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SmartNews: Local Breaking News

SmartNews: Local Breaking News

SmartNews, Inc.

Breaking local news and weather forecasts from your neighborhood.

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

Ratings & Reviews

4.4
1.0M+ Ratings
  1. 5
    64+%
  2. 4
    21+%
  3. 3
    8+%
  4. 2
    3+%
  5. 1
    5+%

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

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

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

    Reviewed by Laura S on January 11, 2018

  • May 3, 2021

    By Justin Brende
    The biggest irritation I have with this app is this: I'll finish an article, go back to the main page, deal with the rare advertisement, and then the main page resets/refreshes. That refresh makes me lose my place and forces me to try and find where I left off, sometimes failing. I often close the app in a huff and won't open it for days afterwords.

  • Love!!! Aug 28, 2020

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

  • Apr 30, 2021

    By Jacob Dugan
    When ads are too close together, news text disappears and will not return. Color scheme is very difficult to read in low light. Content, when I am able to see it, is of very good quality. A later update has almost totally cleared the issue listed above. Support contacted me the same day as this review was issued, which to me shows an organization who wishes to bring the best product they can to the public. I find this refreshing.

  • A couple bugs and a suggestion Sep 20, 2020

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

  • May 6, 2021

    By Mary Matthews
    By and large useful. I get tired of all the "Top News" articles about sitcoms from the 1950s and '60s, especially "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffith Show." And I get *really* tired of "Top News" articles entitled "See what [actor I've never heard of] from [TV show I've never heard of] looks like today!"

  • Would give 5 but... Nov 21, 2019

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

  • May 3, 2021

    By Justin Brende
    The biggest irritation I have with this app is this: I'll finish an article, go back to the main page, deal with the rare advertisement, and then the main page resets/refreshes. That refresh makes me lose my place and forces me to try and find where I left off, sometimes failing. I often close the app in a huff and won't open it for days afterwords.

  • Love!!! Aug 28, 2020

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

  • Apr 30, 2021

    By Jacob Dugan
    When ads are too close together, news text disappears and will not return. Color scheme is very difficult to read in low light. Content, when I am able to see it, is of very good quality. A later update has almost totally cleared the issue listed above. Support contacted me the same day as this review was issued, which to me shows an organization who wishes to bring the best product they can to the public. I find this refreshing.

  • A couple bugs and a suggestion Sep 20, 2020

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

  • May 6, 2021

    By Mary Matthews
    By and large useful. I get tired of all the "Top News" articles about sitcoms from the 1950s and '60s, especially "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffith Show." And I get *really* tired of "Top News" articles entitled "See what [actor I've never heard of] from [TV show I've never heard of] looks like today!"

  • Would give 5 but... Nov 21, 2019

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

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

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

  • Customizable news Apr 6, 2021

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

  • May 4, 2021

    By wncjeep
    Generally I like it, but it pushes paid content that is straight out false/fake news or click bait. Also there is no way restrict certain publications that you don't like or rank the ones you like to present higher. For some reason it thinks I want news from the UK in my top news, so everyday I click on a headline only to discover it is from UK.

  • Solid, simple and customizable Jan 28, 2020

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

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

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

  • May 4, 2021

    By Steve Koch
    In response to the developer, "We want SmartNews to be accessible to everyone...". Ok, well, full page ads that DISABLE the Android back button makes it inaccessible to me. An ad-free subscription OPTION would make it accessible to everyone. I probably need to report this app to Google given that you're disabling built-in OS functionality. Original review: Uninstalled. Intrusive full page video ads that you have to guess where to click to close out of. Headed back to Google News.

  • Ad popping Sep 29, 2020

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

  • May 3, 2021

    By Adios Uppella
    Unremovable autoplay video ads make this app extremely annoying. There is an option in the settings to turn off auto-play, but it has no effect. Video ads appear with every screen full of text, most of which is repetitive and poorly written. So you'll see the same text in a clip of a Twitter tweet and then re-written in the article. Too much clickbait; every day there's a headline about some asteroid that's about to destroy the Earth but by the end of the article you read that it actually won't.

