Ryan Haines / Android Authority
Google News is that one constant app that has stayed on my phone’s home screen forever. No matter how many phones — or even platforms — I’ve switched, it has somehow maintained its position every single time. While Twitter has often been the go-to platform for trending news, Google News has been the reliable, traditional news source that has remained steady and largely unchanged.
That’s perhaps one of its biggest downsides. Google News hasn’t undergone any significant transformation in several years. I’m greeted with the same layout and design I’ve been seeing for ages. That familiarity eventually became a turn-off, pushing me to look for alternatives and try out a bunch of similar apps on the Play Store. Ironically, that exercise only made my respect for Google News grow.
What’s your primary news app on Android? 215 votes Google News 70 % Twitter/X 5 % A news outlet's app 5 % Something else 20 %
News aggregators are my pal
Andy Walker / Android Authority
There are far too many apps on the Play Store from individual news outlets. I’ve always stayed clear of them because I don’t want to rely on a single channel for my daily news. I want a mix of sources and voices. Some outlets do tech better, others excel at world news, politics, or entertainment. And then there are a handful that do a decent job with local coverage of my city.
That’s one of the biggest reasons I’ve stuck with Google News so far. So when I went looking for alternatives, I was still very much looking for news aggregators. While that narrowed my search, most of the apps I tried felt like they were trying hard to be different — and failing miserably at it.
The alternatives that fell flat on their face
When I started my search, the internet kept pointing me toward SmartNews. People were generally raving about it. Unfortunately, it didn’t work for me because it’s only available in two editions: the US and Japan. The same goes for Apple News. For someone in India, the search just continued.
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