All-you-can-read app Readly has said its “performance remains strong” after its merger with French equivalent Cafeyn, despite outraged users reporting technical issues with the app.

The company said the app will not be operational on Amazon and Huawei devices for the foreseeable as a result of the merger, but that 99% of sessions have been crash-free and 97% of users successfully accessed the new app during migration.

Readly’snon-Nordic businesses were acquired by its French equivalent Cafeyn at the beginning of April, meaning Cafeyn now runs the platform in the UK, Australia, Germany and Switzerland.

Press Gazette previously reported that the merger would see an enhanced mobile app, while Cafeyn chief executive Laurent Kayser said the migration of Readly into Cafeyn’s operations would be “seamless”, “nothing will change” for publishers and the experience will be kept familiar with favourite titles and personalised recommendations.

He added that functionality developed in the French market would be “slowly” introduced, including video and AI features.

However, the transition to Cafeyn’s platform has prompted complaints that puzzle magazines are no longer interactive, data has been removed (including favourites and bookmarks), and the app is crashing or not working on certain devices.

Trustpilot reviews of Readly since the mergerstate difficulty in cancelling subscriptions, problems accessing back issues, the removal of new issue notifications and no separation of magazines and newspapers.

There are dozens of one-star reviews of Readly on Trustpilot including:Peter: “What an absolute S***show. The new app is atrocious. We can no longer access puzzles. The content is all over the place, some previous titles no longer available. Tried to cancel my subscription online and it is not allowing cancellations (surely illegal).”

Marie-Sophie von Bibra, chief marketing officer of Cafeyn, told Press Gazette: “The new Readly app, with Cafeyn integration, introduces an updated design and enhanced digital features, including a new Games section.

“Performance remains strong, with high stability, as 99% of sessions are crash free, and a seamless sign-in experience, with 97% of users successfully accessing the new app during migration. Given the scale of both user and content migration, these results are strong indicators of the platform’s robustness.“Puzzles within magazines remain available, while the new Games section introduces a more engaging, digital experience with daily games, hints, and progress tracking. We’re closely monitoring how this is received and will continue to refine the experience based on user needs.“As with any major platform migration, some disruption and differences in experience are expected while we move users onto the new Readly app. We are focused on making this transition as smooth as possible for all users.

Source: Press Gazette