Indianapolis News from 13 WTHR

Review by eFreeware

The most distinctive thing about the WTHR app is that it is not a general news reader with an Indianapolis section bolted on. It is the official app of a single local station, the NBC affiliate serving the Indianapolis area, and everything inside it comes from that newsroom: the breaking stories, the meteorologists' forecasts, the live newscasts, the anchors' behind-the-scenes posts. For anyone living in or around that market, that focus is the whole point.

That also defines who it is for. If central Indiana is home, or you have family or property there and want to follow what is happening, a station-branded app gives you the coverage a national aggregator will never carry in detail. The app concentrates on Indianapolis-area news from one local station, so it suits readers who follow that market closely.

It is free to download and it carries advertising. There are no in-app purchases, so nothing is sold inside the app once it is installed.

News coverage built around one newsroom

The core of the app is a local news feed that updates as stories develop, with push notifications for breaking news so you hear about major events in your area without opening the app. Alongside the day-to-day reporting, the station highlights its investigative work, which is often the material you cannot get from a wire service summary.

The app also carries a visual side to the reporting: photo galleries, news clips and raw video. Raw footage is a specific thing, and it appeals to readers who want to see what was captured at a scene rather than a packaged two-minute segment.

You can share stories and videos with friends and family directly from the app, which matters if you are the person in your circle who passes along local updates. The app also surfaces posts and photos from the station's anchors and reporters, so the people delivering the news are visible as personalities rather than bylines.

There is a personalization layer on top of all this. You can browse topics and mark favorites so the app can tailor updates toward what you follow, which is a reasonable way to keep a busy local feed from feeling like a firehose.

Weather, radar and the alerts that matter most

Weather is treated as a first-class feature rather than an afterthought. The app provides daily and hourly forecasts for your city, drawn from the station's own meteorologists rather than a generic feed, and it includes interactive radar maps you can pan around during a storm.

The feature I would point to first for anyone in the Midwest is the signup for government-issued severe weather alerts for your area. That is the kind of notification people actually want on their phone when conditions turn, and having it inside the same app as the forecast and the radar keeps the whole picture in one place.

School delays and closings are covered as they are announced. For parents and anyone whose morning depends on whether the district is running on time, that is often the single most checked item on a winter morning, and it sits alongside the weather tools rather than buried in the news feed.

Live video from the newscasts

The app streams live video from WTHR's newscasts and from breaking news coverage. That means you can follow a scheduled broadcast or a developing event without being near a television, which is the practical advantage of a station app over a text-only news source.

Live coverage and breaking video are the parts that reward a decent connection, and they are the reason the app is worth having installed even if you mostly read headlines. When something significant happens in the area, the stream is where the station's resources show.

What the free download includes

The trade-off is advertising: the app contains ads, which is the standard arrangement for a free local news product.

You are not deciding between a free version and a subscription here, and there is nothing described that unlocks with a payment. What you get on install is what the station offers.

The app has been on Google Play since March 2012 and was most recently updated on October 5, 2026, with the developer listing bug fixes and improvements for that release. It has more than 100,000 installs and an average rating of 3.3 from 4,066 ratings, which is a middling score for a news app and worth keeping in mind if ratings matter to you.

How it compares with other ways to follow Indianapolis

The realistic alternatives are a national news app with a local section, a general weather app, or the station's website in a browser. A national app will give you broader coverage and a more polished general-purpose reading experience, but it will not carry the depth of reporting from one local newsroom, and it will not stream that station's newscasts.

A dedicated weather app can go deeper on forecasts and radar than a news app typically does, but it will not bring you the investigative stories, the school closings in context, or the live breaking coverage. A browser bookmark costs nothing and needs no install, but it does not deliver breaking news notifications or severe weather alerts to your phone in the same way.

What the WTHR app offers is consolidation: one free install that covers local reporting, forecasts, radar, alerts, closings and live video from a single source. Whether that is better than spreading the same tasks across two or three other apps depends on how much you value having them together and how much you trust this particular newsroom.

A focused pick for central Indiana readers

I would suggest the WTHR app to people who live in or regularly follow the Indianapolis area and want local news, weather and live video from the station that produces them. The combination of severe weather alert signup, school closings and interactive radar gives it a practical role beyond reading headlines, and the free download with no in-app purchases keeps the decision simple.

The reservations are straightforward. Ads are part of the deal, the coverage is tied to one market and one newsroom, and the 3.3 average from 4,066 ratings suggests the experience does not satisfy everyone. If you are outside central Indiana, or you want a broad national news feed rather than a single station's output, this app's narrow purpose will not serve you well.

For the audience it is built for, though, the appeal is clear: one free app for the news, the forecast and the live broadcast from the people covering your area every day.

What's new in version 50.29.1

Bug Fixes and Improvements.