The best news apps for Android and iOS
At the moment, staying up to date with the latest events is incredibly important, but many of us wouldn’t even consider buying a daily newspaper anymore. Why? Because we’ve got an app for that.
There are some great news apps for Android or iPhone that help you get the news you need when you need it.
But which is the news app for you? We’ve evaluated the best news apps, whether you use Android or iOS.
Choose your topics and tags to stay up to date with this selection of free and paid news apps.
Google News
Google News is the replacement for Google Play Newsstand, and it’s every bit as polished and smooth as you might expect. Google pulls news sources from all across the world, so you’ll likely be able to find your favorite sites and publications. The app can set up a daily briefing to give you the most important stories of the day, or you can tap Full Coverage to get everything without Google’s curation.
You can also save a story or download specific publications to read later. With an inbuilt recommendation system, Google claims that Google News will get better and more in tune with your interests the more you use it. Download now for:
Apple News
Apple News comes preloaded on every iOS device, and like most of Apple’s apps, it remains unavailable on Android platforms. The News app places a big focus on images and quick-loading videos, and publications such as The New York Times and National Geographic have partnered with the company to make their content readily available. You can also follow trends or individual topics, ranging from politics to niche topics. Apple News+ gives you access to over 300 magazines for just £10 a month, which is an absolute bargain if you love to leaf through a range of glossy mags.
Download now for: iOS
Twitter
Well, this is a surprising entry, but Twitter has a feed curation feature of its own, and it’s called Lists. Unlike traditional news apps that only allow you to add news publications, Twitter Lists lets you follow your favorite journalists and keep an eye on the additional insights they provide around a news event via their own tweets.
Another advantage is that you can choose to keep your news Lists open or share them with other people by setting the status to Public. However, if curating a List from scratch sounds like a chore, you can simply follow the public Lists created by other users. If you have a Twitter Blue subscription, you can get access to ad-free articles from publications such as Reuters, The Washington Post, The Atlantic, and Business Insider, among others.
Another key advantage of using Twitter as a news source is that one can share their opinions around a news event by using the quote tweet or reply feature. Plus, the Bookmarks feature lets you save a news-y tweet for later reading. You can create as many lists as you want, creating a separate one for each field that you dive into.
It’s clean, organized, and comprehensive. In a nutshell, Twitter provides a fulfilling news reading experience despite being a social media platform at its heart. Download now for:
Pocket
Pocket might sound like a bookmarking/read-it-later product, but there’s a lot more to it. Pocket was acquired by Mozilla and then deeply integrated within its Firefox browser. However, it’s also available as an extension for Chrome and Safari web browsers and allows you to save content from the web to the app.
In the app, you can view the content either as a row of text or highlights with thumbnails by switching to a Tile view. Pocket automatically organizes content into types like articles, videos, best of, and trending. We really love the mobile app’s offline reading feature, as well as the the Discover section where you find content based on a wide range of topic cards.
There’s even a neat voice-reader tool that lets you listen to an article. Pocket truly shines with a cross-platform approach that makes it easier to save and consume content from a wide range of devices. Pocket also offers a premium tier that comes with some neat features, like its permanent library feature, which saves a copy of a webpage even if it has been taken down.
Other perks include an ad-free reading experience and an advanced search feature that lets you search articles using identifiers such as author name, topic, keyword, or tags. For hardcore readers, Pocket’s premium tier also lets them highlight article content (accessible from a dedicated highlights section for convenience) and also customize the reading experience to their liking by tweaking the font style and spacing, among other elements. Download now for:
Inoreader
Although not as well-known as Feedly, Inoreader is a news feed tool that is available on the web as well as a mobile app. Just like Pocket and Feedly, it has social sharing features, the ability to tag stories, a distraction-free excerpt format that takes you to the source article with a single click, and multiple view formats (list, magazine, and card) to choose from. One can also sort articles based on chronology and whether they’ve been starred or read.
