Millions of people use news aggregators daily to catch up on what’s happening worldwide, but which ones are worth your time? Here are 10 of the best news aggregator apps you should check out.
What We Like
Its no-nonsense approach to news reporting.
Photo galleries are beautiful.
What We Don’t Like
It’s a bit plain compared to other apps on this list (except for the gorgeous photo galleries).
While various news outlets have mobile apps, AP News is the place to go if you’re looking for the facts. The Associated Press is an independent, nonprofit news cooperative providing content to other outlets. The organization has won 52 Pulitzer Prizes since the award was established in 1917.
Although the app isn’t as fancy as others on this list, it’s clean, readable, and full of beautiful photo galleries from the AP’s award-winning photojournalists.
Download For:
What We Like
The personal briefing provides a concise snapshot of the day’s big news stories.
Polished format.
Easy to subscribe to publications you like.
What We Don’t Like
Not every article in your feed will be relevant to your interests.
Google Reader might be gone, but the technology behemoth still has a popular news aggregator in the form of Google News. Like other apps on this list, it pulls thousands of articles from credible online news organizations, blogs, and magazines and presents them in a polished format.
Google News gives you the option to set up a personal briefing that updates throughout the day with relevant stories, or you can choose to get full coverage about a topic, including different perspectives, a timeline of key events, and more.
Additionally, Google makes it easy to subscribe to newspapers and magazines with a single tap, so you can support the publications you love.
Download For:
What We Like
SmartView mode for people with slower connections.
Get top trending news stories from around the word.
Colorful, simple interface.
What We Don’t Like
Emphasizes discovery over personalization, so you may see stories you’re not interested in.
SmartNews claims to analyze millions of articles every day to deliver the top trending news stories from around the world. It favors discovery over personalization, offering a “both sides” perspective to the latest trending topics. Users can then choose channels, which are articles grouped by publications or by themes like Politics, Science, or Entertainment, and how often they receive headlines as notifications.
The app’s interface is simple, yet colorful, and its SmartView mode promises to tune out distractions and improve readability, a handy feature for people with slower connections.
Download For:
What We Like
Like most Apple products, it looks great.
Articles optimized for your platform.
Save articles for offline viewing.
Easily find, download, and manage your subscriptions and issues.
What We Don’t Like
Like most Apple products, it’s hampered by being part of a closed ecosystem.
Apple News comes preloaded on every iOS device, so it’s a good place to start if you’re an iPhone or iPad owner looking to catch up on the day’s news. The app features a clean format with beautiful photography, and articles are optimized for iPhone, iPad, and Mac, so readers are guaranteed a good reading experience on any device.
Apple News offers a wide selection of news organizations and indie publications, and Apple promises it will get better at understanding a user’s interests the more they use it. It also features a daily, curated digest and the ability to save articles for offline viewing.
With the iOS 14.5 update, Apple News introduced a streamlined search function to make it easier to find the topics, channels, and stories that interest you.
What We Like
Bookmarks online articles.
Makes recommendations based on your interests.
Share stories easily.
What We Don’t Like
It’s missing some notable categories like Sports and Politics.
Pocket is a great tool for bookmarking and managing lists of internet articles you want to read later, and it’s also a good place to find stories. All you do is select the Recommended or Explore links to find a variety of trending articles on the Pocket network. Recommendations are partly based on previous articles you saved, so there’s a good chance you’ll find something matching your interests.
Pocket is available for mobile and web browsers, and it’s integrated into over 500 applications, which makes it simple to save and share your favorite stories.
Download For:
What We Like
Its magazine-style format is beautiful to look at.
Creates personalized digital magazines.
Wide swath of topics to choose from.
What We Don’t Like
Coverage of trending stories can get repetitive.
Flipboard is a popular news aggregator known for its lovely magazine-style layout. Available via web browsers or on iOS and Android, it takes content from news sources and social media, presents it as a personalized digital magazine, and lets users “flip” through it.
Flipboard claims to offer a “curated experience with a plurality of voices,” meaning odds are good you’ll find something worth reading every time you open the app.
Download For:
What We Like
Quirky headlines.
Find news stories you may not see anywhere else.
What We Don’t Like
There’s currently no Android version.
Fark is a good place to find news of a more peculiar variety. Created by Drew Curtis in 1999, community members submit potential news stories to the website on a daily basis, and the Fark team chooses around 100 to display on the homepage. Articles are categorized with tags like Awkward, Creepy, Ironic, or Florida.
Fark is further broken up over several tabs for Entertainment, Sports, Politics, and more. There’s also a mobile app called Hey! On Fark.com for iOS. However, Android users will have to stick with the mobile version of the website for now.
What We Like
Active community for practically any topic.
Contribute your own photos, memes, and stories.
Tailor your news feed.
Yes, Reddit has a reputation for housing some terrible internet content, but there’s good there as well. If you’re looking for a blend of interesting news, memes, and community chat, it’s worth checking out.
Tailor your news feed by subscribing to various subreddits or contribute your own photos, memes, and stories. Reddit has a pretty engaged community, meaning there’s always something worth reading or discussing. Plus, the official app offers some new features like community group chat, a night mode, and more.
Download For:
What We Like
Article translations are a nice feature for people who read a lot of international news.
Save articles to Dropbox or Evernote.
What We Don’t Like
Puts some features behind a paywall.
Inoreader is an RSS reader with a vibrant community of content curators, a Discovery mode, user-generated subscription bundles, and more.
It offers a free plan where people can subscribe to unlimited news feeds and folders and read them on any device. There are also day and night reading modes, free search and archiving of all your subs, and the ability to save articles to third-party tools like Dropbox or Evernote.
The upgraded Pro plan is paid for and includes push notifications, offline mode, article translation, and more.
Download For:
What We Like
Works across a variety of platforms and browsers.
Works on browsers, iOS, and Android.
Hide unwanted topics or keywords.
What We Don’t Like
It’s less user-friendly than other apps on this list.
Available for browsers, iOS, and Android, Feedly lets you subscribe to content feeds from websites covering a wide range of topics from sports to politics to entertainment. It has multiple layout options, tagging, keyboard shortcuts, and more. A mute filters feature lets you fine-tune your feeds by hiding unwanted topics or keywords.
Best of all, its cloud-syncing feature lets you save and read articles across devices or share them on social media, so you’ll never be without something to read whether you’re at home or on the go.
Download For:
Thanks for letting us know!
Tell us why!