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SmartNews: Local Breaking News

SmartNews: Local Breaking News

SmartNews, Inc.

Breaking local news and weather forecasts from your neighborhood.

Google Play Free App Store Free
4.4 Ratings 1M+ Reviews 10M+ Downloads

Ratings & Reviews

4.4
1.1M+ Ratings
5
63+%
4
21+%
3
8+%
2
3+%
1
5+%

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  • img Community
    Finding credibly sourced news can be difficult especially if you spend 1-2 hours on social media everyday. Don't worry about clicking on news sources there. Instead open this and know that you are getting breaking news with facts and no fluff.
    img by Christina
    1 year ago
  • img Community
    Running for office can be difficult with keeping up with your public image, and listening to 100s or 1000s of opinions and what they want you to achieve. Stay up to date with all the major issues so you know how to help your voters.
    img by David
    1 year ago
  • img Community

    We’ll call it SmartNews! Laughable. Apr 24, 2021

    By J
    Just in case you don’t get enough CNN / MSDNC, now you can get it all in an App that legitimizes the Huffington post as a cutting edge news source.
  • img Expert
    1. Award-winning news app downloaded over 25,000,000 times in over 100 countries
    2. Condenses and delivers headlines from top news outlets: NBC, MSNBC, USA Today, TIME, Reuters, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and more
    3. “Browse headlines quickly, customize your channels, and read the news offline...an excellent free alternative to other popular news apps.” - CNET

    Reviewed by Laura S on January 11, 2018

  • Smart News is really smart May 30, 2018

    By ediemillerangelo
    I was apparently one of the first regular user of the app and shared articles on Twitter constantly. 3 or 4 of the developers asked me for an interview via Skype and what Interested ME, was that they were all very young and what interested THEM was WHY I was so interested in the news. An earlier reviewer cited being fed too much liberal news and she should be happy with the addition of NEWSMAX which is definitely right leaning. Early on the developers said the algorithms choose the articles in your feed by the articles you actually read and your interest profile is just algorithms doing what they do but you have the option to choose a tab and read any article from any of the magazine you have added. I asked them to please keep it that was and not to start choosing ( as Facebook does ) articles to put forth an agenda, especially not a political agenda. So far I don’t see it happening. I have pretty eclectic interests and really enjoy the variety I have to choose from. This app also gives you the ability to swipe over to Reader View and read the articles without the annoying advertisements. All in all I hardly use any of my other news apps. I am afraid to count how many tabs I have on my home page! Love it!!

  • Jul 29, 2021

    By Douglas Fells
    I love this news app. It allows you to follow your favorite news sites, but also general topics such as politics, U.S. news, international news, sports topics. There's so many topics and news sources within this app. Everyone should have this app on their favorite device! I am very cautious about what apps I install, and I rarely leave comments about the apps I use, but this one deserves a 5 star review. So many news sources and general topics you can follow. I highly recommend it to everyone!

  • Love!!! Aug 28, 2020

    By ColeyDets
    I love reading the news - but I hate news with an agenda. Before SmartNews, I had my local Fox News app, which is about as non-bipartisan as you can get. The reason I love SmartNews is because it gives me ALL the news...all sides, from literally all media outlets. I can go to the local tab (includes everything from the local Fox plus much more) or see what’s happening in our government, or the world, or to look at funny memes and animal pic compilations. I love how it’s not all doom-and-gloom news, they include the feel-good news, too! It’s amazing!!! I would highly recommend this app to anyone, 10-stars, big thumbs up 👍👍👍👍👍👍 P.S. I LOVE the recently read feature!!! 👏👏👏 Edit: I looked over some other reviewers and I’m completely floored that people would say this app has an agenda!! Every article is from its original source, so it’s clear where the article came from. If you get triggered by one side or the other, then go into your settings and adjust the scale so that you get what you want 🙂👍

  • A couple bugs and a suggestion Sep 20, 2020

    By tmanokc
    I recently reset my iPad’s settings and content, and upon reinstalling SmartNews, the app’s notifications won’t push anymore. It misses the scheduled update notification times and doesn’t display breaking news notifications. Stories aren’t even being put in the inbox. Also, for a long time, some stories featured on the app are unable to display the full article text in “smart mode”, either omitting paragraphs or not being parsed at all or correctly to display the complete text featured in the original source page. Oddly, the notifications were still working properly when I upgraded my iPad from iPadOS 13.7 to 14.0 after the latter OS was released, with the most recent SmartNews update installed. Also, I’d like to suggest changes to the weather page to include a summary of the current weather observations (adding dew point, wind, barometric pressure, “feels like” temperature, visibility and humidity, along with sky conditions and air temperature). The current format of putting just the current temperature and sky conditions in the hourly forecast panel just doesn’t make sense, given that the weather page provides more detailed information on the forecast while only providing the bare minimum when it comes to current conditions.

  • Jul 27, 2021

    By Steven Carnahan
    To those whose complaints are about ads.... This is a FREE APP, they need a way to maintain it. If it's too much for you, there is an option to view the same article in your web browser if you click it. This app does what it says it does. It gives you the news articles it's algorithm thinks best suits your consumption. I've used it for years, and honestly, the ads don't bother me at all. Anyone with common sense knows how to avoid them and how to spot the stories that aren't actual stories.

