The new National Geographic app looks nice, but still needs a bit of work

National Geographic launched a new app for folks in the U.S. and Canada. The app replaces the current National Geographic magazine app and looks very clean, but it needs just a bit more time in the oven.

Opening the app brings you to the Home section, which features four tabs: For You, Read, Look, and Watch. As the name suggests, the For You tab is a list of personalized and curated content that updates as you consume more stories.

If curation isn’t your jam, the Read and Look tabs let you read articles and look at pictures, respectively. The Watch tab contains numerous National Geographic clips. You’ll still have to download the Nat Geo TV app if you want full episodes.

The next app section is Magazine, which contains National Geographic’s current and previous magazines. You can even go all the way back to the original issue in 1888.

The last two sections are Search — in addition to a search bar, the section contains a small list of trending topics you can search — and Settings.

The app sections and tabs help navigation remain as straightforward as possible. It also helps that the app as a whole is aesthetically pleasing, though haters of white app backgrounds should look away.

My only issue with the new National Geographic app is the performance and a bug or two in some areas. For example, the most recent National Geographic magazine didn’t show up for me after I finished watching a video in the Watch tab. I had to load in older magazines for the newest magazine to show up again.

Another bug I encountered was in the Watch tab, where the Nat Geo TV app ad at the top was absent for a few seconds after I finished a video. Finally, the Settings section was a stuttering mess before smoothing things over on its own.

I’m sure National Geographic will improve the app’s performance and squash some bugs in future updates. In the meantime, you can download the new app at the link below.