FOX13 Memphis

Review by eFreeware

Local news rarely arrives on your schedule. A storm shifts, a highway closes, a county commission votes, and by the time a bulletin reaches you the details have already moved on. That gap between what is happening and what you know about it is the problem a dedicated local news app is meant to close, and it is the job FOX13 Memphis sets out to do for the Mid-South.

FOX13 Memphis is published by Standard Media Group and carries the WHBQ call letters. It is a free app in the News & Magazines category, supported by advertising, with no in-app purchases. It has been available since July 2010 and has passed 100,000 installs, holding a 3.7 average across 3,184 ratings at the time of writing.

What the developer promises is round-the-clock coverage of the region, delivered through live and on-demand video alongside written reporting. The appeal is not novelty but proximity: a feed tuned to the counties either side of the Mississippi rather than a national digest that treats Memphis as a footnote.

Weather you can plan a day around

Weather is the part of the app I would expect most people to open first. The developer describes minute-by-minute conditions through the station's Clearview Radar, paired with a five-day forecast. That combination is the standard shape of a local weather tool: a radar view for what is falling now, and a shorter outlook for deciding what the rest of the week looks like.

The value of minute-by-minute detail is that it answers a narrower question than a daily forecast does. Whether a band of rain clears your part of Shelby County before you leave, or whether it is still overhead when you do, is the kind of thing a radar loop handles better than a high and low temperature. The five-day forecast covers the planning side, from school runs to weekend errands.

I would treat the radar as the reason to keep this app rather than a general weather service. It is tied to the station's own coverage area, so the granularity is aimed at the Mid-South rather than anywhere you happen to be standing.

Drive times and the daily commute

The second job the app takes on is getting you where you are going on time. The app promises travel times to and from the Mid-South, which is a more specific claim than a general traffic map. It speaks to the routes people actually take, the ones that feed into and out of the metro area.

That framing is useful because traffic information is only as good as its relevance. A regional congestion layer is interesting; knowing whether your usual route is moving is what changes your departure time. Drive times are a core feature rather than an afterthought, which suggests they are meant to be checked before you leave rather than consulted once you are already stuck.

Anyone who crosses between states regularly will get more out of this than someone whose travel stays inside one neighborhood. The routes in and out of the region are where the feature does its work.

News from three states, not one

The editorial scope is wider than a single city. Coverage includes Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, with Shelby, Tunica, Fayette, Quitman, Crittenden and DeSoto counties named as the areas served. That is a deliberate footprint: the Memphis metro spills across state lines, and a news product built for it has to follow the story wherever it lands.

Alongside the local reporting, the app carries national and world news with an eye on what it means for viewers here. Content is easy to share out to Twitter and Facebook, which fits the way local stories travel now, from a station's feed into the group chats and timelines of people who live in the area.

Live and on-demand video sits at the center of this. Watching a briefing as it happens and catching the same segment later are two different habits, and the app is built to serve both.

What the app asks of your phone

There is little to arrange before use. No account or sign-up routine is described, so the expectation is that you install it and start reading. The app is rated for Everyone and carries no in-app purchases.

Two disclosures are worth reading before you install. Continued GPS use in the background can noticeably reduce battery life, which is the usual trade-off for location-aware features such as drive times. The app also includes Nielsen's measurement software, which allows you to contribute to market research in the vein of television ratings, with a privacy page at nielsen.com/digitalprivacy for the details.

Advertising is part of the package, as the free price indicates. The most recent update, dated July 2026, is described simply as bug fixes and general improvements.

Who this fits

This is a regional product, and it works best for people whose lives are already tied to the Mid-South. If you live in one of the named counties, commute across the state lines, or have family spread between Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi, the coverage is aimed directly at you. The weather radar and drive times assume that same geography.

It also suits people who want their news in video form. The live and on-demand streams mean you can watch a broadcast rather than read a summary, which is a different relationship with the story than a text feed provides. And because sharing is built in, it fits readers who pass local stories along to friends and neighbors.

Someone who wants national coverage first and local news occasionally will find the balance tilted the other way. The app is organized around the region, with wider news folded in through the lens of what it means for people there.

A regional news app that knows its territory

FOX13 Memphis is a straightforward proposition: free local news, weather and traffic for a specific part of the country, with live video at the center of it. The Clearview Radar and five-day forecast handle the weather question, live drive times handle the roads, and the reporting stretches across three states and six named counties. With more than 100,000 installs and a 3.7 average from 3,184 ratings, it has found a steady audience without claiming to be anything broader than it is.

The caveats are the ones that come with the format. Ads are present, the app includes Nielsen measurement software, and background GPS use can take a toll on battery life. None of that is unusual for a free station app, but all of it is worth knowing before you install.

My recommendation is for readers inside the coverage area who want local news as it happens, particularly those who check the radar and the drive times as part of a daily routine. If the Mid-South is home, this is built for you.

What's new

This release includes bug fixes and improvements to improve your experience.