The number of feeds one can curate is 150, which is more than enough, but a Pro membership removes that limit entirely. Other benefits of the paid tier include a text-to-speech reader, offline reading for a handful of folders, article translation, and duplicate-removing filters. The most powerful tool, however, is Rules.
These are essentially automation commands that filter articles based on parameters like keywords, author name, and attachments, among others. Download now for: iOS Android
Ground News
This aggregator is trying something different — rather than trying to figure out the news you want to see, and serving you just that, Ground News wants to make sure you see as many sides as possible.
Click on any story and you’ll be able to scroll from left to right to see how publications are reporting the same story, making sure you’re as informed as you can be. The Blindspot feature is a particular highlight, and it shows which news stories are, in Ground News’ opinion, the most unbalanced of the week. Signing up to Pro gets you access to all the news sources, topics, and the ability to sort by bias, for just £1 a month, or £10 a year.
PressReader
Another app that brings together news, PressReader is one of the best known and most widely supported aggregators out there, with feeds for thousands of newspapers and magazines from around the world. You can get free access to some stories, but to get the most from PressReader you’re going to have to pay.
Thirty dollars a month is steep, but it gets you access to everything in PressReader, which includes a large number of specialist magazines. Otherwise, you can pay for publications as you go, or — if you’re really lucky — you can take advantage of a nearby PressReader HotSpot. Some hotels and libraries will offer complimentary access to PressReader, giving you full access to everything.
Microsoft News
Formerly known as MSN News, Microsoft News offers a lightweight and easy-to-use way to quickly get the news you need. Upon opening it for the first time, it will ask you to select the topics you’re interested in, and you can change those topics quickly at any time.
The main windows show news the app thinks is relevant to you, but you can scroll between topics at the top of the screen as well as switching to purely local news from near you. There’s a choice of light and dark themes and breaking news alerts, and you can sign in to sync your preferences across devices. It’s a great lightweight news app that just works.
AP Mobile
Associated Press covers news from all around the world, with a huge team of dedicated reporters that focus on all manners of topics and trends. The service’s companion app comes free of the usual glitz and glam that other news services offer, but for people who enjoy getting the facts and little else, it’s a useful resource.
The New York Times
Easily one of the world’s most popular news sources, the New York Times’ app contains everything you expect from a news app — breaking news alerts, offline reading, and social media sharing — but it’s also got a few features you won’t find on other apps. There are audio and video options, but one of the most forward-thinking additions is augmented reality, allowing you to gaze into David Bowie’s wardrobe, or meet world-class Olympic athletes face-to-face.
Unfortunately, getting full access isn’t free, and it’ll cost you £17 a month for basic access to all articles, though students can get a special rate, and newcomers can often benefit from special offers. If you want access to the NYT Crossword, Cooking, and a bonus publication too, you’ll need to pay £35 a month instead. Download now for:
Financial Times
One of the oldest publications around, the Financial Times is the place to go if you’re looking for the latest news on the biggest events. Where the FT stands apart from other news sources is a certain emphasis on business and the financial markets, making it perfect if you’re always keeping an eye on the latest developments in the business world. You can follow topics of particular interest, and get breaking news notifications.
BBC News
The BBC is a universally respected worldwide news organization dedicated to keeping you up to date on the latest topics and news stories. Unlike some other news sources, the BBC News app isn’t afraid to offer a bit more fun with its articles, and it also comes with a live-streaming news channel that’s baked directly into the app.
If you opt in, you’ll be alerted any time the app deems breaking news to be urgent enough to warrant your attention, making it a fantastic way to keep up to date. Download now for: iOS Android
CNN News
CNN was the first 24-hour cable news channel and its official app functions as a condensed version of the site.
It offers a wide variety of articles, and though it has a focus on U.S. audiences, you’ll also find a bunch of original CNN content that you can’t watch anywhere else. Video also plays a large part of the coverage on CNN, so fans of video news should find a lot to love here. Download now for:
SmartNews
The name is a little grandiose, but SmartNews has the brawn to back it up. The app analyzes trending stories and categorizes them, ensuring that you’re always able to look at the news you want. It aims to give you the news in one minute, and it does that well, with a clutter-free and easy-to-browse interface and an algorithm that’s good at digging up fresh content you’ll actually want to read.