  • Would give 5 but... Nov 21, 2019

    By Upsetusernumber99
    First off, to anyone complaining about it being “left leaning,” use your head for more than five seconds and control your emotions. I mean that seriously. The app is customizable to allow you to choose the exact news sources you want to see, provided they are in the app. Even if (not saying it is), the app is “left leaning”, do what I do. Just read from sources you trust, just add the right leaning channels. Or, get a bit of balance and have both sides presented before you when you open the app.. which is kinda the point of the app if you’ve seen the commercials. Anyways, I would give 5 stars if there’s a bit more customization. Customization on notifications, frequency of notifications, notifications for new stories from specific channels, etc. And, I would love a “Save for Later” feature. I often find myself opening the app, scrolling through, and seeing several headlines that sound interesting but I don’t have the time or just don’t want to read them at the time. Atm I’m just saving the link to those articles in Notes. I’d much rather be able to tap a button or two that saves it within Smart News itself in a “Save for Later” tab.

  • Smart News is really smart May 30, 2018

    By ediemillerangelo
    I was apparently one of the first regular user of the app and shared articles on Twitter constantly. 3 or 4 of the developers asked me for an interview via Skype and what Interested ME, was that they were all very young and what interested THEM was WHY I was so interested in the news. An earlier reviewer cited being fed too much liberal news and she should be happy with the addition of NEWSMAX which is definitely right leaning. Early on the developers said the algorithms choose the articles in your feed by the articles you actually read and your interest profile is just algorithms doing what they do but you have the option to choose a tab and read any article from any of the magazine you have added. I asked them to please keep it that was and not to start choosing ( as Facebook does ) articles to put forth an agenda, especially not a political agenda. So far I don’t see it happening. I have pretty eclectic interests and really enjoy the variety I have to choose from. This app also gives you the ability to swipe over to Reader View and read the articles without the annoying advertisements. All in all I hardly use any of my other news apps. I am afraid to count how many tabs I have on my home page! Love it!!

  • Jul 29, 2021

    By Douglas Fells
    I love this news app. It allows you to follow your favorite news sites, but also general topics such as politics, U.S. news, international news, sports topics. There's so many topics and news sources within this app. Everyone should have this app on their favorite device! I am very cautious about what apps I install, and I rarely leave comments about the apps I use, but this one deserves a 5 star review. So many news sources and general topics you can follow. I highly recommend it to everyone!

  • Love!!! Aug 28, 2020

    By ColeyDets
    I love reading the news - but I hate news with an agenda. Before SmartNews, I had my local Fox News app, which is about as non-bipartisan as you can get. The reason I love SmartNews is because it gives me ALL the news...all sides, from literally all media outlets. I can go to the local tab (includes everything from the local Fox plus much more) or see what’s happening in our government, or the world, or to look at funny memes and animal pic compilations. I love how it’s not all doom-and-gloom news, they include the feel-good news, too! It’s amazing!!! I would highly recommend this app to anyone, 10-stars, big thumbs up 👍👍👍👍👍👍 P.S. I LOVE the recently read feature!!! 👏👏👏 Edit: I looked over some other reviewers and I’m completely floored that people would say this app has an agenda!! Every article is from its original source, so it’s clear where the article came from. If you get triggered by one side or the other, then go into your settings and adjust the scale so that you get what you want 🙂👍

  • A couple bugs and a suggestion Sep 20, 2020

    By tmanokc
    I recently reset my iPad’s settings and content, and upon reinstalling SmartNews, the app’s notifications won’t push anymore. It misses the scheduled update notification times and doesn’t display breaking news notifications. Stories aren’t even being put in the inbox. Also, for a long time, some stories featured on the app are unable to display the full article text in “smart mode”, either omitting paragraphs or not being parsed at all or correctly to display the complete text featured in the original source page. Oddly, the notifications were still working properly when I upgraded my iPad from iPadOS 13.7 to 14.0 after the latter OS was released, with the most recent SmartNews update installed. Also, I’d like to suggest changes to the weather page to include a summary of the current weather observations (adding dew point, wind, barometric pressure, “feels like” temperature, visibility and humidity, along with sky conditions and air temperature). The current format of putting just the current temperature and sky conditions in the hourly forecast panel just doesn’t make sense, given that the weather page provides more detailed information on the forecast while only providing the bare minimum when it comes to current conditions.

  • Jul 27, 2021

    By Steven Carnahan
    To those whose complaints are about ads.... This is a FREE APP, they need a way to maintain it. If it's too much for you, there is an option to view the same article in your web browser if you click it. This app does what it says it does. It gives you the news articles it's algorithm thinks best suits your consumption. I've used it for years, and honestly, the ads don't bother me at all. Anyone with common sense knows how to avoid them and how to spot the stories that aren't actual stories.

  • Would give 5 but... Nov 21, 2019

    By Upsetusernumber99
    First off, to anyone complaining about it being “left leaning,” use your head for more than five seconds and control your emotions. I mean that seriously. The app is customizable to allow you to choose the exact news sources you want to see, provided they are in the app. Even if (not saying it is), the app is “left leaning”, do what I do. Just read from sources you trust, just add the right leaning channels. Or, get a bit of balance and have both sides presented before you when you open the app.. which is kinda the point of the app if you’ve seen the commercials. Anyways, I would give 5 stars if there’s a bit more customization. Customization on notifications, frequency of notifications, notifications for new stories from specific channels, etc. And, I would love a “Save for Later” feature. I often find myself opening the app, scrolling through, and seeing several headlines that sound interesting but I don’t have the time or just don’t want to read them at the time. Atm I’m just saving the link to those articles in Notes. I’d much rather be able to tap a button or two that saves it within Smart News itself in a “Save for Later” tab.

