SmartNews: Local Breaking News
News & MagazinesSmartNews, Inc.
Breaking local news and weather forecasts from your neighborhood.
Coupons for this app
About SmartNews: Local Breaking News
SmartNews: Local Breaking News
About SmartNews: Local Breaking News
Google Play
SmartNews analyzes millions of articles every day to deliver the top trending news influencing the world right now.
SmartNews delivers high-quality news headlines and breaking news from top national news publishers: NBC News, USA Today, The Huffington Post, Bleacher Report, FOX News, Bloomberg, The Guardian, Politico, TMZ, NY Post, Business Insider and more.
Customize your SmartNews experience with smart news channels: US news, world news, sports, business news, politics, entertainment - and many others.
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“Browse headlines quickly, customize your channels and read the news offline. SmartNews is an excellent free alternative to other popular news apps.”
- CNET
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Breaking News --
Notifications for local breaking news headlines.
Smart Mode --
Readability mode for optimal news reading experience.
Offline News Reading --
Fetch trending news and read it offline.
COVID Map --
Custom COVID tracking widget with the latest local case counts and vaccination updates.
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Awarded Best News App:
- Best App of the Year, 2013 (Japan) - Google
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Get your breaking local news and local weather forecast in SmartNews.
App Store
Ratings & Reviews
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Smart News is really smart
May 30, 2018 By ediemillerangeloI 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!!more -
Feb 24, 2021 By Thomas RoundtreeI love the fact this app provides multiple points of view and allows you to slide to the right or the left to read topics more thoroughly. I agree with the other reviewers that it's annoying when I'm reading an article and it "updates" moving on so that I can't finish the article. Perhaps it would work better if it only updated when you return to the main page?? Thank you SmartNews.. You have allowed me to present news so that my wife is interested and because of that she registered and voted!more -
Love!!!
Aug 28, 2020 By ColeyDetsI 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 🙂👍more -
Feb 25, 2021 By Renee HarleyUsed to love this app. I love having everything in one place. Lately, however, it's been awful. Articles won't load at all or you read halfway through the article and then it's just a blank page. I have a brand new phone with tons of space and memory, high speed internet and unlimited data so it's definitely the app. Restarting the app and my phone do not help. It would have 5 stars if it worked consistentlymore -
A couple bugs and a suggestion
Sep 20, 2020 By tmanokcI 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.more
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Ad popping
Sep 29, 2020 By Don't even think about it1988This 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.more -
App should be named MSNBC2
Oct 30, 2018 By GiveItARestAlreadyBeing 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.more -
Feb 25, 2021 By Steve BoggsRecently instituted full page ads that can't be dismissed when exiting a page; is now essentially a spam app. I used to be a huge fan. Update: I'm not against ads. Just full screen ads that can't be dismissed and you have to exit the app to escape. Just had one again today.more -
Better than most news apps but still some flaws
Sep 20, 2020 By NostatebluesWould 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 onemore -
Feb 4, 2021 By Donte johnsonI used to live on this app. As always, greed will destroy a good thing. I completely understand the need for an ad or two, but you force us to watch them or close the app and restart it. I find myself reading apple news more now, never thought I'd ever do that. I'm now looking for a different app similar to this that I can switch to. Hope the invasive ads were worth it. Now if you exit an add you are sent back to the beginingof the news preview. You have to scroll to find where you weremore
- Award-winning news app downloaded over 25,000,000 times in over 100 countries
- Condenses and delivers headlines from top news outlets: NBC, MSNBC, USA Today, TIME, Reuters, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and more
- “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
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Smart News is really smart
May 30, 2018 By ediemillerangeloI 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!!more -
Love!!!
