OAN Live

My Experience with OAN Live

What surprised me most was how basic everything felt. I saw it had a decent rating on the Play Store on my OnePlus 11, so I figured it was worth a look. For two weeks, I used it to catch their evening broadcasts while making dinner. The stream itself never froze on me, which is the absolute minimum I expect. But using the app never felt smooth. It’s functional in the way a old tool is—it gets the job done, but you’re constantly aware you’re using it. I remember last Thursday specifically, I wanted to rewatch a segment from earlier in the day. Finding it was a chore of endless scrolling, and when I finally hit play, the video took a few seconds to load with just a blank screen. It’s little frustrations like that, every single time you use it, that add up.

Features Worth Noting

Let’s talk about what actually works. The live TV stream is reliable. I never had it cut out during a major report, even when my Wi-Fi got a bit spotty. That’s the core feature, and it delivers. I also really tested the offline download. Before heading to my mom’s house where the cell service is terrible, I downloaded a couple of their longer interview shows. They played back perfectly without a connection, no issues at all. That’s a genuinely useful feature for anyone commuting or traveling. The notifications can be set for breaking news, and I got one about a Senate vote that was actually timely. It’s not packed with bells and whistles, but the essential streaming and download tools do what they say.

What Needs Work

The user interface is dated and awkward. Buttons are too small, making it easy to tap the wrong menu icon, especially on a phone. There’s no way to filter the video library by length or date beyond just a massive, endless list. I wanted to find quick news clips under five minutes and just gave up. The Picture-in-Picture mode on my OnePlus was a mess. I tried to check a text message while the stream kept playing, and the tiny PiP window had no controls. I had to go all the way back into the app just to pause it. It feels like an app designed for a tablet ten years ago and just shrunk down for phones.

Pricing

It’s free. I’ll always test every feature of a free app before even considering paying, and here, there’s nothing to pay for. You get the full live stream and their entire video archive without a subscription. The trade-off is ads. You’ll get pre-roll video ads, similar to watching on their website. For the price of zero dollars, getting full access to their broadcast content is fair value. You’re not getting a premium experience, but you’re also not being asked for a credit card. As a budget user, I appreciate that transparency—what you see is what you get.

Developer Notes

Herring Networks Inc. puts out updates every few months, usually just labeled “bug fixes and performance improvements.” The app didn’t crash on me, so they’re keeping it stable. My big issue was with support. I had a problem where a downloaded video showed an error. I used the in-app contact form, detailing my phone model and the exact error. Two days later, I got a one-line email back: “We are looking into this.” That was over a week ago. No follow-up, no solution. It left me feeling like if you have a real problem, you’re on your own. They maintain the app, but they don’t seem to support the users.

Security & Privacy

The app asks for pretty standard permissions: network access to stream and storage access to save downloads. I always check the app’s listing on the Play Store for their data safety section. It says they collect device ID and diagnostic data, which is common, but the listing is fairly vague about what’s shared with third parties. There’s no obvious sign of shady data mining, but the privacy policy is a legal document you’d have to dig through yourself. For a free news app, it seems par for the course—not alarmingly invasive, but not championing privacy either. I didn’t feel comfortable using it for anything beyond watching the news.