  • Customizable news Apr 6, 2021

    By jdilch422
    SmartNews allows the user to select news by topic (business, science, entertainment, politics) or by source (CNN, Fox, Huffpost). Any one who says the stories that are presented are “too liberal” or “too conservative” need only select sources they like so they can stay in their echo chamber and never hear another opinion. Pros: wide variety of topics and sources; stories can be viewed on the Web tab or the Smart tab, which eliminates some of the ads and clutter found on the Web tab; allows the user to see news from sources they might not usually visit. Cons: recent update now allows full page pop up ads and also allows some ads to play music while viewing the selected news item with no way to turn off without exiting the page. REALLY ANNOYING, and has the effect of wanting to never buy a product advertised in this manner; most stories aren’t dated, and can hang around for days; some sites are clickbait/fake news but get tossed into the mix with reputable sites; the Local tab isn’t always local news and can show news from places on the other side of the state. Would have given four stars but the new ad policy cuts it to three.

  • Jul 23, 2021

    By Corey G
    I've had this app for quite a while. I like it alot. Format is good. Recently, it's getting glitchy. I keep reinstalling it in hopes of improved performance. Hasn't helped. I have a pixel 3a. It's a strong phone so I don't think it's my phone. Good luck with bugs. Good site otherwise. I must add I agree with others that ads are killing it. I don't mind some but video ads and page block adds don't cut it. Unless improved, I'll be bailing out.

  • Useful within Limits Jul 19, 2021

    By Invisible Mikey
    I live in a small town in Washington state. I use news aggregation apps to increase my access to local stories. Like many other competing apps, this one regularly confuses articles about “Washington” (the state) with ones about “Washington DC” (the nation’s capital). I have to sort through the relevant vs irrelevant items. This may be a limit common to current search engine algorithms, an inability to refine results within the same keyword. Aside from that problem, I like the way this app is able to be configured to favor a wide range of specific topics as you refine your interests. The tab arrangement facilitates rapid navigation. The ads are able to be scrolled past easily. They don’t obscure content on the home page, which is a plus. I do not like the ambiguous “pitch” notification used under the “profile” button to try to get your email, which suggests signing in will make the app work significantly better or faster. I tried it side-by-side several times with other friends who signed in while I didn’t. We got identical results with the same topics selected, whether signed in or not. That alone cost the app a “star”.

  • Jul 12, 2021

    By Anthony Scaletta
    Revision to the prior since the stats reappeared and continue. My issue with the app is the forced adverts that appear as a full screen, splash page. You are forced to endure the ad until you can X out. When you do, you will start at the top of the news feed again, which requires scrolling to where you were to begin with. Annoying enough that I am deleting this news app. I enjoy the news app, but wonder what happened to the Covid-19 stats that used to appear on top of Top Stories page?
See all positive reviews
  • img Community

    We’ll call it SmartNews! Laughable. Apr 24, 2021

    By J
    Just in case you don’t get enough CNN / MSDNC, now you can get it all in an App that legitimizes the Huffington post as a cutting edge news source.

  • Jul 10, 2021

    By Grace Hedgecoke
    I used to love this app but it has become unreadable. And, no Smart News, I'm not complaining about it having ads. My complaint is that content does now show once you click on an article. Looks like some kind of caching issue. And, yes, it did start happening when you added the new ads. Just trying reading more than 5 articles all the way to the end. Sometimes it will refresh and show "page 2" but then the rest of the article is missing. Please test on Android

  • Ad popping Sep 29, 2020

    By Don't even think about it1988
    This app is now randomly throwing up full screen ads with hidden dismiss buttons. It’s amazing how something can go from good to junk apps with one greed based change. Ditching it, you should too. However, this review won’t make it anywhere near the top of reviews for obvious reasons. I’ve found great replacement that doesn’t force feed ads and in comparison to this app, they get me the news I want to read, while still allowing me to find what I want that’s outside my immediate interest. Importantly, without then flooding me with garbage because I read one article. You can say what you don’t like, and that stuff isn’t forced down your throat either. It’s not hard to find something much better, you should look. The developer is asking for suggestions. The suggestion is do not pop up full screen ads that are difficult to close and require user input, or worse killing the app. Simple. The inline ads were (are) plentiful without this. The fact that people don’t click them except accidentally is not a cue to make them full screen and hard to close. That motivation is about $ and advertisers, which has nothing to do with delivering the news. Not the product spots masquerading as articles, the actual news. Either you are a news app or an advertising outlet. Smart news seems to have made that choice. That’s why I, and many others are abandoning the app. It’s not a hard calculus.

