The 7 best news apps in 2022

It’s not hard to get news these days – the internet and social media mingling with major global events have made it nearly impossible to live under a rock. But finding a reliable one stop shop for news can be a challenge.

I used to get news from TV, bookmarks from news sources and sometimes even Twitter (I know). In my quest for a better way to get rich news, I tested over 20 news aggregation apps – some great, some decent, and some not so great. After spending a few weeks with these apps, here are my picks for the 7 best news apps.

Apple News (iOS, macOS)

Apple News may not be the most loved app on this list, but it gets half a point for convenience for Apple users – the app is pre-installed on the devices, and you can let Siri suggest app-based stories. the sites you use and the sites you have visited in Safari.

I’d say Apple News is best appreciated with the $ 9.99 monthly fee as many articles about the app aren’t available to non-subscribers. Apple doesn’t hesitate to offer users the free trial and premium package – which makes many people grumble – but I think the price is justified. While you may read articles from subscription sources to other apps on this list, you will eventually have to subscribe to those publications after a certain amount of articles or worse, you will be prompted. pay the first time. However, with Apple News + not only do you get paywalled access to many of the most popular subscription news sources like The Wall Street Journal and TIME.

These audio stories are told by voice actors. The feature isn’t available for all stories because Apple does storytelling, but it’s a really nice feature – the real human voices of the actors make the news much more engaging.

You can manage your content by voting or voting, and the search and filter options are equally extensive, with results sorted by hits, articles, topics, and top sources. For example, when I searched for politics, I saw the most popular articles in the Stories section; and subcategories like World Politics and British Politics have been recommended to me in the topics.

If you like Apple News but not Apple, I suggest you try ink as an alternative to Apple News. Incl doesn’t give you free access to the app, but for $ 15 a month you’ll find an even wider selection from sources like The New York Times or Bloomberg (which currently requires a separate $ 34.99 monthly subscription to Apple News).

Apple News Price: Free; The Apple News + package costs $ 9.99 per month

Google News (iOS, Android, Web)

We all know that Google does the aesthetics well and the modern look of the Google News app definitely helps create a more enjoyable reading experience for news. It has also recently been refurbished so you know they are working to keep it fresh.

I particularly liked the full coverage panels available for larger stories – they give you a selection of sources for a current story, along with relevant tweets and videos, and even a timeline showing how events unfolded. While reading an article, you can click on the full coverage icon to learn more about that topic. This made it quick and easy to spot similar stories without having to manually search for them. It also helps ensure that you have different perspectives on a particular topic, rather than just taking one perspective as the gospel.

You can follow the topics and news sources that matter most to you, give a thumbs up or down to individual stories, and save the searches and news that matter most to you. I also liked the extensive search options, including sub-categories, recommended resources, and relevant articles, which means you’ll get more relevant news next time.

As the app features stories from paywall sources, you’ll come across some articles that require a subscription. But unlike Apple News, which only adds paid articles to entice users to pay for its premium service, Google News does well to primarily promote free content. For example, I had articles from the Wall Street Journal in my feed that I could read for free; It was only when I was looking for WSJ-specific stories that I came across the barrier of a paywall.

Google News Price: Free

Flipboard (iOS, Android, Web)

Flipboard is based on the idea of ​​creating a self-curated digital magazine – a collection of stories collected from news sources, blogs, and other sites of your choice that link to Flipboard (which pretty much all of them are). It’s limited to an RSS reader, but it’s definitely more of a news app, so it made the cut.

You can be as broad or specific as you want with Flipboard – send it to a general topic like technology or productivity, or point to a site you want to monitor and Flipboard connects everything seamlessly.

Flipboard beats other news-gathering apps in terms of UI – the flow feels natural, whether you’re looking to catch a glimpse of the day’s biggest news or dig into something that’s not covered as broadly. Podcasts, tweets, and videos can be embedded in addition to news if needed.

