What This App Is and Who It’s For
Gujarati News by Divya Bhaskar is the mobile app from Dainik Bhaskar Group, aimed squarely at Gujarati-speaking readers who want local news from their city or village alongside national and global coverage. It bundles city news from 300+ towns, video news, an ePaper archive going back a year, politics, business, sports, Bollywood gossip, and daily rashifal (horoscope) updates. This is clearly built for readers in Gujarat, or the Gujarati diaspora abroad, who want one app for everything from crime reports in their hometown to Sensex numbers and cricket scores.
The ePaper and Local Coverage Strengths
The strongest praise from users centers on the breadth of content, not the technical execution. People who stick with the app do so because the news itself is useful and local, exactly as advertised, covering hyper-local issues like water shortages and traffic that national apps ignore. One reviewer straightforwardly called it ‘good for news,’ and another said the app is ‘Great’ despite complaints about notifications, suggesting the underlying journalism and city-level coverage genuinely delivers for the target audience.
The Subscription and Ad Problem
This is where the app runs into real trouble. Multiple reviewers are frustrated that a news app is pushing subscriptions at all, with one calling it not worth paying for when open alternatives exist. Worse, at least one user who paid specifically for an ad-free premium tier says ads kept showing anyway, and after repeated complaints got no fix and asked for a refund. Another paying subscriber living in Canada said a yearly subscription became useless after switching phones, since they couldn’t log back in with the same number and got no response from technical support. For an app charging real money, this level of unresolved support failure is a serious black mark.
Notifications and Performance Complaints
Notifications are the second major pain point. Several reviews describe alerts as excessive and impossible to fully control, with one noting their phone’s system repeatedly flagged the app and forced it into deep sleep because of background alert behavior. Others ask for basic filtering, like only getting notified for certain categories, which isn’t currently offered in a granular way. On top of that, performance complaints show up repeatedly after updates, with users describing the app as ‘super slow’ compared to the desktop site, and news articles taking a long time to open.
Who Should Actually Download This
If you’re a Gujarati reader who wants deep, hyper-local coverage of your specific town and doesn’t mind free, ad-supported use, this app largely does its job and the install numbers and review volume reflect a huge, loyal user base. But if you’re considering the paid subscription specifically for an ad-free experience or expecting responsive customer support if something breaks, the evidence here suggests caution: ad complaints and unresolved login issues after paying are not isolated one-offs. Go in expecting to tolerate notification overload and occasional slowdowns, and think twice before paying unless you’re prepared to troubleshoot support issues yourself.