Flipboard
Flipboard created a new type of reading experience on mobile and is focused on engaging the reader with the most exciting stories of the day using a magazine-style aesthetic that begs you to just keep flipping. Hundreds of publications are available on the news reader, and Flipboard offers a generous number of topics.
So, whether you’re broadly into technology, or want to know the latest Star Wars news, Flipboard has you covered. Download now for: iOS Android
Reddit
It might not be the most usual way to keep up with news, but a major global event rarely goes unnoticed on Reddit.
Reddit only launched an official app in 2016, but it quickly became one of the best ways to experience Reddit on Android and iOS. Reddit is a great way to keep up with the latest news through various subreddits — Android news is submitted to /r/Android, for instance — and users upvote popular content and comment on it. Download now for: iOS Android
Reuters
One of the most well-known news apps around and home to 2,500 reporters in 200 locations, Reuters covers absolutely everything you could think to quantify as news, so you’re unlikely to miss a thing while using this app.
It provides a personalized experience, breaking news alerts, and can even help you to keep an eye on the stock market. The Editorial Highlights feature means you catch up on events quickly, and you can choose to save an article for reading later with offline mode and a night mode. Download now for:
Inkl
Inkl is on a mission to rid you of clickbait articles and aims to curate and bring you a stream of trustworthy news. You can filter newsrooms that are most important to you so that your feed is always bringing you the articles you want to read, from the writers you care about. It’s fast and it has a very modern layout that is easy to use and it’s completely ad-free.
You do have to pay a monthly subscription fee of £10 to access the service after your seven-day free trial — but an Inkl subscription means you have access to a range of publications and is a lot cheaper than supporting each separately, especially if you like to sample a lot of different news services. Download now for: iOS Android
Al Jazeera English
Al Jazeera was the first 24-hour news channel to cover the Middle East and has become one of the most popular and established publications in the region.
It has since grown and developed, reporting on news from around the globe. The app has access to 24-hour live video coverage, clips of the biggest stories, and reams of news stories, features, and opinions from around the world. Download now for:
theScore
If you’re into sports — whether it’s the NFL, NBA, or Premier League Soccer — it’s in theScore app. It offers a huge amount of information, including detailed stats that you won’t find on many similar apps. It offers real-time scores alongside comprehensive information about your teams and players, all crammed into a good-looking interface.
If you’re looking for an app that specializes in sports, then you’ve found your choice. If you’re an iOS user, there’s an Apple Watch app as well. Download now for:
News360
News360 is one of the most well-known news aggregation apps for a reason. The app has a beautiful design and user experience with excellent content and sources. Like Flipboard, you can search by your favorite topics or new sites.
The app also integrates directly with iMessage and Apple Watch. You can connect the app to your Facebook, Twitter, and Google Plus to share the news, and it supports Pocket, Instapaper, and Evernote integration. You can also save stories for later if you don’t have time to read them right away.
News Break
News Break exploded onto the market, building quickly to an audience of 20 million active users. News Break is an aggregation service, so it pulls its articles from more abundant news sources, including CBS News, the AP, CNN, ABC, and NBC — although they also include a few smaller publications.
If you prefer to get news from specific sources, you can customize the sources the app pulls from in a few quick steps. News Break will also scour your local news sites for headlines that will affect you directly, making it an app that will keep you on top of news all around the world and close to home. Download now for:
Feedly
Feedly goes beyond the standard features of a news app and functions as an RSS reader that users can curate to show only the sources they choose. Able to utilize RSS feeds, it can find information from the largest organizations and smallest niche blogs. Feedly’s built-in A.I.-driven discovery engine also makes it a breeze to find new content and read with ease.
Download now for:
Editors’ Recommendations