  • App should be named MSNBC2 Oct 30, 2018

    By GiveItARestAlready
    Being fed up with pretty much all media outlets having a noticeable political bias and wanting to JUST k ow what happened, not someone’s analysis of it, I’ve been looking for an app that just gives the news. Let me figure out what it means. an app that I can open up, see what happened in the world today and close it. I gave this app about 4 months. Every time I opened it it seemed to get worse. If there was a Trump/Republican bashing article anywhere on the net, you’ll find it on the front page here. You don’t even have to read the articles to see that everything on this site is for liberals. The titles are hilariously liberal. Don’t think I’ve seen a single article pertaining to the US government or the White House or republican that wasn’t a negative liberal opinion piece. I scrolled through about 5 minutes ago and it was ridiculous. Finally decided to delete it. This isn’t a news site. If you really just want to know what happened in the world today, this is not the site for you. Update: Based on the developers feedback, it’s obvious that anyone who points out that this is a liberal leaning site is told to try Fox News for your conservative views. I’m not even a conservative. Just someone looking for unbiased news and this poser is telling everyone that points out their obvious bias that they’re a conservative and need to look elsewhere for their conservative views. This won’t be around long.

  • Jul 7, 2021

    By Steven N
    Aside from an increasing number of ads, the news that shows up continuously caters to what you have clicked on in the past, so you don't necessarily get to see what is top news, but a bunch of articles that are similar in theme to what you've read in the past, or things you've searched on Google, or what think think you want to see. I got the app thinking I would be able to just get "the news", but it's apparent that they push certain biases here as well...

  • Jul 16, 2021

    By Margret Nist
    Used to be a great news resource. Now it's littered with ads that you can not back out of. You have to completely close the app! Each article is just packed full of ads; it's hard to read the article itself! The "top" news source that is forced on you is where a lot of the ads are too! You can customize other interests but you have to navigate between the article itself and the annoying ads. Time to look for a new news app!

  • Big Time Liberal News Aggregator Oct 14, 2019

    By Esbt123456
    Look here, it’s not smart news when I have to physically add stories and sources. If you had good AI, you would know what I read and don’t read, which would give you a sense of what I am interested in, instead of spamming me with all kinds of liberal political news. And here’s the kicker, you defend your system, vice taking my recommendations to make your system better. The fact you refuse to make changes tells me that 1) the system is doing what you want, or 2) you lack the maturity and business sense to operate the business you are selling. UPDATE: Now why don’t you tell the truth? Almost all the stories are big-time left wing stories. Every once in a while you you toss in a conservative website origin story, and you call that balanced. Sometimes I would search for a conservative story and have to dig pages into searches. How about news that is not political, period? Or like I have seen quite a few liberals who think that media such as MSNBC and Huffington Post is centrists...maybe you actually believe that. Anyways, as long as you keep this business model, you will keep me away. Tried a long time but almost all the news is extreme liberal news. There is no balance...and it certainly could not figure out I want real news, not politics.

  • Jul 10, 2021

    By Rosemary Renaud
    This app used to be great & never had problems. I agree with many other users-try to pull up an article, it spins forever, & maybe you never get to read the article. Frustrating to say the least. Wait---- then go back in & try to retrieve article----nothing happens again, again & again. Shut it down, reload still a mess. Not a pleasant experience when you want to read an article. 2 days later, still white screen with it spinning. In my opinion, on overload too many categories trying to load.👎

  • Better than most news apps but still some flaws Sep 20, 2020

    By Nostateblues
    Would definitely not recommend this app. This app promises to deliver unbiased credible reporting from reliable sources on both sides of the story but more often than not I will get articles from random blogs and buzzfeed articles from people who clearly have no idea what they’re talking about. In theory the app is supposed to deliver you a list of credible sources from both sides of the argument so you can make your own opinion. In reality the app is nothing more than a tool to filter out all news stories that don’t agree with your world view and makes it extremely easy for people to blindly build up their own worldview while refusing to acknowledge other opinions exist. Ultimately the developers are just trying to market off of the fake news era and not deliver you real news and because of that they shouldn’t get any of your time. Edit: after continuing to use the app for a few weeks, I can safely say don’t waste your time here. Half the time I don’t even get news stories popping up in my feed but random celebrity or meme things and there’s no way to tweak your results or flag articles presented to you. And the ads pop up every other article now. If you are really desperate for a news app just use the Apple one

  • Jul 8, 2021

    By Bob Esson
    crashes multiple times per day, getting old. Still crashes multiple times per day. As of 5/1/2020 it still crashes frequently and I was unable to Provide requested data. As of 8/30/2020 this thing gets hung and has to be restarted to temp work. Keeps getting worse.. And it happens on different phones. Maybe time to go backnto google news? Now the damned thing gets hung up frequently. You pick an item and it just spins forever. You have to shutdown and restart the app for it to work for a bit.
See all negative reviews
  • img Community
    Finding credibly sourced news can be difficult especially if you spend 1-2 hours on social media everyday. Don't worry about clicking on news sources there. Instead open this and know that you are getting breaking news with facts and no fluff.
    img by Christina
    1 year ago
  • img Community
    Running for office can be difficult with keeping up with your public image, and listening to 100s or 1000s of opinions and what they want you to achieve. Stay up to date with all the major issues so you know how to help your voters.
    img by David
    1 year ago
  • img Community

    We’ll call it SmartNews! Laughable. Apr 24, 2021

    By J
    Just in case you don’t get enough CNN / MSDNC, now you can get it all in an App that legitimizes the Huffington post as a cutting edge news source.
See All Community Reviews
  • img Expert
    1. Award-winning news app downloaded over 25,000,000 times in over 100 countries
    2. Condenses and delivers headlines from top news outlets: NBC, MSNBC, USA Today, TIME, Reuters, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and more
    3. “Browse headlines quickly, customize your channels, and read the news offline...an excellent free alternative to other popular news apps.” - CNET

