The Pope App HD app review: follow the Pope around everywhere he goes
Introduction
The Pope App HD by Pontificium Consilium de Communicationibus Socialibus, which is a Latin name for the Pope’s press office, is an app purely designed for anything and everything surrounding the Pope and the Vatican. This ranges from following his Mass live via the app, and catching up on the latest news.
What is the Pope Up to Now?
With The Pope App you can literally find out everything Pope-related. This app is really well-designed and should be something other apps should emulate. It’s really simple to navigate using a sidebar on the left. Here you can tap on Live to see any live broadcasts, including his Sundays “Angelus Domini.”
A full event calendar is also detailed on this sidebar, as well as direct messages from the Pope and an overview of his travels. Lastly, you can find a news section with anything related to all the papal business, detailing almost everything that goes on in the Vatican.
The Media Supplied by the Papal Press Office
The app doesn’t end here. Tons of different media has been released about the Pope and you can easily access all of it via this app. High resolution photos are the first stop, and with a simple tap on the share icon you can send these to all your friends using Facebook, Twitter, or the standard email.
Every day, at least three or four videos are newly uploaded to the app which show the Pope's latest adventures such as his trip to Rio de Janeiro. These videos load really quickly, are in full HD and, again, are easily shared using the aforementioned options.
Last but not least, six webcams are placed around the Vatican (including John Paul II’s tomb and the Dome of Saint Peter) which are always online and accessible via this app, so keep an eye out and you might see the Pope himself making an appearance here.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- One of the best News apps available on the App Store
- Enough content for anyone interested in the Pope
- High quality content
- Live coverage and updates
Cons
- There’s nothing I can say negatively about this app except that it’s not for everyone
Conclusion
This app must be one of the most polished apps I’ve seen out there. It has everything anyone remotely interested in papal business needs: live services, a news section, videos, images, and all the social media plugins that any app nowadays need. This was the last thing I expected.
I truly would recommend anyone in the app business to take a look and see how a truly great News app delivers content in a very efficient and well-designed way. The Pope App HD is only for iPad and is only 15 MB.
