iPhones and iPads are perfect tools for consuming news. You can quickly glance at the latest updates on your iPhone, then when you have more time, kick back and enjoy longer articles on your iPad. There are enough online news sources to suit every need, but separating the signal from the noise isn’t always easy.
Listed below are the best news apps that take the work out of finding and organizing the constant stream of online content. Whether you want news from sources you know and trust, or you’d prefer to discover new voices, the following apps have you covered.
Flipboard is one of the most popular news apps, and lets you use your social feeds to curate the best online content into your own personal magazines. You have full control over where your news on Flipboard comes from. You can choose from various publications, social feeds, and even topics created by other users. If you feel like helping others find better news, you can curate stories into a magazine and make it publicly available for others to follow.
Design is one of Flipboard’s strong points, and all of the articles are formatted for easy mobile reading. For most people, it’s the ideal app for news.
Circa
Unlike Flipboard, the news in Circa isn’t simply pulled in from other publications. A team of people edit news into bite-sized chunks that are displayed in what can almost be described as slideshows. Each slide makes up part of a story, and you swipe up to get to the next slide. The format is ideal for mobile viewing as it makes it easy to catch up with the latest stories while on the go.
To make sure you never miss an update, you can follow ongoing stories and receive notifications when anything significant occurs.
If you enjoy reading in-depth articles, this app isn’t for you, but if you want to consume news in bite-sized chunks, Circa is hard to beat.
TLDR
TLDR is another app that doesn’t force you to scroll through long in-depth articles. This apps uses content from various online sources, but instead of just displaying articles as they are, it shows you short summaries of each story. I prefer Circa’s format, but if you want your news from sources that you know and trust, TLDR is the better option.
News360
News360 is an ideal app for scanning through headlines, then drilling down into more detail. You can catch what’s happening with a quick glance at your screen, then if a story piques your curiosity, you can read more about it from various different sources.
Umano
For those of you who would rather listen to the news than read it, Umano is ideal. It lets you listen to professionals read news from your favorite publications. This means that you can easily catch up while commuting or completing chores. It’s a well-designed app that could be described as the Flipboard for audio.
Zite
Zite’s unique selling point is that over time, it learns more about your interests and starts to recommend news stories to you based on what it thinks you’ll want to read. While recommending content, the app aims to help you discover new sources and fresh opinions. The app is well designed and in theory, it takes away some of the work you have to do while searching for the best sources of news online.
Digg
Gone are the days when Digg was a cluttered website full of links. The iOS app is clean, minimal, and a joy to use. The articles on Digg give you a snapshot of what’s going on, and what’s being talked about the most online.
The mentioned apps are only the best of many more that are available in the App Store. They are all currently free, so I recommend trying them all out before settling on your ultimate choice.
