Overhauled Google News app for iPhone arrives on the App Store

Google News revised

The new Google News app has arrived for iOS devices. The revised app, which was announced at Google’s annual developer’s conference, I/O, earlier this month, takes advantage of artificial intelligence and machine learning to bring you stories.

In perhaps its most significant update since it first arrived in the App Store, the official Google News app offers content based on your designated news sources and perhaps, more importantly, your past reading history. In doing so, the universal app organizes your content in real-time.

Google News briefing

On Google New’s For You page, you’ll find a five-story briefing (with an icon showing your location’s current weather conditions) followed by news articles featuring content you’ve shown an interest in previously.

Under Headlines are stories organized by general topics such as Business, Technology, and Entertainment. Each story includes two icons after the summary of the article. When clicked, the first icon takes you to a Full Coverage page. Presented here are links to additional resources on the same topic as the main article. When tapped, the second icon offers sharing options, plus a link to hide future stories from the current content provider.

favorites newstand

The third page, Favorites, is where you can further customize the Google News app to suit your interests. You can add new topics and sources on this screen. Your saved searches and articles are also located here.

Finally, under the Newsstand tab, you’ll find content organized by the source or topic. For example, you might find sections like Get cookin’ or Find your next adventure here on this page, or the top 10 most important news topics right now. You can also browse by category.

The new Google News app is definitely a step in the right direction, and it will be interesting to see how it matures over the coming weeks and months. Additionally, I wonder whether this update will force Cupertino to make some wholesale changes to its native Apple News app.

You can download Google News on the App Store for free.