Aug 28, 2020 By ColeyDetsI 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 🙂👍more -
Wow
Jul 27, 2019 By Samarnett14Downloaded 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 frommore -
Still great, but could use some tweaks
Feb 21, 2021 By shg71Update: after latest updates, the app will often hang if I scroll the feed shortly after launching. I’ve been using the app for years and have found the improvements along the way to be useful. I like that you can slide political coverage from left leaning, to center, to right leaning and, overall, I find center to be providing me just that. I appreciate that I get a good mix of view points on any given topic. However, my request would be to allow for blocking of -specific- publications within the aggregated categories. For example, there are some ridiculous “news” sites that constantly post unvetted, partisan, garbage (on both sides of the political spectrum, as well as, within other non-political categories). I’m sure there is an algorithm that assumes I want to continue to see these articles based on some prior, similar browsing activity, but regardless, I’d like to be able to specify that I don’t want content from those sites in particular. Additionally, I notice that I will sometimes see articles in my feed that are really dated. Like it appears as recent, however upon opening the link I’ll see that the article was written months or even years ago. I’d like the ability to specify “only show content from past day, or week, or month”, etc.. Other than that, I find the app to be succinct and one of the better aggregate news apps available.more -
Feb 18, 2021 By Kathi MontesI loved this app on my S9 but I recently switched to a S21 and I do not get pop up notifications like I did with the app on my S9. I checked all notification settings and they are the same as my old phone. The only difference I can see is that on my old phone, it says it was downloaded from T Mobile and this phone, it was downloaded from the Google Play Store. Any suggestions?more
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Feb 24, 2021 By Thomas RoundtreeI love the fact this app provides multiple points of view and allows you to slide to the right or the left to read topics more thoroughly. I agree with the other reviewers that it's annoying when I'm reading an article and it "updates" moving on so that I can't finish the article. Perhaps it would work better if it only updated when you return to the main page?? Thank you SmartNews.. You have allowed me to present news so that my wife is interested and because of that she registered and voted!more -
A couple bugs and a suggestion
Sep 20, 2020 By tmanokcI 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.more -
Would give 5 but...
Nov 21, 2019 By Upsetusernumber99First 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.more -
Solid, simple and customizable
Jan 28, 2020 By airguitarbanditI 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.more -
Feb 12, 2021 By Liz JansWish there was a larger selection of conservative news sources. General news tab definitely leans to leftie MSM sites. Can customize tabs -- needs more "right " leaning news to be truly balanced on. Most of the headline news on main tab are from left of center websites-- For example---How about including "the epoch times" articles on main news page?--- Developer will say it aggregates from many sources--- yes it does....liberal sources--definitely NOT balanced--am referring to main news page.more
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Feb 25, 2021 By Renee HarleyUsed to love this app. I love having everything in one place. Lately, however, it's been awful. Articles won't load at all or you read halfway through the article and then it's just a blank page. I have a brand new phone with tons of space and memory, high speed internet and unlimited data so it's definitely the app. Restarting the app and my phone do not help. It would have 5 stars if it worked consistentlymore -
Feb 25, 2021 By Terry BrezzellFirst review ever made but this app is pretty cool. But if I click on a notification to read about what it is, when I click out of it, the whole app closes down and when I restart the app the story that I assume is the newest news is hard, I mean really hard to find again. After looking for it for like 5mins a just give up. Please set it up to where it can at least take us to the main page so we can see the trending stories or something 🤷🏾♂️more -
Feb 1, 2021 By Mia ThurstonAs other users have described - I am sick and tired of this app "refreshing" so that what I'm reading disappears and is never to be found again. I have taken to letting the app guide me to articles and then immediately opening the article into Chrome or another browser. it is ridiculous that I have to find a work around to use it. Still, it has the best layout and actually does the best at giving me what I'm looking for. I will drop it as soon as another app does better without this issue.more -
Becoming more social and celebrity news source
Sep 15, 2019 By Exmon11When 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.more -
Smart News, Bias Notifications
Dec 1, 2017 By Purplepunch12321I downloaded this app because I heard good things about it. Let’s face the facts here MSN is dominated and ruled by liberal bias. You can scream and shout and say otherwise but don’t let that cognitive dissonance get in the way, it is. Conservative/Republican MSM is Fox News and A.M. radio. Thats it. I have to admit, when I first downloaded this app, The homepage was almost split with different news sources. I’d say 40-60 split with liberal news still dominate. But fair. I really enjoy the food and wine pages and some of the entertainment. It’s good to see the contrast for political stories as well. The issue is with the push notifications. Why am I constantly getting news sources pushed to me that are anti-GOP, anti-Trump, and bias news favoring the left? I mean Jesus Christ...I got a couple notifications from sources like Huffington post...they’re nothing more than a glorified blog with bias points of views and zero fact. I like the notifications on my iPhone and watch. But I’m turning them off. I’ve never seen one pro conservative news story pushed to me. There is still a bias here and it’s obvious.more