    Reviewed by Laura S on January 11, 2018

See All Expert Reviews

  • Smart News is really smart May 30, 2018

    By ediemillerangelo
    I was apparently one of the first regular user of the app and shared articles on Twitter constantly. 3 or 4 of the developers asked me for an interview via Skype and what Interested ME, was that they were all very young and what interested THEM was WHY I was so interested in the news. An earlier reviewer cited being fed too much liberal news and she should be happy with the addition of NEWSMAX which is definitely right leaning. Early on the developers said the algorithms choose the articles in your feed by the articles you actually read and your interest profile is just algorithms doing what they do but you have the option to choose a tab and read any article from any of the magazine you have added. I asked them to please keep it that was and not to start choosing ( as Facebook does ) articles to put forth an agenda, especially not a political agenda. So far I don’t see it happening. I have pretty eclectic interests and really enjoy the variety I have to choose from. This app also gives you the ability to swipe over to Reader View and read the articles without the annoying advertisements. All in all I hardly use any of my other news apps. I am afraid to count how many tabs I have on my home page! Love it!!

  • Jul 29, 2021

    By Douglas Fells
    I love this news app. It allows you to follow your favorite news sites, but also general topics such as politics, U.S. news, international news, sports topics. There's so many topics and news sources within this app. Everyone should have this app on their favorite device! I am very cautious about what apps I install, and I rarely leave comments about the apps I use, but this one deserves a 5 star review. So many news sources and general topics you can follow. I highly recommend it to everyone!

  • Love!!! Aug 28, 2020

    By ColeyDets
    I love reading the news - but I hate news with an agenda. Before SmartNews, I had my local Fox News app, which is about as non-bipartisan as you can get. The reason I love SmartNews is because it gives me ALL the news...all sides, from literally all media outlets. I can go to the local tab (includes everything from the local Fox plus much more) or see what’s happening in our government, or the world, or to look at funny memes and animal pic compilations. I love how it’s not all doom-and-gloom news, they include the feel-good news, too! It’s amazing!!! I would highly recommend this app to anyone, 10-stars, big thumbs up 👍👍👍👍👍👍 P.S. I LOVE the recently read feature!!! 👏👏👏 Edit: I looked over some other reviewers and I’m completely floored that people would say this app has an agenda!! Every article is from its original source, so it’s clear where the article came from. If you get triggered by one side or the other, then go into your settings and adjust the scale so that you get what you want 🙂👍

  • Jul 27, 2021

    By Steven Carnahan
    To those whose complaints are about ads.... This is a FREE APP, they need a way to maintain it. If it's too much for you, there is an option to view the same article in your web browser if you click it. This app does what it says it does. It gives you the news articles it's algorithm thinks best suits your consumption. I've used it for years, and honestly, the ads don't bother me at all. Anyone with common sense knows how to avoid them and how to spot the stories that aren't actual stories.

  • Wow Jul 27, 2019

    By Samarnett14
    Downloaded because I like these types of apps to read all the news soon as I opened it I could clearly see whoever does this has a hand in the liberal agenda to destroy America it’s way obvious then I read one of their cringe worthy articles and realize they really are scared most the new generation along with older hipsters and all the career students that racked up debt on pointless wemon study degrees etc. are so afraid they’re everyone else will pay for my bills and generally lazy lifestyle don’t fear trump doesn’t even need to campaign watch and see the deplorable will show up faster than you liberals can create voters bus them in from Mexico Canada it’s not even a possible outcome to loose I been over this whole country the last year just count bumper stickers from even the last election most elections even the winners voters take them off but they’re all still on even the Hillary jail ones and I’m pretty sure she has died already or went back to her hole she came from

  • App Continuously Freezing up May 23, 2021

    By Talonhawk101
    When I first started using the app, the fact that it equally showed all sides of the equation. Left-right-Qs-nut cases etcetera. However, lately the app has started to freeze up after a few minutes of use. Sometimes it will unfreeze, but mostly it stays frozen until the app closes itself or in frustration I say screw this and and close the app myself. The same has happened to my girlfriend who introduced me to the app, so I know it’s not my phone which is btw a brand new. Both she and I have removed the app multiple time and re-installed it to the same results. Don’t get me wrong the info on the app is very informative and sometimes hilarious when the app is working. But it’s freezing up more than it works. Especially when you get to the middle that one really interesting article and boom frozen. The article might be there when it comes on but mostly it’s not. Just wanted you to know. A faithful but frustrated fan

  • Close to perfect, I’m sure they can get there though... Dec 26, 2020

    By TravelingFootballDad
    So let’s address the complainants about bias - out of the box, the app may appear to have a slant - but that’s also because the majority of the news outlets have a slant - can’t help that if you are a new aggregator - that being said, the devs have provided a library of sources that spans the spectrum of ideology and you can easily tweak the app to your own bias or neutrality or whatever you want to call it. In other words, customize the app, do not expect the app to read your thoughts. The single item of improvement - I get everyone needs to have a revenue source and SmartNews is no different - in their case, ad revenue is their source. Give us the option to opt out of ads by purchasing an ad-free subscription - monthly/annually/one-time - give us the option to either deal with the ads or remove them. Keep producing a solid product - doing great overall.
See all 5 reviews