  • App should be named MSNBC2 Oct 30, 2018

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

  • Apr 17, 2021

    By Stephen Pomeroy
    I used to love this app. But as of today, April 17th, 2021, whenever I try to read a story in the app something autoplays music. I cannot find the ad that's doing it so that I can mute it, and honestly I shouldn't have to. I don't mind the ads, it's a free app and I understand they're necessary. They've never been intrusive before, but an autoplay app with music or any sort of volume, especially when it can't be tracked down and turned off while in app is completely unacceptable.

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

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

  • Apr 16, 2021

    By Mike Battistoni
    This used to be my go to app for news. Many of the ads now do not respond to the back button and force you to close them from within the ad. When you do so it reloads the app, forcing you to find the point you were at when the ad interrupted you. I'm not against ads. I understand that this is how aggregators make their money. I just don't understand how the developers could allow such a clunky fault to ruin a good thing. I'll be looking for something else now.

  • Big Time Liberal News Aggregator Oct 14, 2019

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

  • Apr 29, 2021

    By RACHEL
    This app is nice but the refreshing of the stories before i can click to read them and whatever stupid ad is playing clown music in the background. Im trying to read a breaking news story about a shooting and there is stupid clown music playing in the background that i cant find the ad to stop it and it plays over anything I click on the app. . Get it together Google.
See all negative reviews
  • img Community
    Finding credibly sourced news can be difficult especially if you spend 1-2 hours on social media everyday. Don't worry about clicking on news sources there. Instead open this and know that you are getting breaking news with facts and no fluff.
    img by Christina
    1 year ago
  • img Community
    Running for office can be difficult with keeping up with your public image, and listening to 100s or 1000s of opinions and what they want you to achieve. Stay up to date with all the major issues so you know how to help your voters.
    img by David
    1 year ago
  • img Community

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

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

    Reviewed by Laura S on January 11, 2018

See All Expert Reviews

  • Love!!! Aug 28, 2020

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

  • Wow Jul 27, 2019

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

  • Smart, direct, honest Sep 22, 2018

    By beishaolin
    This is one of only 2 apps that I use for news. I prefer news that is just that: news. The feeds come from a variety of sources and one can choose what one reads. In our unhealthy news climate, there is a present danger of buckling to the insanity of fringe news from actual non-news sites that cater to a select type wishing to reinforce their agenda. This app keeps the news as it is and unfiltered. For those who only want to read their own talking points back and forth in a limited circle squeezing each other off, they can probably tweak their choices to arrive at that too, but how sad. The news is about fair coverage as it is given by long established and sincere journalists. I appreciate such a well written app and the plethora of offerings from news of all types. Please keep up the good work. Do not succumb to those tiny voices who wish to change the very definition of news.

  • Apr 18, 2021

    By Hector R.
    Today's technology is helping in many ways. After getting up in the morning, with a cup of coffee, SmartNews keeps me well informed of current News situation. With a glance you see brief short and simple ongoing News, with more detail opening the article to continue. Can't ask for more! Good work to the application team.👍

  • Ran into a paywall for news contributor, Foreign Policy. Jun 15, 2020

    By Appleigo
    You have recently (I think) included the news source ‘Foreign Policy’ in your news feeds. I’ve clicked on their articles and have REALLY liked them. The complaint I have and would like to share is that after viewing 3(maybe?) of their articles, I’m now getting a paywall after 3-4 paragraphs that says to read the rest of the article I have to subscribe to their news site to read the rest of the article. I haven’t run into that in any of your other news connections, but I will admit that I don’t know what your policy is for including articles from different sources. If this limitation is acceptable then please accept my understanding although I probably won’t bother opening their articles. If it is not acceptable then I figured you would want to know. Other than this, I love your app and have recommended it to a few other friends!