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Feb 4, 2021 By Donte johnsonI used to live on this app. As always, greed will destroy a good thing. I completely understand the need for an ad or two, but you force us to watch them or close the app and restart it. I find myself reading apple news more now, never thought I'd ever do that. I'm now looking for a different app similar to this that I can switch to. Hope the invasive ads were worth it. Now if you exit an add you are sent back to the beginingof the news preview. You have to scroll to find where you weremore -
Feb 13, 2021 By John WMind numbing sometimes. The ads are sometimes intrusive but they often pull a bait and switch. For instance, swimwear is featured but open the link and anything but swimwear is shown. Everything from 5G phones to cars will appear. Very deceitful. Most of the so-called news isn't or is some sponsored content. You do better elsewhere.more -
Feb 9, 2021 By Fu QueueThis used to be the best news app. A series of updates have made it absolutely frustratingly unusable constantly begging me to click things. Pretty much done with this won't do another update.Sad times especially because I would have considered buying this if that was even an option when it was in better shape. To update this specifically it is irritating to get a full page ad out of nowhere and have no option but to engage it. Meaning you literally do what everyone else does but much worse.more -
Feb 24, 2021 By Felix PerezUpdate: 2 days after writing the review I started getting push notifications. Working great so far but the ads that you have to click the "X" or "close" to close out of it is annoying and uncalled for. 21Feb21: No longer getting push alerts with LG Velvet android 10. Don't know why. I've tried everything.more -
Feb 15, 2021 By Dr. Bear HancockI was so in love with this app.. been on it a long time and read it every day,, especially while having my coffee.. All of a sudden, over the last couple of days, more so today, I cannot finish a paragraph due to pop up ads. This has got me fed up and and I guess I'm going to delete this app and find another. I'm not paying for premium in order to get rid of ads. Farewell!more
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Ad popping
Sep 29, 2020 By Don't even think about it1988This 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.more -
App should be named MSNBC2
Oct 30, 2018 By GiveItARestAlreadyBeing 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.more -
Feb 25, 2021 By Steve BoggsRecently instituted full page ads that can't be dismissed when exiting a page; is now essentially a spam app. I used to be a huge fan. Update: I'm not against ads. Just full screen ads that can't be dismissed and you have to exit the app to escape. Just had one again today.more -
Better than most news apps but still some flaws
Sep 20, 2020 By NostatebluesWould 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 onemore -
Big Time Liberal News Aggregator
Oct 14, 2019 By Esbt123456Look 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.more
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Smart News is really smart
By ediemillerangeloI 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!!more less -
By Thomas RoundtreeI love the fact this app provides multiple points of view and allows you to slide to the right or the left to read topics more thoroughly. I agree with the other reviewers that it's annoying when I'm reading an article and it "updates" moving on so that I can't finish the article. Perhaps it would work better if it only updated when you return to the main page?? Thank you SmartNews.. You have allowed me to present news so that my wife is interested and because of that she registered and voted!more less
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Love!!!
By ColeyDetsI 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 🙂👍more less -
By Renee HarleyUsed to love this app. I love having everything in one place. Lately, however, it's been awful. Articles won't load at all or you read halfway through the article and then it's just a blank page. I have a brand new phone with tons of space and memory, high speed internet and unlimited data so it's definitely the app. Restarting the app and my phone do not help. It would have 5 stars if it worked consistentlymore less
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A couple bugs and a suggestion
By tmanokcI 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.more less -
By Terry BrezzellFirst review ever made but this app is pretty cool. But if I click on a notification to read about what it is, when I click out of it, the whole app closes down and when I restart the app the story that I assume is the newest news is hard, I mean really hard to find again. After looking for it for like 5mins a just give up. Please set it up to where it can at least take us to the main page so we can see the trending stories or something 🤷🏾♂️more less
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By Mia ThurstonAs other users have described - I am sick and tired of this app "refreshing" so that what I'm reading disappears and is never to be found again. I have taken to letting the app guide me to articles and then immediately opening the article into Chrome or another browser. it is ridiculous that I have to find a work around to use it. Still, it has the best layout and actually does the best at giving me what I'm looking for. I will drop it as soon as another app does better without this issue.more less
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Would give 5 but...
