Action News 5

Review by eFreeware

The most distinctive thing about Action News 5 is how tightly it is tied to one place. This is a local news app for Memphis and the Mid-South, built by Gray Media, and it does not pretend to be a general-purpose news reader. If your interest is the region, that focus is the point; if it is not, the app has little to offer you.

It is free to install, carries ads, and offers no in-app purchases, so there is no paywall to work around and no subscription to manage. The app has been on Google Play since July 2011 and shows a 3.9 average across 1,555 ratings, with over 100,000 installs. Those numbers suggest a settled, long-running app rather than a new arrival, which is roughly what I would expect from a single-market news product.

Breaking alerts and live local coverage

The feature the developer leads with is breaking news alerts. These push notifications are the app's main reason to exist for many users: when something happens in the Memphis area, the app can tell you about it without you having to open a browser or check a website. For anyone who wants to know about local developments as they unfold, that is the core value.

The app pairs its alerts with local headlines and stories. The app gathers coverage of the Memphis and Mid-South area and presents it for reading on your phone. The developer describes the headlines as live, which in practice means the feed is meant to reflect current coverage rather than a static archive.

Together, alerts and the story feed cover the two ways people follow local news: passively, through notifications, and actively, by opening the app and browsing. Neither is unusual on its own, but the pairing is what makes a regional news app useful on a phone.

What the recent updates changed

The most recent update, dated September 9, 2026, lists three changes: improved video player behavior, a correction to how images appear in stories, and an improved layout for the app homescreen. Video and images are the two elements most likely to break a news reading experience, so these are sensible things to fix.

The homescreen layout change is the one most users will notice first, since it affects how stories are surfaced when you open the app.

The app is rated for Everyone and sits in the News & Magazines category. The app is free and ad-supported, with no paid tier.

What the app asks of you

The costs here are straightforward. The app is free to download, contains ads, and does not offer in-app purchases. That means you are paying with attention rather than money.

The other requirement is location. This is a Memphis and Mid-South news app, so its usefulness depends on whether that region matters to you. Someone living in or near Memphis, or with family and interests there, will get far more from it than someone looking for broad national or international coverage.

A news app also needs a connection to pull fresh headlines and stories.

How I would use it

If you install it, the sensible first step is to decide whether you want breaking news alerts at all. Alerts are the feature the developer highlights, and they are what make the app worth having on a phone rather than just in a browser tab. If you would rather check the news on your own schedule, the story feed still works for that.

The app is most useful as a companion to your day in the region: a way to catch up on local headlines when you have a spare moment, and to hear about major developments quickly. It is not a replacement for a full news subscription or a general reader, and it does not try to be.

Given the ad-supported model, I would go in expecting advertising alongside the coverage. That is the trade for a free app with no purchase options, and it is worth weighing against how often you actually want Memphis news.

A regional news app that knows its audience

Action News 5 is a focused, free Android app for Memphis and Mid-South news, with breaking alerts and a live local story feed as its main offerings. The recent update addresses video, images and the homescreen layout, which suggests the developer is still tending to the reading experience.

It suits people with a genuine stake in the Memphis area: residents, frequent visitors, or anyone who wants regional headlines and alerts on their phone. If that describes you, the app is a reasonable free addition. If your news interests lie elsewhere, the regional focus means there is not much here for you.

My recommendation is to install it if Memphis coverage is something you want pushed to you, and to keep expectations modest about everything else. It is a local news app, and it is built to do that one job.

What's new

Improved video player behavior Corrected issue with images in stories Improved the layout of the app homescreen