  • The Best App of Its Kind — Areas for Improvement Jun 29, 2019

    By FlyBoyMcCall
    I have been using this app since Version 1 and I am pleased with the way it continues to improve. With respect to the conservative versus liberal bias question, the developers face a challenge to satisfy the judgments of all sides. Overall, I think they do a good job but there is room for improvement in filtering “news” sources that are purely lies from the main news tab. For example, Chris Wallace is an objective if conservative reporter on Fox News, whereas Hannidy is a propagandist who frequently lies and shows no ability to reason objectively. He does not belong on the Main news tab. Also, I am concerned with the number of articles written by bots. These articles are terribly written, often redundant, and fail to convey information accurately. Please consider eliminating articles written by bots. The boilerplate response I received did not respond to the issue I raised.

  • Smart News is my primary news source Feb 16, 2020

    By Mbeaven
    I use to use multiple Apps to check out both sides of the news, now I primarily use Smart News. I wish they would allow the user to request additional news stories from a single source after reading what is presented in Smart News limited number of stories from a single news source. I also wish they gave the user a chance to increase both the size of the font in the news story, but also bold text, and increased contrast of text. Of all the many news Apps I've used, and I've used quite a few, Smart News seems to be the best, as it provides a single App access to so many news sources. Keep up the good work!!! I spend hours a day using your app to educate myself. In my opinion this is a great App. I do have one request, and that is to add a search feature.

  • Trial and Error led me here! Jun 12, 2019

    By stemp005
    I downloaded every single news app I could find on the App Store to figure out which one I liked the most and this one was by FAR the best. It doesn’t have original news stories, it takes the news from every credible news source on the internet and compiles it into one amazing app. If I want to read an article written by CNN or FOX, it’s there, New York Times, ABC, even Buzzfeed (meh) is on this app. I love it because you can read stories from multiple sources and decide what you think about them on your own instead of reading one FOX article and just taking what it says as fact. You can compare different biased writers and pick the truth out of the story. It even has news categories for things like fitness, sports, technology, space, U.S news, Top news, international news, etc. This app has it ALL!

  • Top Tab Edit Function Required Jul 29, 2019

    By Riсhаrd
    I already received a response to my previous review and I am changing the rating to something more reasonable and refining my review as follows: Now, although I can have varying news sources across my tabs, and I do, I would greatly prefer to have a better ratio of right and left leaning publications on the Top tab. I am moderate, but there are still publications that are far too left, and far too right on the Top tab in my opinion, and I just want to see the ones that I enjoy instead of ones that infuriate me at a single glance. On top of that, there are publications that are simply not in line with my interests at all, but a great deal of stories from those entities are what seem to fill up my Top tab. An editing feature would make the Top tab significantly more useful, and would be greatly appreciated. I do like your app tremendously, and I simply want to see it be more flexible and customizable so we might perhaps get more people to consider it as their primary news aggregation app. Update: apparently if you mention politics at all in your review, they send you a canned response that tells you about conservative news outlets that are available on the app. I received the same practically identical response twice.

  • Jack Apr 11, 2020

    By sosa2133
    This is one of the better news apps , i like the fact that you get articles from a variety of different sources . I think as a whole the app has somewhat of a bias and leans to what they believe , but with new information they can switch on that idea and give articles and information about the truth . I’m Not a “ republican “ or “ democrat “ an unbiased observer not trying to be right , “ but get it right “ that being said for me the site has many sources but honestly it does seem to veer a little to the left I would like it to maybe incorporate some other view points that are much different than the mold here . Like I said I think it’s great and pretty flexible in putting in ideas that make sense but I would like it to go deeper with articles that maybe challenge the viewer .
See all 5 reviews

  • Apr 30, 2021

    By Jacob Dugan
    When ads are too close together, news text disappears and will not return. Color scheme is very difficult to read in low light. Content, when I am able to see it, is of very good quality. A later update has almost totally cleared the issue listed above. Support contacted me the same day as this review was issued, which to me shows an organization who wishes to bring the best product they can to the public. I find this refreshing.