By Upsetusernumber99First 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.more less -
Becoming more social and celebrity news source
By Exmon11When 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.more less -
Solid, simple and customizable
By airguitarbanditI 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.more less
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Smart News is really smart
By ediemillerangeloI 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!!more less -
Love!!!
By ColeyDetsI 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 🙂👍more less -
Wow
By Samarnett14Downloaded 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 frommore less -
Still great, but could use some tweaks
By shg71Update: after latest updates, the app will often hang if I scroll the feed shortly after launching. I’ve been using the app for years and have found the improvements along the way to be useful. I like that you can slide political coverage from left leaning, to center, to right leaning and, overall, I find center to be providing me just that. I appreciate that I get a good mix of view points on any given topic. However, my request would be to allow for blocking of -specific- publications within the aggregated categories. For example, there are some ridiculous “news” sites that constantly post unvetted, partisan, garbage (on both sides of the political spectrum, as well as, within other non-political categories). I’m sure there is an algorithm that assumes I want to continue to see these articles based on some prior, similar browsing activity, but regardless, I’d like to be able to specify that I don’t want content from those sites in particular. Additionally, I notice that I will sometimes see articles in my feed that are really dated. Like it appears as recent, however upon opening the link I’ll see that the article was written months or even years ago. I’d like the ability to specify “only show content from past day, or week, or month”, etc.. Other than that, I find the app to be succinct and one of the better aggregate news apps available.more less -
By Kathi MontesI loved this app on my S9 but I recently switched to a S21 and I do not get pop up notifications like I did with the app on my S9. I checked all notification settings and they are the same as my old phone. The only difference I can see is that on my old phone, it says it was downloaded from T Mobile and this phone, it was downloaded from the Google Play Store. Any suggestions?more less
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By Justin TackettI love it. I subscribe to new York times as well, but I routinely get my news updates first from my free smart news app. I don't experience any of the problems I see in the other reviews, and I've been using it for quite awhile. A must download for person wanting to stay up to datemore less
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By Thomas RoundtreeI love the fact this app provides multiple points of view and allows you to slide to the right or the left to read topics more thoroughly. I agree with the other reviewers that it's annoying when I'm reading an article and it "updates" moving on so that I can't finish the article. Perhaps it would work better if it only updated when you return to the main page?? Thank you SmartNews.. You have allowed me to present news so that my wife is interested and because of that she registered and voted!more less
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A couple bugs and a suggestion
By tmanokcI 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.more less -
Would give 5 but...
By Upsetusernumber99First 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.more less -
Solid, simple and customizable
By airguitarbanditI 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.more less -
By Liz JansWish there was a larger selection of conservative news sources. General news tab definitely leans to leftie MSM sites. Can customize tabs -- needs more "right " leaning news to be truly balanced on. Most of the headline news on main tab are from left of center websites-- For example---How about including "the epoch times" articles on main news page?--- Developer will say it aggregates from many sources--- yes it does....liberal sources--definitely NOT balanced--am referring to main news page.more less
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By Renee HarleyUsed to love this app. I love having everything in one place. Lately, however, it's been awful. Articles won't load at all or you read halfway through the article and then it's just a blank page. I have a brand new phone with tons of space and memory, high speed internet and unlimited data so it's definitely the app. Restarting the app and my phone do not help. It would have 5 stars if it worked consistentlymore less
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By Terry BrezzellFirst review ever made but this app is pretty cool. But if I click on a notification to read about what it is, when I click out of it, the whole app closes down and when I restart the app the story that I assume is the newest news is hard, I mean really hard to find again. After looking for it for like 5mins a just give up. Please set it up to where it can at least take us to the main page so we can see the trending stories or something 🤷🏾♂️more less
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By Mia ThurstonAs other users have described - I am sick and tired of this app "refreshing" so that what I'm reading disappears and is never to be found again. I have taken to letting the app guide me to articles and then immediately opening the article into Chrome or another browser. it is ridiculous that I have to find a work around to use it. Still, it has the best layout and actually does the best at giving me what I'm looking for. I will drop it as soon as another app does better without this issue.more less
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Becoming more social and celebrity news source
