time safety alerts and community reports, but users are frustrated by many features being paywalled. 6abc Philadelphia provides local news and weather, but faces significant issues with app freezing, excessive ads, and poor user experience after updates.

Head to head

Features & Content edge: CitizenR7R14R18R36
6abc Philadelphia 6abc Philadelphia users appreciate the local news and weather content, with many being loyal viewers of the TV station R14. However, some find the news isn't updated frequently enough R36 and desire more immediate choices for navigation R18. There are complaints about forced video playback and a lack of a search function R7.
Citizen Citizen excels at providing real-time safety alerts and community reports, which users find helpful for staying informed about local incidents . However, many critical features, such as detailed incident descriptions, sex offender information, and filtering notifications by city, are locked behind a premium paywall R61R64R70R76.
Ease of Use & Reliability tieR1R6R11R15
6abc Philadelphia Many 6abc Philadelphia users report significant issues with the app freezing R1, glitching R11, and multiple videos playing simultaneously R16R19. Some updates have made the app harder to navigate, with content cut off or difficult to read R6. Notifications often don't open the correct story or come in silently R15.
Citizen Citizen is generally considered easy to use for its core function of providing alerts , but recent updates have introduced disorienting map features R70 and issues with video recording . Some users experience app crashes and phone slowdowns . A major point of frustration is the constant prompting to upgrade to premium R61.
Price & Value edge: 6abc PhiladelphiaR5R9R10R13
6abc Philadelphia 6abc Philadelphia is a free app with in-app purchases, but users frequently complain about an excessive number of ads, which are often repetitive and interrupt content R5R9R10R13.
Citizen Citizen is also a free app with in-app purchases, but its value is severely diminished for free users. Many essential safety features and detailed information are locked behind a premium subscription, leading users to feel it's a 'bait and switch' R61R64R70R76. The premium subscription is noted to be around $5.99 per month .
Support & Updates tieR1R3R4R6
6abc Philadelphia Users of 6abc Philadelphia frequently request fixes for freezing and glitching R1R11, better backwards compatibility for older OS versions R3, and improvements to the user interface R6R18. Some users appreciate updates , while others find them detrimental R4.
Citizen Citizen users complain about recent updates making the app worse, particularly with map navigation and paywall implementation R70. There are also reports of unverified or inaccurate reports and issues with chat moderation . Users request the return of free features and the ability to copy and paste text .
Pick 6abc Philadelphia if

you prioritize local Philadelphia news and weather from a familiar broadcast station, and are willing to tolerate frequent ads and occasional app stability issues R14.

Pick Citizen if

you want real-time safety alerts and community information for your area, and are willing to pay for a premium subscription to access full details and features .

Evidence note: Both apps have a mix of positive and negative reviews, but recent negative feedback for 6abc Philadelphia heavily emphasizes app functionality issues, while Citizen's recent negativity is largely due to its aggressive paywall strategy. The free vs paid asymmetry is very strong for Citizen, where many negative reviews stem from the limitations of the free tier.

Frequently asked

Does Citizen offer a truly free experience?
No, while Citizen is free to download, many essential safety features and detailed incident information are locked behind a premium paywall, leading users to feel the free version is largely useless R61R64R70R76.
Are there many ads in the 6abc Philadelphia app?
Yes, users frequently complain about an excessive number of ads in the 6abc Philadelphia app, noting they are often repetitive, play on a loop, and interrupt news or weather content R5R9R10R13.
Do either of these apps have stability issues?
Yes, 6abc Philadelphia users commonly report the app freezing, glitching, and having multiple videos play at once R1R11R16R19. Citizen users also report occasional app crashes and phone slowdowns .