It’s not just for you – you can collect Flipboard articles to share with family or work teams, help other people focus on the important things in specific areas, and cut out outside noise.

Since Flipboard doesn’t have an all-inclusive subscription to access multiple publications, I found myself not seeing stories from places like the WSJ or other paid publications. Instead, Flipboard more often recommends free small publication stories.

Flipboard Price: Free; you may have to pay to watch some stories depending on the source.

Ground news (iOS, Android, web)

Ground News’s design is a bit bland, but the app definitely makes up for it in other ways.

At the beginning of each article there is a paragraph-long summary, the Basic Summary. It gives you more information than the title before deciding whether to take the time to read the story (which you can do by clicking on the resource under Full Coverage).

Ground News prides itself on presenting a wide variety of perspectives and I’ve seen it come across the Across the Spectrum and Factuality features. As I scrolled through the Full Coverage section of the article, I was greeted by three bars of different lengths and colors: blue represents politically left-wing sources, red represents politically right-wing sources, and white represents sources falling somewhere. . Town center. When you click on one of these bars, the app automatically reveals similar articles from sources that match that opinion.

Ground News also has a skewed distribution for political stories, which shows how biased a story or topic is on one side of the political spectrum. If a story seems to be rated too heavily in a party’s favor, Ground News offers a warning that the story could be a “blind spot”. To get a full report revealing multiple sources and their political biases, you need to pay for a premium membership. With the Premium package, you also receive personalized articles, which are recommended to you based, among other things, on your reading behavior.

If it’s important to you to better understand your news source’s trends and motivations, I’d say Ground News is worth the price.

Price of basic news: free; The premium plan starts at $ 3.99 per month

News Break (iOS, Android, Web)

What first struck me in News Break was a tab devoted entirely to local news (including a fresh weather report). But the other tabs at the top of the screen have a lot of topics to explore from news sources everywhere.

As I scrolled through the feeds, it was easy. Instead of bombarding it with lines and lines of text, News Break splits each article on its own tab with a large image and headline.

News Break provides a “Like” and comment function on each article. As you’d expect, people can get quite arrogant in comments on certain articles. But it’s primarily for civilian use, so if you’re into passionate news discussions, you’ll probably like this feature.

You get typical customization options, like being able to follow topics, but you can also block certain topics that don’t interest you. I mean really special. For example, for an article with Grandma’s Creamy Custard Pie recipe, I saw fewer articles with recipes, custard, or grandmothers. I have no qualms about these cute things, but it’s nice to have the ability to filter out unwanted topics.

Break News Price: Free

Yahoo News (iOS, Android, Web)

Yahoo News is beautiful – the yellow and purple flecks add some personality to the platform, which I really liked. But it’s not just about looks.

Most apps collect articles on different topics in one place, but Yahoo News organizes your feed so you can see similar articles together before moving on to the next topic.

What stands out most about Yahoo is the ability to watch news via video – there’s an entire tab for video news. In fact, if you’re like me and have the attention span of a goldfish, you’ll appreciate being able to scroll through the video you’re watching. It is brilliant.

The app allows you to occasionally watch ads while browsing the feed and articles, but since all of the app’s features are completely free, I’d say this isn’t a big drawback.

Yahoo News Price: Free

News360 (iOS, Android, Web)

News360 has been around for over a decade and does a fantastic job of collecting news from multiple sources based on your interests and preferences.

News360 is easy to connect and use, with likes and dislikes and the ability to hear your news, just like Apple News audio stories. News360 audio news is also a premium feature, but unlike Apple News, audio is available for all stories in the app, making it an accessibility win. That said, robotic and automated storytelling can take some getting used to.

Other bonuses include the ability to view articles in the News360 reader or original source. Personally, I felt the reader had a sleeker design and didn’t take as long to load as the original source sites, but it can sometimes feel more authentic to read an article on the source site.

News360 price: free; News360 Premium subscription starts at $ 1.99 per month (excluding access to paid items)