  • A couple bugs and a suggestion Sep 20, 2020

    By tmanokc
    I recently reset my iPad’s settings and content, and upon reinstalling SmartNews, the app’s notifications won’t push anymore. It misses the scheduled update notification times and doesn’t display breaking news notifications. Stories aren’t even being put in the inbox. Also, for a long time, some stories featured on the app are unable to display the full article text in “smart mode”, either omitting paragraphs or not being parsed at all or correctly to display the complete text featured in the original source page. Oddly, the notifications were still working properly when I upgraded my iPad from iPadOS 13.7 to 14.0 after the latter OS was released, with the most recent SmartNews update installed. Also, I’d like to suggest changes to the weather page to include a summary of the current weather observations (adding dew point, wind, barometric pressure, “feels like” temperature, visibility and humidity, along with sky conditions and air temperature). The current format of putting just the current temperature and sky conditions in the hourly forecast panel just doesn’t make sense, given that the weather page provides more detailed information on the forecast while only providing the bare minimum when it comes to current conditions.

  • Would give 5 but... Nov 21, 2019

    By Upsetusernumber99
    First off, to anyone complaining about it being “left leaning,” use your head for more than five seconds and control your emotions. I mean that seriously. The app is customizable to allow you to choose the exact news sources you want to see, provided they are in the app. Even if (not saying it is), the app is “left leaning”, do what I do. Just read from sources you trust, just add the right leaning channels. Or, get a bit of balance and have both sides presented before you when you open the app.. which is kinda the point of the app if you’ve seen the commercials. Anyways, I would give 5 stars if there’s a bit more customization. Customization on notifications, frequency of notifications, notifications for new stories from specific channels, etc. And, I would love a “Save for Later” feature. I often find myself opening the app, scrolling through, and seeing several headlines that sound interesting but I don’t have the time or just don’t want to read them at the time. Atm I’m just saving the link to those articles in Notes. I’d much rather be able to tap a button or two that saves it within Smart News itself in a “Save for Later” tab.

  • Jul 23, 2021

    By Corey G
    I've had this app for quite a while. I like it alot. Format is good. Recently, it's getting glitchy. I keep reinstalling it in hopes of improved performance. Hasn't helped. I have a pixel 3a. It's a strong phone so I don't think it's my phone. Good luck with bugs. Good site otherwise. I must add I agree with others that ads are killing it. I don't mind some but video ads and page block adds don't cut it. Unless improved, I'll be bailing out.

  • Solid, simple and customizable Jan 28, 2020

    By airguitarbandit
    I really like the simplicity of this app, especially the smart view of articles that strips away all the ads and such (though it does take images with it sometimes, it’s tricky). I also like that I can set a location and get local stuff mixed in. I would love a history feature where I can see a list of articles I’ve viewed, even the last like 25 would do. I often will want to share good stuff with someone when the topic comes up later in the day or I’ve even locked my phone halfway through an article, then get a notification for another interesting story and click it, only to remember I still had that other article finish which is now gone. Just a suggestion. Overall, really dig the app. Update: starting to see what others are saying about the spam-y articles seemingly being added to the “top” feed. I’ve unsubscribed to all the general channels and only follow publications now, but my top feed still has CNN and Buzzfeed mixed in. I assumed top feed was the aggregate of what I follow and nothing else. Would much prefer that.

  • Jul 16, 2021

    By A Google user
    I like this app very much. it's good. You can make it better, at least for me by adding a dark mode and an option to enable smart view as default. It would help people with slow internet connection. I will be much happy to give you guys 5 stars after the update. Edit: +1* now, How about that always on Smart View for another *? Edit: Gave you a star for the dark mode.
See all 4 reviews

  • Customizable news Apr 6, 2021

    By jdilch422
    SmartNews allows the user to select news by topic (business, science, entertainment, politics) or by source (CNN, Fox, Huffpost). Any one who says the stories that are presented are “too liberal” or “too conservative” need only select sources they like so they can stay in their echo chamber and never hear another opinion. Pros: wide variety of topics and sources; stories can be viewed on the Web tab or the Smart tab, which eliminates some of the ads and clutter found on the Web tab; allows the user to see news from sources they might not usually visit. Cons: recent update now allows full page pop up ads and also allows some ads to play music while viewing the selected news item with no way to turn off without exiting the page. REALLY ANNOYING, and has the effect of wanting to never buy a product advertised in this manner; most stories aren’t dated, and can hang around for days; some sites are clickbait/fake news but get tossed into the mix with reputable sites; the Local tab isn’t always local news and can show news from places on the other side of the state. Would have given four stars but the new ad policy cuts it to three.

  • Useful within Limits Jul 19, 2021

    By Invisible Mikey
    I live in a small town in Washington state. I use news aggregation apps to increase my access to local stories. Like many other competing apps, this one regularly confuses articles about “Washington” (the state) with ones about “Washington DC” (the nation’s capital). I have to sort through the relevant vs irrelevant items. This may be a limit common to current search engine algorithms, an inability to refine results within the same keyword. Aside from that problem, I like the way this app is able to be configured to favor a wide range of specific topics as you refine your interests. The tab arrangement facilitates rapid navigation. The ads are able to be scrolled past easily. They don’t obscure content on the home page, which is a plus. I do not like the ambiguous “pitch” notification used under the “profile” button to try to get your email, which suggests signing in will make the app work significantly better or faster. I tried it side-by-side several times with other friends who signed in while I didn’t. We got identical results with the same topics selected, whether signed in or not. That alone cost the app a “star”.