By Exmon11When 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.more less -
Smart News, Bias Notifications
By Purplepunch12321I downloaded this app because I heard good things about it. Let’s face the facts here MSN is dominated and ruled by liberal bias. You can scream and shout and say otherwise but don’t let that cognitive dissonance get in the way, it is. Conservative/Republican MSM is Fox News and A.M. radio. Thats it. I have to admit, when I first downloaded this app, The homepage was almost split with different news sources. I’d say 40-60 split with liberal news still dominate. But fair. I really enjoy the food and wine pages and some of the entertainment. It’s good to see the contrast for political stories as well. The issue is with the push notifications. Why am I constantly getting news sources pushed to me that are anti-GOP, anti-Trump, and bias news favoring the left? I mean Jesus Christ...I got a couple notifications from sources like Huffington post...they’re nothing more than a glorified blog with bias points of views and zero fact. I like the notifications on my iPhone and watch. But I’m turning them off. I’ve never seen one pro conservative news story pushed to me. There is still a bias here and it’s obvious.more less
Filter Reviews
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Ad popping
By Don't even think about it1988This 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.more less -
App should be named MSNBC2
By GiveItARestAlreadyBeing 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.more less -
By Steve BoggsRecently instituted full page ads that can't be dismissed when exiting a page; is now essentially a spam app. I used to be a huge fan. Update: I'm not against ads. Just full screen ads that can't be dismissed and you have to exit the app to escape. Just had one again today.more less
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Better than most news apps but still some flaws
By NostatebluesWould 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 onemore less -
By Donte johnsonI used to live on this app. As always, greed will destroy a good thing. I completely understand the need for an ad or two, but you force us to watch them or close the app and restart it. I find myself reading apple news more now, never thought I'd ever do that. I'm now looking for a different app similar to this that I can switch to. Hope the invasive ads were worth it. Now if you exit an add you are sent back to the beginingof the news preview. You have to scroll to find where you weremore less
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Big Time Liberal News Aggregator
By Esbt123456Look 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.more less -
By John WMind numbing sometimes. The ads are sometimes intrusive but they often pull a bait and switch. For instance, swimwear is featured but open the link and anything but swimwear is shown. Everything from 5G phones to cars will appear. Very deceitful. Most of the so-called news isn't or is some sponsored content. You do better elsewhere.more less
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By Fu QueueThis used to be the best news app. A series of updates have made it absolutely frustratingly unusable constantly begging me to click things. Pretty much done with this won't do another update.Sad times especially because I would have considered buying this if that was even an option when it was in better shape. To update this specifically it is irritating to get a full page ad out of nowhere and have no option but to engage it. Meaning you literally do what everyone else does but much worse.more less
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Really?
By DivaRBFair 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?more less -
By Felix PerezUpdate: 2 days after writing the review I started getting push notifications. Working great so far but the ads that you have to click the "X" or "close" to close out of it is annoying and uncalled for. 21Feb21: No longer getting push alerts with LG Velvet android 10. Don't know why. I've tried everything.more less
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Used to be the best, now becoming unusable
By Pop is GloriousI’ve been a loyal user for years, and recommended this app to plenty of people. Now, it’s hardly functional, freezes constantly, and the ads have gone from full-screen pop-ups, to ads being wedged in between every 3rd headline. I understand the need for ad revenue, but charge me $5 up front, and clean up the ad garbage. When it works, it is an amazing news aggregator, and lets you parse a huge portion if the internet, quickly. Also, don’t buy into the reviews complaining about bias and bad reporting; this is a news aggregator, not a journalistic endeavor. It crawls the internet, automatically, and grabs content from random sites. Repeat, there are no reporters who work for Smart News. It is a robot piping in content from all over the internet, enabling the user to quickly scan content without visiting various sites. Fix the overheating and battery drain, scale back the ads, even if it costs users upfront, and allow specific topics/sites to be excluded by keyword, and this would be a 5 star app again.more less
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By Donte johnsonI used to live on this app. As always, greed will destroy a good thing. I completely understand the need for an ad or two, but you force us to watch them or close the app and restart it. I find myself reading apple news more now, never thought I'd ever do that. I'm now looking for a different app similar to this that I can switch to. Hope the invasive ads were worth it. Now if you exit an add you are sent back to the beginingof the news preview. You have to scroll to find where you weremore less
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By John WMind numbing sometimes. The ads are sometimes intrusive but they often pull a bait and switch. For instance, swimwear is featured but open the link and anything but swimwear is shown. Everything from 5G phones to cars will appear. Very deceitful. Most of the so-called news isn't or is some sponsored content. You do better elsewhere.more less