  • A couple bugs and a suggestion Sep 20, 2020

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

  • Would give 5 but... Nov 21, 2019

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

  • Solid, simple and customizable Jan 28, 2020

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

  • Oh Please Jan 31, 2020

    By blishblash
    So many comments from conservative folks about the “fairness” of the news on here. News is only supposed to be factual. It’s just supposed to be the reporting of events and what folks said. So when the news reports on that terrible thing Donald Trump said or did and you can’t believe that - even though there may be video right in front of you of DT doing or saying these things - maybe you need to get help to realize what is actual reality and what is Donald Trump’s reality. I’m in fact on the opposite end. Seeing “news” from Pluralist, FoxNews, TheBlaze when the reality of these outlets is outright lying and propaganda designed to only help Trump - it makes me want to delete SmartNews. That crap isn’t news. I wish the developers of this app well as they are in a tough position. Hopefully one day the Fairness Doctrine can be implemented again. Although I have a feeling conservatives would label the Doctrine some sort of liberal conspiracy. Or whatever crazy thing Trump drills in their heads.

  • Stop the Popups! Jan 7, 2021

    By NubianP6
    I have been using Smart news several times a day, every day for years now, and I have enjoyed it for the most-part. However, as of January 1, 2021, I am now being greeted by a pop-up urging me to enable location services, which I have no desire to do. It is understandable that the app would request permission for such a feature, but it is requesting permission after EVERY•SINGLE•STORY read! It is beyond annoying and feels like harassment! If this problem isn’t rectified within a week, I will be uninstalling this app. Your readers should be given a choice of which features to enable, and not be harassed when they don’t choose in accordance with YOUR preferences. Update: I am updating my review to reflect a 4-star rating, because I am no longer being bombarded with popups. For everyone who’s whining about the app being too “left-leaning”, perhaps you should search for a Breitbart app, or some other tabloidesque news affiliate...and this is coming from an Independent.

  • Lots of news from multiple perspectives Oct 12, 2019

    By lirielmcr
    I really like being able to customize my newsfeed to suit my reading habits without having to pay or subscribe to a particular news source. If I want to read more about a particular story there are links to other articles about the topic. There is lots of interesting information available from multiple perspectives in one place. Here is my personal pet peeve. While I can add or delete topics I cannot add or delete a particular source. I would like to be able to delete individual “news” sources, as I don’t consider some of them to be reputable and would prefer them not to clutter up my feed. I just do not want to know the latest malicious gossip about the royal family of England, and I have strong negative feelings about outlets that report that kind of dreck. Yes, you IBT!!!! There is a reason that I don’t have a gossip tab on my feed. Please allow me to make this go away!

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

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

  • A breath of fresh air in a climate where corporate media is so biased Jan 18, 2020

    By RobzApps
    I’m incredibly grateful for finding this app. I get to read both sides and make my own judgment on a topic versus relying on corporate media to shove biased, agenda-driven news down my throat. One thing I’d like to see added to give it a full 5 stars: a save article or bookmark article function. Twitter and Reddit have this function that saves things in a personal “saved posts” or “saved tweets” section within the app so that you can find an article if you’d like to refer back to it or you’ve saved it for later viewing. The reason I find that such a big deal here is that the news articles on your personal feed are constantly changing and an article I might have seen in my feed but wanted to read later due to time constraints will no longer be there next time I open the app since the the feed has updated by then. I’ve lost many articles I’d have love to have read but didn’t remember the topic due to this and it’s pretty frustrating. Other than that, this app nailed it for people that are tired of feeling like they’re being spoon-fed garbage news from corporate media channels. Their jobs as corporate media companies is to force their hidden agendas on us viewers and not to give us news straight. A much needed app in this climate of so much misinformation.