  • Jul 12, 2021

    By Anthony Scaletta
    Revision to the prior since the stats reappeared and continue. My issue with the app is the forced adverts that appear as a full screen, splash page. You are forced to endure the ad until you can X out. When you do, you will start at the top of the news feed again, which requires scrolling to where you were to begin with. Annoying enough that I am deleting this news app. I enjoy the news app, but wonder what happened to the Covid-19 stats that used to appear on top of Top Stories page?

  • Becoming more social and celebrity news source Sep 15, 2019

    By Exmon11
    When I first saw the app - was pleasantly surprised on the scope of of the feeds - seemed to collect from all sources. Now it seem too many - perhaps based on trends of what people are clicking on the most from each of the “news sources”. My observation : Looking at the “Top” stories tab it appears to me 50% of the stories are not what I consider news but how some socialite lost their spouse, who is sleeping with who, how a Instagram star was refused service because they were being obnoxious... I generally do not see the value of the stories on that section which is disappointing. To me those types of stories are interesting but it is not news. I know they are eye catching but feels more like buying a family size bag of tortilla chips only finding it 1/4 full of chips and 3/4 air because the product is sold by weight and not volume... I did not want the air - I wanted to chips... HOWEVER the app does most other do not - pull from sources you don’t see on others like Google News, Apple News...etc. I like SmartNews and will continue to use it as my top news aggregator but will generally avoid Top tab.

  • Jul 11, 2021

    By Andrew Manning
    Oftentimes I'll read an article and return to the home screen hoping to read the article that I had noticed was next on the list... only to find the list reset and the article I wanted to read is nowhere to be found. Occasionally I'll be asked if I want to refresh the list and I'm not sure why the app will just decide to refresh on its own. It's quite annoying and frustrating. Complaints aside, there's nothing that seems to really set this app apart and make it better or worse than any other.
See all 3 reviews

  • Jul 10, 2021

    By Grace Hedgecoke
    I used to love this app but it has become unreadable. And, no Smart News, I'm not complaining about it having ads. My complaint is that content does now show once you click on an article. Looks like some kind of caching issue. And, yes, it did start happening when you added the new ads. Just trying reading more than 5 articles all the way to the end. Sometimes it will refresh and show "page 2" but then the rest of the article is missing. Please test on Android

  • Jul 7, 2021

    By Steven N
    Aside from an increasing number of ads, the news that shows up continuously caters to what you have clicked on in the past, so you don't necessarily get to see what is top news, but a bunch of articles that are similar in theme to what you've read in the past, or things you've searched on Google, or what think think you want to see. I got the app thinking I would be able to just get "the news", but it's apparent that they push certain biases here as well...

  • Jul 18, 2021

    By Jennifer Gibbons
    Having access to news from a variety of sources is definitely a good thing, HOWEVER, I am overwhelmed by a deluge of notifications throughout the day and most of these notifications are for items I have zero interest in. The problem is, you either get a million notifications or none. For me the balance between useful and annoying has been lost and it's just a question of time before I delete this app.

  • Jul 9, 2021

    By Dwight Gordon
    This App is going downhill, faster than ever. I have been using it for some time. First, the ads have become much more ponderous. There have been a huge number of updates, and those have nothing to do with new features. Worse, the 'top stories' now don't focus on what's going on in the world, but rather post after post about random tragedies, aka click bait.
See all 2 reviews
  • img Community

    We’ll call it SmartNews! Laughable. Apr 24, 2021

    By J
    Just in case you don’t get enough CNN / MSDNC, now you can get it all in an App that legitimizes the Huffington post as a cutting edge news source.

  • Ad popping Sep 29, 2020

    By Don't even think about it1988
    This app is now randomly throwing up full screen ads with hidden dismiss buttons. It’s amazing how something can go from good to junk apps with one greed based change. Ditching it, you should too. However, this review won’t make it anywhere near the top of reviews for obvious reasons. I’ve found great replacement that doesn’t force feed ads and in comparison to this app, they get me the news I want to read, while still allowing me to find what I want that’s outside my immediate interest. Importantly, without then flooding me with garbage because I read one article. You can say what you don’t like, and that stuff isn’t forced down your throat either. It’s not hard to find something much better, you should look. The developer is asking for suggestions. The suggestion is do not pop up full screen ads that are difficult to close and require user input, or worse killing the app. Simple. The inline ads were (are) plentiful without this. The fact that people don’t click them except accidentally is not a cue to make them full screen and hard to close. That motivation is about $ and advertisers, which has nothing to do with delivering the news. Not the product spots masquerading as articles, the actual news. Either you are a news app or an advertising outlet. Smart news seems to have made that choice. That’s why I, and many others are abandoning the app. It’s not a hard calculus.

  • App should be named MSNBC2 Oct 30, 2018

    By GiveItARestAlready
    Being fed up with pretty much all media outlets having a noticeable political bias and wanting to JUST k ow what happened, not someone’s analysis of it, I’ve been looking for an app that just gives the news. Let me figure out what it means. an app that I can open up, see what happened in the world today and close it. I gave this app about 4 months. Every time I opened it it seemed to get worse. If there was a Trump/Republican bashing article anywhere on the net, you’ll find it on the front page here. You don’t even have to read the articles to see that everything on this site is for liberals. The titles are hilariously liberal. Don’t think I’ve seen a single article pertaining to the US government or the White House or republican that wasn’t a negative liberal opinion piece. I scrolled through about 5 minutes ago and it was ridiculous. Finally decided to delete it. This isn’t a news site. If you really just want to know what happened in the world today, this is not the site for you. Update: Based on the developers feedback, it’s obvious that anyone who points out that this is a liberal leaning site is told to try Fox News for your conservative views. I’m not even a conservative. Just someone looking for unbiased news and this poser is telling everyone that points out their obvious bias that they’re a conservative and need to look elsewhere for their conservative views. This won’t be around long.

