KARE 11 News

Review by eFreeware

If you live in the Twin Cities, elsewhere in Minnesota or across the border in western Wisconsin, this app is built with you in mind. KARE 11 News is the free official app of the local NBC affiliate, and it gathers the station's news, live video and weather into one place on your phone. The appeal is straightforward: the same newsroom that produces the broadcasts also feeds the app, so stories, forecasts and live streams come from people covering that specific region rather than a national desk.

That regional focus is the whole point. The developer describes coverage of breaking news, interactive weather and radar, and live video from newscasts and local events, all aimed at the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and the surrounding communities. For anyone who follows local government, school districts, storms or the station's on-air personalities, everything here is meant to reinforce that habit rather than replace it with a generic feed.

A local news app for residents of the Twin Cities region

The clearest audience is people who already treat KARE 11 as a source of record for their area. If you check the station's website or watch its newscasts, having the same coverage on your phone means you can catch up during a work break, at the kitchen table or while running errands without hunting through a browser. The app is also pitched at families who need practical, time-sensitive information: the developer lists school delays and closings among its features, which matters most on messy winter mornings.

Weather is the second reason to keep it installed. The developer promises daily and hourly forecasts for your city, updates from the station's meteorologists, interactive radar maps and automated hyperlocal severe weather alerts. That combination suits anyone who wants storm warnings tied to where they actually are, not a statewide average.

The app is free, and there are no in-app purchases to consider. It has been downloaded more than 100,000 times and holds a 4.1 average from 2,922 ratings, with 920 written reviews. Those numbers suggest a settled, widely used app rather than a novelty, though they also tell you it is a regional product: the value depends entirely on whether this station covers where you live.

Breaking news, investigations and video in one feed

News is the core of the app. There is also a visual side: photos, news clips and raw video sit alongside written stories, which is useful when a picture or a short clip explains something faster than a paragraph can.

Personalization is where the app tries to stay relevant over time. You can discover topics that matter to you and mark favorites so updates follow your interests instead of a single chronological stream. Sharing is built in as well, so a story or video can go straight to friends and family when something affects them too.

Behind-the-scenes photos and updates from the station's anchors and reporters are part of the app as well. That is a lighter feature, but it fits the way local television works: viewers often follow individual personalities, and this gives those personalities a place in the app beyond the broadcast.

Live video and a weather toolkit built for storm season

Live video is the feature that separates a broadcaster's app from a text-based news feed. You can watch live newscasts and breaking news coverage from KARE 11 as it happens, along with video from local events. When a story is unfolding in your area, watching the station's own stream is often more informative than reading updates written after the fact.

The weather section goes deeper than a daily high. Forecasts arrive daily and hourly for your city, with the station's meteorologists providing the latest outlooks, interactive radar maps for tracking what is moving in, and automated severe weather alerts. For anyone in a part of Minnesota or western Wisconsin that sees fast-changing conditions, those alerts are likely to be the most-used part of the app.

School delays and closings round out the practical side. Districts across the region call these decisions early, and having them in the same app as the forecast and the news means one place to check before the day starts rather than three.

What the app costs and how it is funded

KARE 11 News is free to download and use, with no in-app purchases. The app does contain advertising. That is the entire cost picture.

For a regional news app, that arrangement is easy to understand. You get the station's reporting, its live streams and its weather tools at no charge. Anyone who already watches the newscasts will recognize the model.

How it compares with other ways of following local news

The obvious alternative is the station's own website, which carries much of the same reporting in a browser. The app adds convenience: notifications that reach you without opening a tab, live video in a dedicated player, and radar and alerts formatted for a phone screen. If you rarely check the site, the app is the more direct route to the same newsroom.

A general news aggregator is the other comparison, and the trade-off runs the other way. A broad aggregator pulls from many outlets but treats Minneapolis-St. Paul as one market among many. This app is the opposite: narrower in scope, deeper in local detail, with the station's meteorologists, its investigative pieces and its school closing information in one place.

A dedicated weather app is a third option, and it can go deeper on forecasting than a news app generally does. What it will not carry is the reporting, the live newscasts or the anchor and reporter updates. Which of these you prefer comes down to whether you want the station's coverage bundled with its weather, or weather on its own.

A dependable choice for Twin Cities viewers

KARE 11 News does one job and does it for one region: it puts a local NBC affiliate's news, live video and weather on your phone for free. The features line up with what residents actually need day to day, from breaking news notifications and investigative stories to hourly forecasts, interactive radar, hyperlocal severe weather alerts and school closings. Personalization and sharing keep it from being a static feed.

The trade-offs are equally clear. Advertising is present, coverage is limited to the Minneapolis-St. Paul area, greater Minnesota and western Wisconsin, and the weather tools sit alongside the news rather than replacing a specialized forecasting app. The app was released in December 2012 and was last updated on October 5, 2026, with the most recent changes described as bug fixes and improvements.

If you live in or regularly travel through the station's coverage area and want its reporting and forecasts in one place, this is a sensible install. If your interest is national news or a different region, the app's focus works against you. For the audience it is built for, it covers the essentials without asking for money.

What's new in version 50.29.1

Bug Fixes and Improvements.