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With the best News apps for Android and iOS, you’ll always know what’s going on. Many people now get their news from aggregator apps on their phones instead of websites or newspapers. But finding the right one is still, surprisingly, not an easy task. Today, it’s not hard to find out what’s going on in the world.
With the internet and social media, it’s almost impossible to live under a rock and not know what’s going on. When looking for the best news app, there are a lot of things to keep an eye out for, such as smart algorithms, dark themes, options for offloading, and more. Here are the best news apps for Android and iPhone, to help you decide which one to use.
Best News Apps Comparison Table
Google News
| Feature | |
|---|---|
| Personalized News | Google News uses your browsing history and interests to curate personalized news articles for you. |
| Comprehensive Coverage | Provides news from a wide range of sources, including reputable publishers and local news outlets. |
| News Alerts | Allows users to set up custom news alerts for specific topics or keywords. |
| Newsstand | Provides access to digital subscriptions of various publications for an enhanced reading experience. |
It shouldn’t come as a surprise that search giant Google also has a news reader app. Its Google News app uses the company’s expertise in big data to try to bring you the most relevant news, features, and local stories. Overall, it is one of the best News Apps that you can download.
Google News gives readers a customized news briefing of the top five stories that changes throughout the day based on global news, local news, your interests, and a newsfeed of other content. We like the “Full Coverage” button below each headline card, which brings up other views and articles about the same topic.
- News that is specific to your interests.
- Wide coverage from sources you can trust.
- Personalized news alerts about certain topics.
- Access to digital subscriptions, which make reading more enjoyable.
- Personalization could lead to a “filter bubble” that keeps people from seeing different points of view.
- For some features to work, you may need a Google account.
The Good
The Bad
Apple News
| Feature | |
|---|---|
| Apple News+ | Offers a subscription service for access to premium news and magazine content from various publishers. |
| Personalized Feed | Provides a personalized news feed based on your interests, reading habits, and Apple News+ subscription. |
| News Channels | Allows users to follow specific news channels for curated content on topics of interest. |
| Offline Reading | Supports offline reading for articles saved to your reading list |
The Apple News app is already on your iPhone or iPad. It gives you a lot of news stories from many different sources. Editor-curated feeds keep you up to date on the latest news and articles of special interest, while a personalized newsfeed lets you choose the topics you’re most interested in.
Based on what you read, the Feed learns and gets better at what it shows you. With iOS 14, you can get news headlines on your home screen without even opening the app. But Apple has added News Plus to its new app in 2019 as part of its push into services.
- With an Apple News+ subscription, you can get access to the best news and magazine content.
- Customized news feed based on what you’re interested in.
- Follow specific news channels to get content that has been picked out for you.
- Articles on your reading list can be read offline.
- To get full access to premium content, you have to pay for a subscription.
- Devices and platforms from Apple only.
The Good
The Bad
Microsoft Start
| Feature | |
|---|---|
| Personalized News | Provides personalized news articles based on your interests, browsing history, and location. |
| News Aggregator | Curates news from various sources, including reputable publishers and local news outlets. |
| Customizable Feed | Allows users to customize their news feed by adding or removing topics of interest. |
| News Widget | Provides a news widget for quick access to headlines and updates from your home screen. |
In many ways, Microsoft’s way of putting together news is like Google News. It, too, figures out your interests and favorite sources based on what you read. You can, of course, change these topics by hand and even look for specific ones.
News is shown on two main tabs: News and Home. On the Home tab, you’ll find Top Stories and Trending Stories. On the News tab, you’ll find Daily Briefing and your favorite topics. You can also open several tabs at once and easily manage them in the Tabs section.
- Customized news based on what you like, what you’ve looked at before, and where you are.
- Full news coverage from many different sources.
- Customizable feeds let you get news that fits your needs.
- The news widget makes it easy to get to the news from the home screen.
- For full functionality, you may need a Microsoft account.
- Only Microsoft platforms are allowed.
The Good
The Bad
| Feature | |
|---|---|
| Magazine-style Layout | Presents news articles in a visually appealing magazine-style layout with images and captions. |
| Topics and Magazines | Allows users to follow specific topics or create their own magazines to curate content. |
| Social Media Integration | Integrates with social media platforms, allowing users to discover and share news articles. |
| Daily Edition | Provides a curated collection of top stories and articles in a daily edition for quick updates. |
Flipboard is more visual and tries to make you feel like you’re reading a real magazine. That means the news feed has real page flip animations and everything is set up in big grids. The app has a number of editorial tabs like The Daily Edition and Flipboard Picks that are put together by people.
You can save posts to read later or mark them as a favorite. Also, the app lets you follow certain topics and make your own magazines, which you can then make public so that everyone can read them. Overall, it is one of the best News Apps that you can download.
- The layout looks like a magazine, which makes reading more interesting.
- You can follow certain topics or make your own magazines.
- With social media integration, news articles are easy to find and share.
- Get the daily edition for quick updates on the biggest news.
- Content is based on topics and magazines and cannot be changed.
- You might need an account to use all of the features.
