Report updated May 15, 2026
The Times of Israel
For individuals interested in news, analysis, and features regarding Israel, the Middle East, and the global Jewish community.
The Times of Israel is a challenged news app that is free with in-app purchases. With a 3.7/5 rating from 629 reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate high-quality journalism and informative news coverage keep readers engaged with current events in israel, though intrusive and deceptive full-screen advertisements disrupt the reading experience and block content access remains a common concern.
What is The Times of Israel?
The Times of Israel is a news aggregation and analysis app for the global Jewish community, providing live coverage and digital editions on iOS and Android.
Users hire this app to stay informed on Middle Eastern events via a trusted editorial lens, but technical friction and ad-intrusiveness currently impede the daily reading habit.
Current Momentum
v3.8 · 1mo ago
Maintenance- Entered top 200 News category charts.
- Ships minor stability fixes.
Active Nemesis
Fragmented niche
No dominant direct rival identified yet — see Other Rivals below.
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
NewsNo ranking data
Rating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
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What Are The Key Features?
Real-time updates on breaking events in Israel and the Middle East via push notifications
Curated digital newspaper edition delivered to users
How much does it cost?
- Free with ad-supported content
- Community membership for ad-free experience
Freemium model relies on ad-supported news consumption with a paid membership gate to remove ads and support the publication.
Who Built It?
Enrichment in progress
Publisher profile available very soon
What other apps does RGB Media make?
דבר
App
What do users think recently?
High confidence · Latest 66 of 107 total reviews analyzed · Based on 107 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate high-quality journalism and informative news coverage keep readers engaged with current events in israel, but report intrusive and deceptive full-screen advertisements disrupt the reading experience and block content access.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for The Times of Israel?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (1)
How's The News Market?
How does it evolve in the News market?
The app recently entered the top 200 News & Magazines category charts across multiple markets, including the US and Israel. The 2.8★ rating on iOS signals that current monetization tactics are creating significant friction for the core user base.
Rank progression
11 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
Which niche is The Times of Israel in?
to stay informed on regional news events
Explore the full Middle East News Readers niche
Every app in this space — 1 tracked, the niche's live rankings, and Marlvel's editorial take on the job-to-be-done.
The rivals identified
Same space(4)
These apps compete as digital news platforms that prioritize real-time updates and localized content delivery for specific reader demographics.
Differentiators
- Offers a dedicated eNewspaper replica mode which provides a familiar print-style reading experience for subscribers.
- Leverages the robust Gannett infrastructure to maintain higher user ratings and consistent feature parity across platforms.
Both applications serve as primary news aggregation hubs, utilizing push notifications to drive daily engagement and reader retention.
Differentiators
- Includes an integrated offline reading feature that allows users to cache content for consumption without connectivity.
- Maintains a significantly higher user sentiment score, likely due to more stable performance and frequent maintenance updates.
This app competes for the same news-consuming audience by offering a similar suite of digital journalism tools and notification-based alerts.
Differentiators
- Provides a standardized eNewspaper interface that simplifies the transition for legacy print readers moving to mobile.
- Benefits from a larger volume of user reviews, suggesting a more established and active community of daily readers.
These platforms share a common functional architecture focused on delivering breaking news alerts and in-depth reporting to mobile users.
Differentiators
- Features a streamlined offline reading capability that outperforms the target app in terms of reliability and accessibility.
- Utilizes a proven Gannett-wide design language that ensures a consistent and intuitive user experience across all devices.
Compare The Times of Israel against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for The Times of Israel
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Editorial authority in the Middle East news category sustains a loyal, niche-focused reader base
Critical Frictions
- 2.8★ iOS rating reflects deep technical debt
- Persistent login loops for paid members erode trust
Growth Levers
- Native tablet interface support would capture the high-value demographic currently underserved by mobile-only layouts
Market Threats
- Gannett-backed local news apps leverage superior offline-caching infrastructure to siphon daily-habit readers
What are the next best moves?
Audit ad-serving SDKs because deceptive full-screen pop-ups are the #1 complaint theme → reduce churn
High-frequency complaints regarding intrusive ads directly correlate with negative sentiment score of 35.
Trade-off: Pause the development of new podcast features — ad-blocking is a higher-priority retention risk.
Fix subscriber login loops because they prevent access to paid ad-free content → increase retention
Subscribers report paying for ad-free service but still seeing ads due to login failures.
Trade-off: Delay the tablet interface rollout — fixing core access is essential for revenue stability.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's #171 chart position in News is a liability, not a win, because it exposes a technically unstable product to a broader audience that will churn faster than the loyal core.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Offline reading capability (available in News-Leader but missing here)
- Standardized eNewspaper interface (available in South Bend Tribune but missing here)
Key Takeaways
The app maintains a strong editorial moat but suffers from severe technical instability and aggressive ad-monetization, so the PM must prioritize fixing subscriber login loops to prevent revenue leakage.
Where Is It Heading?
Mixed Signals
The news category is consolidating around platforms that offer stable, offline-capable reading experiences. The Times of Israel remains exposed to churn due to its reliance on intrusive ad-monetization and poor technical performance, so growth will likely stall unless the team pivots from feature expansion to core stability.
Persistent technical instability and login failures in the latest release erode the daily habit, which compounds the rating drag already visible on iOS.
Recent chart entries in the News & Magazines category indicate that the core editorial content remains a strong draw for new users.