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By Fu QueueThis used to be the best news app. A series of updates have made it absolutely frustratingly unusable constantly begging me to click things. Pretty much done with this won't do another update.Sad times especially because I would have considered buying this if that was even an option when it was in better shape. To update this specifically it is irritating to get a full page ad out of nowhere and have no option but to engage it. Meaning you literally do what everyone else does but much worse.more less
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By Felix PerezUpdate: 2 days after writing the review I started getting push notifications. Working great so far but the ads that you have to click the "X" or "close" to close out of it is annoying and uncalled for. 21Feb21: No longer getting push alerts with LG Velvet android 10. Don't know why. I've tried everything.more less
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By Dr. Bear HancockI was so in love with this app.. been on it a long time and read it every day,, especially while having my coffee.. All of a sudden, over the last couple of days, more so today, I cannot finish a paragraph due to pop up ads. This has got me fed up and and I guess I'm going to delete this app and find another. I'm not paying for premium in order to get rid of ads. Farewell!more less
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By Chris KennerlyThis WAS a great app until the latest updates. The navigation bar was changed. The icon to cascade tabs was removed. This was one of the most useful features. It was also crashing randomly and often. I uninstalled then reinstalled and it seems to work now. Ever since the ability to cascade the tabs was removed, I found myself using this app less and less since it made navigation on a smartphone easier . I have since uninstalled .more less
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Ad popping
By Don't even think about it1988This 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.more less -
App should be named MSNBC2
By GiveItARestAlreadyBeing 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.more less -
By Steve BoggsRecently instituted full page ads that can't be dismissed when exiting a page; is now essentially a spam app. I used to be a huge fan. Update: I'm not against ads. Just full screen ads that can't be dismissed and you have to exit the app to escape. Just had one again today.more less
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Better than most news apps but still some flaws
By NostatebluesWould 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 onemore less -
Big Time Liberal News Aggregator
By Esbt123456Look 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.more less -
Really?
By DivaRBFair 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?more less -
Fox News/The Washington Examiner?
By aardvarkian777I enjoy the app but I wish there weren’t horribly biased “news” services mixed in with reputable ones. Some “news” outlets are gossipy, completely without merit, or are laughable propaganda. I can’t control the contributors on “Top” news for instance. “TheBlaze, Popsugar, Footwear News, US! Weekly, or People” are not offering headlines that are worthy of my time, in fact, someone perusing the top headlines should rightly conclude that Meagan McCain is the most important person in the world, Brian Kilmeade is second, and Kirstie Alley is tied for third with some random “Real Housewife of Where Ever.” This makes the world look nightmarish. It’s wearing me out sifting through the garbage. I have never clicked on Fox, TheBlaze, PopSugar, Footwear News, TMZ, Vogue, Mediate, The Pluralist, or Entertainment Tonight, yet I am not seeing any diminishment in their prominent representation in the top stories of the day, in fact, I’m finding that the more you don’t click on a news source, because you find it disgusting, the more you see it. Maybe the algorithm is broken. How can I successfully navigate through the day without seeing the”Top” news stories concerning the Kardashians, Tomi Lahren, or the Bachelorette? The advice I’m getting so far is not getting the Jessica Simpson out of my “Top News.” Sad.more less -
Content is tabloid trash.
By searcher7nine**Update regarding the developer's response below. The app does allow me to remove high level topics, none of which are "celebrity gossip". They talk about the app being a news aggregator, but then say I would have to manually add different tabs from various news sources. Well, if I have to switch between numerous tabs to look through the news then it's not doing much aggregating. Seeing all my preferred news sources on one tab would be aggregating. Finally, the links to contact the developer don't work! I wanted to clarify their comments and ask for support, but was unable to. And I've tried emailing my questions to the address provided, but with no response. Downgrading my rating to one star. Original review: The layout is nice, but that's the best thing I can say about this app. I like that I can see multiple news headlines on the screen at once. Other apps gave large photos or text so you can only view one or two without scrolling. But - there are way too many junk tabloid articles and over the top partisan hate pieces. I just want factual news which I might be able to achieve if this app let me block certain "news" sources. But it doesn't. I'm tired of wading through all the junk.more less -
By Tracy LeeThe latest update screwed up this app to the point it's worthless! I used to love this app and used it several times a day. Now it locks up my phone with stupid pop up ads that can't be closed. Ads that pop up repeatedly making it impossible to read the story. It's a worthless app nowmore less
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This is not an even sided App. It’s heavily to the left!