The Good
The Bad
Ground News
| Feature | |
|---|---|
| News Comparison | Provides news articles from different sources to compare coverage and perspectives. |
| Media Bias Ratings | Offers media bias ratings for news sources to help users identify potential biases. |
| News Map | Presents news articles on a map to view coverage by location and source. |
| Trending News | Highlights trending news articles based on user interactions and engagement. |
Ground News looks a little boring, but the app makes up for that in other ways. The first paragraph of each article is a summary called the Ground Summary. It gives you a little more information than a headline so you can decide if you want to read the whole story.
Ground News is proud of the fact that it shows many different points of view, and we saw this in its Across the Spectrum and Factuality features. When we scrolled past the “Full Coverage” section of an article, we saw three bars of different lengths and colors.
- Allows you to compare news stories from different sources to get a more complete picture.
- It gives ratings of media bias to help users spot possible biases in news coverage.
- Puts news stories on a map so you can see where and how they are covered.
- Shows trending news articles so that you can get up-to-date quickly on popular topics.
- May not have all news sources, which could limit how much is covered.
- Media bias ratings can be different for different people.
- Trending news may not always have the most accurate or reliable information.
The Good
The Bad
NewsBreak
| Feature | |
|---|---|
| Local News | Provides personalized local news coverage based on user location. |
| Customized News Feed | Curates news articles based on user interests, browsing history, and engagement. |
| News Alerts | Sends customizable news alerts for breaking news and updates on topics of interest. |
| Video News | Offers video news coverage for a multimedia news experience. |
At first glance, what stood out to me about NewsBreak was the tab that was only for local news (including a neat weather report). But the other tabs at the top of the screen let you look into a wide range of news stories from all over the world.
As we went through the feeds, it seemed simple. Instead of being flooded with lines and lines of text, NewsBreak breaks each article into its own card with a large image and title. Each article on NewsBreak has a “thumbs up” button and a comment section.
- Offers customized local news coverage based on where the user is so that relevant updates can be shown.
- Customized news feed based on the user’s interests, browsing history, and how much they interact with it.
- Customizable news alerts for breaking news and new information on interesting topics.
- Provides video news coverage for a multi-media news experience.
- Local news only, depending on where the user is.
- Customized news feeds could lead to a “filter bubble” that keeps people from seeing different points of view.
- Not all video news reports give in-depth analysis or background.
The Good
The Bad
| Feature | |
|---|---|
| Real-time News Updates | Provides real-time news updates from various sources and users around the world. |
| Trending News | Highlights trending news topics and hashtags for quick access to popular discussions. |
| News Alerts | Allows users to follow specific news accounts or hashtags for customized news alerts. |
| Social Media Integration | Integrates with social media platforms, allowing users to discover and share news articles. |
Well, this is an unexpected entry, but Twitter does have its own way to organize feeds. It’s called “Lists.” Traditional news apps only let you add news publications. Twitter Lists, on the other hand, lets you follow your favorite journalists and keep an eye on what they tweet about a news event to give you more information.
Another benefit is that you can choose to keep your news Lists open or share them with other people by setting the status to Public. But if making a List from scratch seems like a lot of work, you can just follow the public Lists that other people have made.
- Real-time news updates let you know what’s going on right now.
- It shows trending news topics and hashtags so that people can quickly find popular conversations.
- Follow specific news accounts or hashtags to get news alerts that fit your needs.
- With social media integration, news articles are easy to find and share.
- Not all news updates can always be trusted or checked.
- Trending topics and hashtags might not always show the most important or correct news.
- Because updates happen in real time, there is too much information.
The Good
The Bad
| Feature | |
|---|---|
| Save and Discover Content | Allows users to save articles, videos, and web pages for later viewing and discovery. |
| Offline Reading | Supports offline reading for saved content, allowing users to access articles even without internet connection. |
| Personalized Recommendations | Provides personalized content recommendations based on user interests and browsing history. |
| Multi-device Sync | Syncs saved content across multiple devices for seamless access on different platforms. |
Pocket may sound like a bookmarking or “read it later” service, but it does a lot more. Mozilla bought Pocket and then made it a big part of its Firefox browser. But you can also get it as an extension for Chrome and Safari, which lets you save content from the web to the app.
In the app, you can switch to a Tile view to see the content as a row of text or as highlights with thumbnails. Content like articles, videos, the best of, and what’s popular is automatically put into different types in Pocket.
- Users can save and find content to watch later and get to it easily.
- Supports offline reading, so users can read content they’ve saved even when they don’t have an internet connection.
- Offers suggestions that are tailored to the user’s interests and browsing history.
- Syncs saved content across multiple devices so that it can be accessed easily on all of them.
- Content has to be saved by hand, which may not be ideal for users who would rather have their content saved automatically.
- May not cover all types of content, such as news articles or posts on social media, in depth.
The Good
The Bad
FAQs
If you want the best apps for keeping up with current events and getting the latest news, your best bets are Inshorts, Daily hunt, and Google News.
Here are the best free news apps for iPhone and Android, including Google News, Apple News, Flipboard, Feedly, and some lesser-known gems.
The 1NEWS app is free, so you can get the news you care about no matter where you are. New Zealand’s most trusted news source will keep you up to date with breaking news, in-depth analysis, and journalism that has won awards.