  • This app is devisive Sep 8, 2020

    By krist2500000000
    I really enjoyed this app initially as I had news at my fingertips from multiple news sources. But I have increasingly found that my checking out human interest stories or checking liberal sources to find out pieces of information that I will want to corroborate later with my actual news has increasingly skewed my news toward providing inflammatory pieces presented as news. The prevalence of sophisticated “news” articles that are presented as facts when they are really opinion pieces is an integral part of what allows people to be divided and is tearing our country apart. You should have a default of centrist and credible news sources BEFORE any liberal or conservative “news” and you should have a colored indicator of how liberal or conservative that source is. To do anything else is to contribute to the division of our country and to contribute to the mistrust of our news organizations.
See all 4 reviews

  • May 3, 2021

    By Justin Brende
    The biggest irritation I have with this app is this: I'll finish an article, go back to the main page, deal with the rare advertisement, and then the main page resets/refreshes. That refresh makes me lose my place and forces me to try and find where I left off, sometimes failing. I often close the app in a huff and won't open it for days afterwords.

  • May 6, 2021

    By Mary Matthews
    By and large useful. I get tired of all the "Top News" articles about sitcoms from the 1950s and '60s, especially "I Love Lucy" and "The Andy Griffith Show." And I get *really* tired of "Top News" articles entitled "See what [actor I've never heard of] from [TV show I've never heard of] looks like today!"

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

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

  • Customizable news Apr 6, 2021

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

  • May 4, 2021

    By wncjeep
    Generally I like it, but it pushes paid content that is straight out false/fake news or click bait. Also there is no way restrict certain publications that you don't like or rank the ones you like to present higher. For some reason it thinks I want news from the UK in my top news, so everyday I click on a headline only to discover it is from UK.

  • Apr 17, 2021

    By Tizzy-Licious
    I used to love this app but not so much anymore. The pop-up ads are annoying especially since most articles have their own ads. And now, dinky music just plays in the background. At first I thought it was an article ad but after closing the article, it kept playing. After i close the app, it keeps playing unless I force stop the app....very annoying!

  • Apr 16, 2021

    By Samuel Bruno
    It's a good tool to compile various news sources. I do have some complaints however. The interface could be more streamlined to narrow down to the more specific sources, and topics. For the first couple of months I spent a majority of the time using the app to cut out certain sources and compile others. It would be nice to have a slide feature to aid in which articles give you notifications, appear on first tab, etc. I know thise feature are within the app, but it seems ineffective, and esoteric

  • May 6, 2021

    By rierie c.
    It's OK. But.... With every headline is a picture that completely doesn't match the article. Also There are so many articles that appear to be written by 4th graders...misspelled words ect. then the article ends up contradicted later in the story in a few cases ... Just saying... No..no ...why do I need 2 submit SCREENSHOTS?? YOU NEED 2 HANDLE YOUR BUSINESS AND GET WITH THE DEPARTMENT WHO HANDLES IT. YOU GUYS GIVE THE THANKS 4 THE FEEDBACK B.S. SAME RESPONSE 2 EVERYONE.

  • Smart News, Bias Notifications Dec 1, 2017

    By Purplepunch12321
    I 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.

  • Too soon to judge, but..... Jan 11, 2019

    By Otto from WNY
    I’m giving 3 stars because I just downloaded and opened and have not yet explored enough to give it 1 or 5 but wanted to address a common thread in the reviews and review responses I saw before downloading: many users complaining of left-leaning bias and developers responding with a canned response stating the app is optimized for balanced news and to just go add FoxNews or NY Post or Blaze. That’s all fine and good, but it should be balanced from the start and then tweakable. The first thing I saw upon opening was a barrage of “top stories”, 90% of which from left sources. That is inherent bias from the start. The default state of the app should reflect its claim of balance. Basically, if you’re liberal, you’re already set up. If you’re conservative, you have to work at it. Now I will customize and see if it delivers and will update my review accordingly. My recommendation to developers would be to eliminate the bias from the start. In its default state it is a big turnoff to half of your potential users.
See all 3 reviews

  • Apr 16, 2021

    By Mike Battistoni
    This used to be my go to app for news. Many of the ads now do not respond to the back button and force you to close them from within the ad. When you do so it reloads the app, forcing you to find the point you were at when the ad interrupted you. I'm not against ads. I understand that this is how aggregators make their money. I just don't understand how the developers could allow such a clunky fault to ruin a good thing. I'll be looking for something else now.

