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

WIVB News 4 vs WNEP The News Station

WIVB News 4 4.6★ · Free to download 60
Winner WNEP The News Station
WNEP The News Station 4.8★ · Free to download 65

WNEP The News Station has a slight edge over WIVB News 4 due to its higher user satisfaction and better overall app functionality, despite both apps struggling with recent updates and ad overload.

Full reviews: WIVB News 4 · WNEP The News Station

Both WIVB News 4 and WNEP The News Station are free news apps that provide local news and weather, but both have faced significant user frustration due to recent updates, excessive ads, and app stability issues. WNEP generally maintains a higher user rating and more positive sentiment regarding its core news and weather content, even with its flaws.

Head to head

Features and Content tieR2R6R9R12
WIVB News 4 WIVB News 4 users appreciate the local news coverage, especially weather forecasts from specific meteorologists like Don Paul and Todd Santos R2R6. However, many users complain about news being outdated, especially on weekends, and a lack of world or national news R9R19R24. Some also find it hard to find specific information or read stories online after receiving notifications R12.
WNEP The News Station WNEP The News Station users praise its excellent local reporting, alerts, and weather forecasts . Specific meteorologists like Joe Snedicker are frequently mentioned positively . However, recent updates have removed or made it difficult to find key features like river levels, community events, school closings, and the 'Near Me' button R64.
Ease of Use and Interface tieR7R12R15R24
WIVB News 4 Users of WIVB News 4 report issues with the app's interface, finding it hard to navigate and locate specific topics R12R24. Some describe the layout as unappealing or similar to other local channels R15. There are complaints about auto-playing videos that cannot be disabled and the app automatically silencing other phone audio R7.
WNEP The News Station WNEP The News Station's recent updates have significantly impacted ease of use, with many users finding the new interface disorganized, hard to navigate, and lacking essential menus or search functions R64. Users miss the ability to view in landscape mode .
Reliability and Performance tieR10R13R16R21
WIVB News 4 WIVB News 4 users frequently report issues with the app crashing, flickering, or displaying a black screen, especially after updates R10R13. Streaming is often unreliable, with broadcasts hanging or not loading R16R21. Radar functionality also appears to be problematic, with error messages .
WNEP The News Station WNEP The News Station also suffers from performance issues, with reports of the app freezing, not opening, or crashing . The radar feature, in particular, is noted as slow, freezing, or not working correctly after updates R61.
Ads and Notifications tieR3R4R25R28
WIVB News 4 WIVB News 4 is heavily criticized for an excessive number of ads, including pop-ups, timed ads before videos, and banners on every page R4R25R28. Users also find notifications annoying, with too many being sent or sports notifications appearing even when disabled R3.
WNEP The News Station WNEP The News Station users also express significant frustration with an overload of ads, which are often described as too long, repetitive, and causing the app to freeze . The volume of commercials is noted as being much louder than the broadcast content .
News Quality and Bias tieR11R19R30R37
WIVB News 4 WIVB News 4 receives mixed reviews on news quality. Some users praise its balanced reporting and accurate weather forecasts R11. However, others criticize it for being biased, left-leaning, focusing too much on local sports, or not covering national/world news R19R30R37.
WNEP The News Station WNEP The News Station is generally praised for its local news and weather accuracy . However, some users perceive a political bias and criticize the station for not telling the 'entire truth' or being 'one-sided' . There are also comments about sensationalism or rushing to judgment on stories .
Pick WIVB News 4 if

You are a long-time fan of specific WIVB News 4 personalities, particularly for weather, and prioritize their content despite app functionality issues R2.

Pick WNEP The News Station if

You prioritize comprehensive local news and weather reporting, especially from specific WNEP The News Station meteorologists, and are willing to overlook recent app update frustrations and ad frequency .

Evidence note: Both apps are free, so the negative reviews often stem from frustrations with ads and app performance, which are common for free content-delivery apps. The lifetime ratings are relatively high for both, but recent reviews indicate a decline in satisfaction due to updates.

Frequently asked

Are WIVB News 4 and WNEP The News Station free to use?
Yes, both WIVB News 4 and WNEP The News Station are free to download and use (Free to download).
Do these apps provide live news streaming?
Both apps aim to provide live news streaming, but users report frequent issues with WIVB News 4's live stream being interrupted by ads or buffering R16R21R43 and WNEP The News Station's live broadcast not always playing R63.
Are there many ads in these news apps?
Yes, both WIVB News 4 and WNEP The News Station are heavily criticized by users for having an excessive number of ads, including pop-ups, video ads, and banners, which often disrupt the viewing experience and can cause the apps to freeze R4R25R28R43.
Do recent updates improve the apps?
For both apps, recent updates have generally led to user dissatisfaction, with many reporting broken features, harder navigation, and increased instability R10R13R61R64.