By FlywhiteGuy99The app is supposed to be able to curate material based on your ideals and selections but also give other options. It doesn’t do this. I’m an unashamed Republican who wants to hear from the left and hear and respect their opinions but this app gives me 5:1 Left leaning articles to Right leaning. And it’s progressively gotten worse. I’ve been with the app the whole time since day one but they really screwed up on this update. Now I have to see commercials on top of the random, fake, and weird ads stuffed into the articles. Often times the articles don’t load the pictures right (I have Fiber WiFi 1 gig and they don’t load), videos don’t always play, files are not found. Some stories curated for me want me to accept cookies and tracking agreements or they want me to pay to view their content. I get it, the L$ T/MES is failing along with all of print media but that doesn’t mean I’m going to support it online. All media and news should be free to view and insert an ad in there that’s fine. But you know it’s free so how much more can I really complain. Overall if you’re a normal Republican and looking for both sides equally presented this isn’t the one for you.more less
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- Award-winning news app downloaded over 25,000,000 times in over 100 countries
- Condenses and delivers headlines from top news outlets: NBC, MSNBC, USA Today, TIME, Reuters, Buzzfeed, The Huffington Post, and more
- “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
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SmartNews: Local Breaking News
Release Notes
8.29.0
Developer Information
- New channels include the DPA, Mamas Uncut, The 74 and many more.
- New channels include the Lexington Herald-Leader, Mamas Uncut, The 74 and many more.
- New channels include the Lexington Herald-Leader, Mamas Uncut, The 74 and many more.
- New channels include the Lexington Herald-Leader, Metro, In The Know and many more.
- New channels include the Lexington Herald-Leader, Metro, Goalcast and many more.
- New channels include The Longmont Leader, Mahoning Matters, Outsider and many more.
- New channels include Outsider, Good, Mom.com and many more.
- New channels include The Weather Channel, Wonkette, Mom.com and many more.
- New channels include The Weather Channel, Good, Giant Freakin Robot and many more.
- New channels include Localish, AlterNet, ABC7 New York and many more.
- New channels include Localish, GOBanking Rates, San Antonio Report and many more.
- New channels include Reddit, GAMINGbible, KQED and many more.
- New channels include GAMINGbible, Oola, KQED and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include NowThis, The List, Nicki Swift and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include BizWomen, The Business Journals and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Looper, Grunge, Mashed and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include BizWomen, The Business Journals and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include The Kitchn, Apartment Therapy and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include OK!, swissinfo, PureWow and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include The Kitchn, Apartment Therapy and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include OK!, swissinfo, PureWow and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Us Weekly, Thrillist, Hurricane Dorian and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include OK!, swissinfo, PureWow and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Us Weekly, Thrillist, Hurricane Dorian and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include The Daily Mail, Taste of Home, Yonhap News and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include The Daily Mail, Taste of Home, Yonhap News and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include BuzzFeed News, Crunchbase, Heavy, and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Billboard, The Washington Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Billboard, The Washington Times, The Hollywood Reporter, and many more.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Tech Times, Pretty52, Science Times, HoopsHype and Golfweek.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include The Big Lead, Al Jazeera, UNILAD, and The American Spectator.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Military Times, Defense News, Patheos, and Beliefnet.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Military Times, Defense News, Patheos, and Beliefnet.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include AccuWeather, SheKnows, DailyKos, HealthDay and CBS Sports.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include American Military News, World Politics Review and HealthDay.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include American Military News, World Politics Review and HealthDay.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Yahoo Entertainment and Yahoo Lifestyle.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- Welcoming Men’s Journal as a new channel.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- Welcoming Men’s Journal as a new channel.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, NextShark, Geek.com, and Investing.com.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, NextShark, Food52, AskMen, and Investing.com.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Yahoo News, Yahoo Finance, NextShark, Food52, AskMen, and Investing.com.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Decrypt Media, ExtremeTech, PCMag, Lonely Planet and March Madness.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Pacific Standard, Pride Media, Council on Foreign Relations and MIT Technology Review.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include The Blast, CinemaBlend, The Daily Signal, and Above the Law.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Considerable and The Bulwark.