  • Apr 29, 2021

    By RACHEL
    This app is nice but the refreshing of the stories before i can click to read them and whatever stupid ad is playing clown music in the background. Im trying to read a breaking news story about a shooting and there is stupid clown music playing in the background that i cant find the ad to stop it and it plays over anything I click on the app. . Get it together Google.

  • May 1, 2021

    By Shawn Nason
    The app has only the publications that they want to show you. Mostly not the ones that I want. And the app has a dark theme available, and most of the headlines are displayed in that dark theme, which is good But as soon as you click on the articles to read them, they are in the original too-bright light theme

  • May 1, 2021

    By barb sinnett
    I like this news app but Trump needs to get off of all news feeds! I understand how you report but that monster needs to leave all public feeds and pages. But thats me. Now the app stops after 2 minutes. Have timed it, waited to see of the freezing goes back to normal, but 99% of the time it just stops. I'm uninstalling for now. Very sad it's not been made better.

  • Not a bad app but!!! Mar 25, 2019

    By Neogambit
    I read a lot of the reviews on here and every one is I thought you said this app is “balanced” news. But everybody is complaining it’s not balanced because all there looking for is one side of the story. There either for Trump or against him. They don’t want to hear the other side. To Trump supporters of its not Fox News it’s Fake news. So why are you looking to find “balanced” news when you really don’t want to hear it??? The same goes the other way. The second thing. The reason I gave this app a low score is because I understand you have a free app and you need revenue but the pop up adds and all the advertising is absolutely ridiculous. There are news sources that don’t even let you see the news because there advertising for you to buy something from them. CNN has at least 4-5 pop ups in the first 10-15 seconds. I couldn’t even go into a comments section because it just kept popping up to the same exact spot even if I tried to scroll up or down. It is ridiculous. I think I’ve had enough of this app. I’ll find my news (on both sides) somewhere else.

  • NOT BALANCED NEWS Feb 27, 2019

    By Usnret04
    The devs want you to think that their app is balanced and "optimized" to provide news from both sides. If you prefer more conservative news or even some kind of balance from 98% left leaning news, they recommend adding FOX News or Washington Examiner tabs. That's just TWO sites that they offer among hundreds of left leaning news sites. Doesn't seem so balanced to me. Today, Feb 27...Cohen is lying (some call it testifying) to Congress today. Trump is meeting Kim in Vietnam for possible peace talks. So far EVERY notification today was about lying Cohen. The HISTORIC meeting between the US President and the NK leader is the fourth story. This is day in and day out. Smart News does have a nice layout. But don't be fooled by the developers. They have NO intention on making this app balanced. If they did, they would allow you to remove the extreme news sources from BOTH sides, but you can't. I've been patient for months waiting for this so called "optimization" to occur (yes with the conservative news apps selected). But it doesn't happen because it's not in their algorithim to do so no matter what they spout.

  • Fake News is Present on this App Jul 22, 2018

    By jbw29
    I love the idea of this app and enjoy the interface. The developers did a nice job designing an app that people will enjoy using. Unfortunately, I started getting articles that were pure nonsense. These were tech and sports articles that were nothing more than angry journalists who were out to slander particular people with no basis for the “facts” they were claiming. I know that by “unbiased” the developers mean it is optimized to give the views of both political sides, which is fair I bet they did their best on that. However, this is not a political issue, as I customized the app to filter out all political topics, I mainly read sports and tech, which is straight forward. And still, somehow the TOP article on the tech page is from the New York Post and is completely absent of facts. This “journalist” (which btw, the article did not even state the authors name), was simply writing sensationalism with no in-depth analysis of facts. Very tabloid-like, and if this this the TOP article in the section about technology then there has to be a better news app out there.