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. [R2] WIVB News 4 5/5 · US The Best!: Don Paul rocks!!
  2. [R6] WIVB News 4 3/5 · US News 4: I love this this is the best app to look at the weather
  3. [R9] WIVB News 4 3/5 · US Old news: Almost all the news on this is over 24 hours old You are better off looking elsewhere
  4. [R12] WIVB News 4 3/5 · US Looking: Half the time I can’t find what I’m looking for since you changed it a while ago
  5. [R7] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US Sound: I love the app but I hate that is automatically silences anything playing on my phone when it’s opened. If I am not trying to watch something why does it take over my audio.
  6. [R15] WIVB News 4 3/5 · US Ok but......: Same layout as channel 2 with what seems like exactly same stories/news as channel 2 site. It’s like ch 2 & 4 share the same site.
  7. [R24] WIVB News 4 3/5 · US Online: Too hard to follow and find topics. Not up to date.
  8. [R10] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US Update broke it: Since updating, the app flickers when opened then I get a black screen.
  9. [R13] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US Constantly crashing: App will not work more then 5 times without crashing once open. Horrible update. Are we going to get a working app anytime soon? Have uninstalled and re-installed twice. Still does it after 4-5 times opening it. Please fix!
  10. [R16] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US Live: This app is horrible for watching the news live all I get is “we will be right back” I rather watch a commercial than dead air . then I would know it’s not buffering or loading.
  11. [R21] WIVB News 4 3/5 · US Unreliable streaming: I mainly use the Channel 4 app to watch the noon news. I have a lot of trouble with it not coming up or hanging in the middle of a broadcast. It may be due to my device or wifi, but it seems to mostly happen with this app. Another complaint: see ing the same commercial several times during a broadcast, and many times during the week is very annoying.
  12. [R3] WIVB News 4 3/5 · US Notifications: The app functions well. I do miss the ability to watch live from my phone in real time in the mornings. More customization of notifications would be appreciated. I’d like to receive Breaking news & Local news notifications without Sports. My Sports notifications are disabled, but some must be sent anyway when other notification groups are enabled.
  13. [R4] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US Too Many Ads: Had to uninstall, waaaayyyy too many ads. Pop-up ad when I open the app, timed ad before any video I watch, ads on top and bottom on every page.
  14. [R25] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US The same ads … before and after every story.: It is so annoying! Uninstalled.
  15. [R28] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US Bloated with adverts....: 5 minutes of commercials for every 2 minutes of news. This app is overwhelmed by various banners and averts that make watching the news almost impossible and slow on my iPad. Very biased news stories that promote many businesses and government but little real news. Also for every segment I have to unmute the sound until the next segment when I have to unmute it again and
  16. [R11] WIVB News 4 5/5 · US Intelligent analysis.: Always balanced news reporting.Great for news
  17. [R19] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US What happened: I’ve been a channel 4 news fan since the eighties . I’ve decided to cut you off. You don’t report news anymore. What about the tornado in Tennessee? You glorify the Bills and make them a #1 news story . I don’t find that great news . Borrrrrrrrrrrrinnnnggggg!!’ I’ll stick to the internet for my news. No world news at all not even in the states?
  18. [R30] WIVB News 4 3/5 · US Biased: Like most main stream media, this also is a little biased and left leaning.
  19. [R37] WIVB News 4 2/5 · US Don’t like: I don’t like this app due to graphics and information not compatible with phones. As well, the news isn’t really news. It’s a lot of articles complaint about this or that. It makes it seems like Buffalo residents complain about a lot. And the so called “news” isn’t up to date when you need it.
  20. [R43] WIVB News 4 1/5 · US Random ads app, no longer a news app: New September 2017 update to your WIVB News4 app is horrible. The live stream of news is constantly interrupted by ads. For every 30 seconds of news I'm getting another ad so I never here the full news story, rendering the app useless. Ads are OK in the commercial breaks and only for the duration of the commercial breaks. This needs to be fixed yesterday! Oct
  21. [R63] WNEP The News Station 3/5 · US Good app Live TV isn't always love: The WNEP+ app is good except when I want to watch a live broadcast such as the news I can't always get the app to play it.
  22. [R61] WNEP The News Station 1/5 · US Weather: The latest update messed up the radar. It freezes then jumps ahead.. it sucks
  23. [R64] WNEP The News Station 1/5 · US App update: The new app update is horrible!!! How do you even find anything on it? It’s just an endless scroll of nothing. There’s no drop down menu for you to choose anything. No way to find local and regional sports info. No link to the community events page. No link to the Home and Backyard show/videos. The link for the weather doesn’t do anything. The page doesn’t load. I tried to fin

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