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R7] 6abc Philadelphia 1/5 · US Can’t find it: Why not add a search for on the app? There are nice stores but I can’t find them
  2. [R14] 6abc Philadelphia 4/5 · US News: Channel 6 news is the best I think my entire family watches channel 6 news.
  3. [R18] 6abc Philadelphia 3/5 · US I need more immediate choices: When I open your app, I want to see every choice box that can be clicked on to open. Make a tab for World, Phila, Sports, Weather, and at the shore cam so I can see a flag, wind direction and wave heights. Allow me to access a tab immediately without surfing around looking for it. Allow me to choose the order in which I’ll read or view each tab. I love 6ABC.Bran
  4. [R36] 6abc Philadelphia 3/5 · US Review Channel 6: I don’t feel that the printed news is updated as regularly as the live reporting…I check this online report and find the same stories 2-3-4 days in a row!!! I feel I miss out on soooo much not catching a live broadcast!!! I really miss Jim Gardner and had hoped he would occasionally be doing some feature stories but haven’t seen any so far??? Although I miss Jim, I TREMENDOUSLY
  5. [R1] 6abc Philadelphia 1/5 · US FIX IT!!!!! STILL BROKEN: What is the problem that can’t be fixed with the app FREEZING UP? SAME ISSUE OVER AND OVER. THE AP FREEZES EVERY TIME. CAN NOT USE THE APP WITHOUT IT LOCKING UP. FIX IT!!! Your competition doesn’t have an app that doesn’t freeze up.
  6. [R6] 6abc Philadelphia 3/5 · US Can’t change location in weather tab: The 6ABC app seems to work fine except for one thing, in the weather tab, the location button and the arrow to change location is the top center of the screen on the iPad, but it’s behind the menu bar, I can’t get to it. Either the menu bar ( the one that says Home, Weather, News, etc) should be moved to the side or the location button, or both to opposite cor
  7. [R11] 6abc Philadelphia 5/5 · US WPVI: Your station has been glitching all day yesterday and again today. I’ve watched other stations and yours is the only station doing this. What is going on?
  8. [R15] 6abc Philadelphia 3/5 · US Breaking news not sounding, again: Hi there. For the second time in a few months, notifications from the app have been silent. I can see them, but they come in silently without noise or vibration. This is not an issue with my phone being on silent or vibrate because my dads phone is doing it silently as well. Can you change it?
  9. [R5] 6abc Philadelphia 5/5 · US This App work flawlessly.: I’ve had this app on my phone for a few years now I never noticed any real major issues. The only thing that sort of annoyed me were the endless paid ads, but I do understand that’s how the new station makes revenue. it’s interesting how people complain about how the app doesn’t work how it’s frozen and glitchy. They failed to mention how old their devices which matters
  10. [R9] 6abc Philadelphia 3/5 · US Commercials are horrible: It’s the only way I can watch 6 sec since Xfinity removed it from our channels. So that’s good. The commercials are the same every break and play on a loop, sometimes 3 times. On occasion they play right thru the weather or sports. Still better than nothing.
  11. [R10] 6abc Philadelphia 1/5 · US ADS: Too many ads
  12. [R13] 6abc Philadelphia 1/5 · US AI slop: This app is nonstop ads and fake AI articles. It gives pop ups for breaking news and then it’s nowhere to be found when you open the app. Don’t waste your time with this nonsense, just turn on the TV
  13. [R3] 6abc Philadelphia 3/5 · US Minimum OS: Looks like your recent version has surpassed the maximum OS my iPhone can support. I don’t get a new iPhone every time Apple makes a new one. Please update the backwards compatibility. Thanks!
  14. [R4] 6abc Philadelphia 2/5 · US New app: Just hate it. I can’t get the update and the articles suck.
  15. [R61] Citizen 1/5 · US Premium: I know freemium is a standard business model for many apps, but it’s my first day using the app and I got a push notification saying “there’s a safety threat near you, pay for premium to find out more details.” Pretty tacky.
  16. [R64] Citizen 1/5 · US Bait and switch: If it’s not live, it’s blurred out… unless you pay for premium. Kinda pointless.
  17. [R70] Citizen 1/5 · US getting increasingly inaccurate and useless: theyve made the map more difficult to navigate, showing gunshots in my areas from weeks & months ago and not showing ones from the past week. filtering notifications to only be from your city instead ofthe entire nation, is a premium feature. so you turn off notifications and forget this app exists. everything useful, and information that is available f
  18. [R76] Citizen 1/5 · US WHAT: How is it supposed to keep us safe and updated if we gotta pay for everything i can’t even tell what’s going on w out something popping up talking about pay for full description
  19. [R16] 6abc Philadelphia 2/5 · US Multiple videos play at same time: I like the content, especially the weather, but recent updates have made this sound like I am walking into a crowded room. Please stop the Autoplay and fix the bugs so videos aren’t going on and on and on at the same time. Also, too many ads.
  20. [R19] 6abc Philadelphia 1/5 · US Problems: This app is really no good Two voices r playing at one time it’s very annoying and there is no way to turn it off I reset the app and it is still doing it! This isn’t the first time but I gotta tell you it’s very frustrating!

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store