  • Biased info Jan 16, 2021

    By NZ Fun
    This is definitely fully Democrat biased information. I would like to see a little more balance instead of just as much Negative information you can possibly muster up toward the Republicans. I am in between and like to look at both sides of the story instead of all one way. Maybe Trump has made some bad choices, but so has The left with condoning all the riots that took place this last summer! That certainly wasn’t publicized and ridiculed like this situation with Trump is! There is a balance in there and I would like to see some of the Positive things Trump has done for this country talked about too instead of only negative! Your news right ups can’t even say one positive thing about our first lady who is elegant and beautiful with her word and morals. You only criticize her if she doesn’t smile perfectly every moment of every speech, only things Nancy Pelosi has to say get out there when it’s derogatory toward Republicans! There is good and bad to both sides and I would like to see a balance of reporting for both sides not just all negative toward the conservatives.

  • Used to be the best, now becoming unusable Feb 25, 2021

    By Pop is Glorious
    I’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.

  • The way the alerts work is extremely irritating Oct 1, 2019

    By NewYorkDavid
    I love perusing the stories that are selected for me, but I find it extremely frustrating that when I click on one of the alerts, all the other alerts I’ve received then vanish, so I can’t click on those stories. Also, some time ago, some alerts started to be combined into three stories per alert, and when I click on that kind of alert, it doesn’t take me to any of those stories. If the Alerts persisted when I clicked on them, and if clicking on an one of those alerts that has three stories took me to a screen that showed me the three stories in the alert (without having to scroll through dozens of other stories, or more if I waited a while before clicking), then this would easily be a five star app. As it is, I keep thinking about deleting this app, just because dealing with the alerts is such a source of frustration, and there are other news apps there which might not be as well-curated, but which don’t have these kinds of problems with their alerts.
See all 2 reviews
  • img Community

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

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

  • May 4, 2021

    By Steve Koch
    In response to the developer, "We want SmartNews to be accessible to everyone...". Ok, well, full page ads that DISABLE the Android back button makes it inaccessible to me. An ad-free subscription OPTION would make it accessible to everyone. I probably need to report this app to Google given that you're disabling built-in OS functionality. Original review: Uninstalled. Intrusive full page video ads that you have to guess where to click to close out of. Headed back to Google News.

  • Ad popping Sep 29, 2020

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

  • May 3, 2021

    By Adios Uppella
    Unremovable autoplay video ads make this app extremely annoying. There is an option in the settings to turn off auto-play, but it has no effect. Video ads appear with every screen full of text, most of which is repetitive and poorly written. So you'll see the same text in a clip of a Twitter tweet and then re-written in the article. Too much clickbait; every day there's a headline about some asteroid that's about to destroy the Earth but by the end of the article you read that it actually won't.

  • App should be named MSNBC2 Oct 30, 2018

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

  • Apr 17, 2021

    By Stephen Pomeroy
    I used to love this app. But as of today, April 17th, 2021, whenever I try to read a story in the app something autoplays music. I cannot find the ad that's doing it so that I can mute it, and honestly I shouldn't have to. I don't mind the ads, it's a free app and I understand they're necessary. They've never been intrusive before, but an autoplay app with music or any sort of volume, especially when it can't be tracked down and turned off while in app is completely unacceptable.

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

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

  • Big Time Liberal News Aggregator Oct 14, 2019

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

  • Apr 23, 2021

    By Russ Waller
    Updated review #3: After reading all of the reviews complaining about the new ad platform since late 2020 and all the developer is willing to do is copy/paste the same response to all of them. Clearly you don't care. Uninstalled for good. Too bad because this app WAS great. How hard is it to acknowledge the new ad format isn't working and to actually do something about it? So many like myself have suggested a pay option like every other app offers.

  • Apr 25, 2021

    By K.
    This was my favorite news app until the propaganda started being shoved down my throat with no option to opt out of seeing stories from those news outlets. Maybe make a "I don't want to see stories from this outlet" in the drop down menu when you click it. *Edit: that's fantastic that you think I need to have literal lies, propaganda and racist/homophobic content in my face for the sake of seeing "the other side", but I see the other sides bs every. single. day., so no.
See all 1 reviews

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