  • Jul 16, 2021

    By Margret Nist
    Used to be a great news resource. Now it's littered with ads that you can not back out of. You have to completely close the app! Each article is just packed full of ads; it's hard to read the article itself! The "top" news source that is forced on you is where a lot of the ads are too! You can customize other interests but you have to navigate between the article itself and the annoying ads. Time to look for a new news app!

  • Big Time Liberal News Aggregator Oct 14, 2019

    By Esbt123456
    Look here, it’s not smart news when I have to physically add stories and sources. If you had good AI, you would know what I read and don’t read, which would give you a sense of what I am interested in, instead of spamming me with all kinds of liberal political news. And here’s the kicker, you defend your system, vice taking my recommendations to make your system better. The fact you refuse to make changes tells me that 1) the system is doing what you want, or 2) you lack the maturity and business sense to operate the business you are selling. UPDATE: Now why don’t you tell the truth? Almost all the stories are big-time left wing stories. Every once in a while you you toss in a conservative website origin story, and you call that balanced. Sometimes I would search for a conservative story and have to dig pages into searches. How about news that is not political, period? Or like I have seen quite a few liberals who think that media such as MSNBC and Huffington Post is centrists...maybe you actually believe that. Anyways, as long as you keep this business model, you will keep me away. Tried a long time but almost all the news is extreme liberal news. There is no balance...and it certainly could not figure out I want real news, not politics.

  • Jul 10, 2021

    By Rosemary Renaud
    This app used to be great & never had problems. I agree with many other users-try to pull up an article, it spins forever, & maybe you never get to read the article. Frustrating to say the least. Wait---- then go back in & try to retrieve article----nothing happens again, again & again. Shut it down, reload still a mess. Not a pleasant experience when you want to read an article. 2 days later, still white screen with it spinning. In my opinion, on overload too many categories trying to load.👎

  • Better than most news apps but still some flaws Sep 20, 2020

    By Nostateblues
    Would definitely not recommend this app. This app promises to deliver unbiased credible reporting from reliable sources on both sides of the story but more often than not I will get articles from random blogs and buzzfeed articles from people who clearly have no idea what they’re talking about. In theory the app is supposed to deliver you a list of credible sources from both sides of the argument so you can make your own opinion. In reality the app is nothing more than a tool to filter out all news stories that don’t agree with your world view and makes it extremely easy for people to blindly build up their own worldview while refusing to acknowledge other opinions exist. Ultimately the developers are just trying to market off of the fake news era and not deliver you real news and because of that they shouldn’t get any of your time. Edit: after continuing to use the app for a few weeks, I can safely say don’t waste your time here. Half the time I don’t even get news stories popping up in my feed but random celebrity or meme things and there’s no way to tweak your results or flag articles presented to you. And the ads pop up every other article now. If you are really desperate for a news app just use the Apple one

  • Jul 8, 2021

    By Bob Esson
    crashes multiple times per day, getting old. Still crashes multiple times per day. As of 5/1/2020 it still crashes frequently and I was unable to Provide requested data. As of 8/30/2020 this thing gets hung and has to be restarted to temp work. Keeps getting worse.. And it happens on different phones. Maybe time to go backnto google news? Now the damned thing gets hung up frequently. You pick an item and it just spins forever. You have to shutdown and restart the app for it to work for a bit.

  • Really? Sep 16, 2019

    By DivaRB
    Fair and balanced? It is not! Primary stories are from Huff Post, NYT, Washington Post, NBC, etc. Really? Fox News and just a handful of more conservative media is at the very very end of the list. Any use who gave this app a high rating must be a very progressive liberal. Very despicable of Smart News people to try to deceive the public. This app does not fairly display the stories from ALL media outlets. It just doesn’t. I tried it so I could see for myself. And I will delete this app. Note to the Smart News responder .. “if you want a more conservative view you should add add Fox News, blah blah .. “. why didn’t you program it in there to begin with, so that the app would appear as you advertise it will be on your lame commercial? Why should CONSERVATIVE people have to tweak the app? It should be FAIR to begin with. You see, a very liberal person will think this is great and will continue to believe they are getting fair news. THEY ARE NOT! Shame on YOU! I received an inadequate reply from Nathan telling me exactly what I thought he would say .. same as above. They just don’t get it. What I’m saying is that they should set up a FAIR sampling of media outlets in the first place. Instead, they are setting up LIBERAL publications, and then I have to change my selections. Why can’t you be more fair?

  • Jul 9, 2021

    By Douglas Fox
    Recently the developer has forced push notifications to on, which causes your phone to go off as if you have a call/text. This is extremely annoying. Ads take you away from content randomly and the app adds news randomly during use, so it is possible to be forced to watch an ad and come back only for the story you were trying to read to have moved off the list. Not enough characters to go into detail, but the app is not easy to use. It seems my last review may have been removed by the developer
See all 1 reviews

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