- Newly added cities to our local channels: Louisville and Tulsa.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include ABC News, Inkstone, The Zoe Report, Field Level Media and several new local channels.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include The Epoch Times, Abacus, Atlas Obscura, and Christian News.
- Newly added cities to our local channels: Columbus, Austin, Hartford-New Haven, and Raleigh-Durham.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Foreign Policy, TooFab, and POPSUGAR.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include Boxing News and Views and TooFab.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include 9to5Mac, 9to5Google, Electrek, Knowhere News, POPSUGAR.
- General improvements to make sure we provide the news that matters to you.
- New channels include MMA, Truth Watch, Stylecaster, Artsy, and The Cut.
- Introducing a new way to quickly navigate through your channels! Try the new button in the lower right corner.
- Fixed a problem where users can’t launch the app on some specific old devices.
- New channels include MMA, Stylecaster, MamasLatinas, Artsy, and The Cut.
- Introducing a new way to quickly navigate through your channels! Try the new button in the lower right corner.
- New channels include MMA, Stylecaster, MamasLatinas, Artsy, and The Cut.
- English
- Japanese
Developer Information
- New channels include the DPA, Poynter, Hola and many more.
- New channels include the DPA, Mamas Uncut, The 74 and many more.
- New channels include the DPA, Mamas Uncut, The 74 and many more.
- New channels include the Lexington Herald-Leader, Mamas Uncut, The 74 and many more.
- New channels include the Lexington Herald-Leader, Metro, In The Know and many more.
- New channels include the Lexington Herald-Leader, Metro, Goalcast and many more.
- New channels include The Longmont Leader, Mahoning Matters, Outsider and many more.
- New channels include The Longmont Leader, Mahoning Matters, Outsider and many more.
- New channels include Outsider, Good, Mom.com and many more.
- New channels include The Weather Channel, Good, Giant Freakin Robot and many more.
- New channels include The Weather Channel, Good, Giant Freakin Robot and many more.
New channels include Localish, AlterNet, ABC7 New York and many more.
- New channels include Localish, GOBanking Rates, San Antonio Report and many more.
- New channels include Localish, GOBanking Rates, San Antonio Report and many more.
- New channels include Reddit, GAMINGbible, KQED and many more.
- New channels include GAMINGbible, Oola, KQED and many more.
- New channels include Chicago Sun-Times, Travel Awaits, KQED and many more.
- New channels include Chicago Sun-Times, Travel Awaits, Religion News Service and many more.
- New channels include Chicago Sun-Times, Travel Awaits, Religion News Service and many more.
- New channels include Chicago Sun-Times, Travel Awaits, Religion News Service and many more.
- Find out when it will start raining straight from your home screen! New Rain Radar & Weather Forecast widgets are now available. (iOS14 required)
- New channels include Good Morning America, Health Digest, BocaNewsNow.com and many more.
- Find out when it will start raining straight from your home screen! New Rain Radar Weather Forecast widgets are now available. (iOS14 required)
- New channels include Good Morning America, Health Digest, Blinkist and many more.
- Find out when it will start raining straight from your home screen! New Rain Radar & Weather Forecast widgets are now available. (iOS14 required)
- New channels include Good Morning America, Health Digest, Blinkist and many more.
- iOS 11 is no longer supported. Please update to iOS 12+ for full support going forward.
- Find out when it will start raining straight from your home screen! New Rain Radar & Weather Forecast widgets are now available. (iOS14 required)
- New channels include Good Morning America, Health Digest, Blinkist and many more.
- iOS 11 support will be discontinued in the next app update. Please update to iOS 12+ for full support going forward.
- New channels include Honolulu Star-Advertiser, Health Digest, Blinkist and many more.
- English
- Japanese
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SmartNews: Local Breaking News
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