UPDATE: A few days after I wrote my review, I have an update. If you want to watch CNN using a Firestick or similar, I recommend downloading the CNN Go app to your mobile phone. When you go to “watch TV” within the app, you will see an icon in the top right or left that looks like a wifi signal over a TV icon. Click that and it will connect your mobile CNN Go app to the Firestick CNN Go app. They call this “casting” and it works semi-okay. I still have connection glitches with it, it can be a real PITA sometimes, but when I do connect successfully, I can usually watch CNN as long as I want without spinning wheels, blank screens, and constant irritations.

In order for this to work, you need to be logged into the CNN Go app on your Firestick, otherwise, that icon won’t show up.

As I said, I am only a few days into this new method, so it might not work long-term but it’s okay for now.

ORIGINAL REVIEW: This app is an annoying, maddening waste of time. I get about 20-30% actual CNN watching mixed with regular interruptions of the following nature: a blank screen, a spinning wheel, and mysterious pop-ups about access and technical issues that don’t actually seem to correlate to what is actually happening. As one example, every so often the app displays a pop-up saying I need to log in again and then the service suddenly comes back on without my having done so.

Even when I do manage to connect, it takes *several minutes* to load. This would be pretty annoying if you only had to wait it out once per watching session but because of the constant connectivity issues, I have to do it over and over and over again in a single session of a few hours. First, I load the app then wait with a blurry newsroom image. Then I select “live TV” and then wait for several minutes with a blank screen. If I don’t give up after waiting and waiting and force quit the app, it might show me some “channels” but doesn’t play anything, so I select “live TV” again. Then it says I’m not authorized to play the content (I am; I have a cable subscription and I logged in with CNN with the proper credentials). And then it might load and start to show actual content but then eventually the wheel starts spinning. So I wait again. Then I get maybe 10 or 20 more minutes of watching before it starts spinning again, or asks me to select what I want to watch again, or just kicks me out of the app entirely.

This is BAD.

I have forced quit the app, cleared the app cache, cleared the app data, restarted my Firestick, restarted my router … honestly I cannot even remember all the stupid things I’ve tried that made no difference.

It’s been about 24 hours of this nonsense and I’m DONE. Deleting the app. Maybe they’ll get it right someday. I’m not wasting any more time on it.

Just for the record: my wifi is fine otherwise. I have a business ISP for my work with a very fast connection. Also, all the other content with my Firestick works fine, except for this and MSNBC, which I can’t even log into. Cable news orgs need to get it together.

Brand	N/A
Rating	3.9 (80727 ratings)
Price	$N/A
Category	News & Magazines