One of the more intriguing announcements at Google I/O 2018 last week was that of a new Google News app to take the place of the Google Play Newsstand, which first launched in 2013. After detailing the app last week in a dedicated page for the app on its website, Google released the app on the App Store and Google Play this week.
As Google explains, the Google News app “uses a new set of AI techniques to take a constant flow of information as it hits the web, analyze it in real time and organize it into storylines.” Artificial intelligence gives the app the ability to process and sort the news from all over the internet to make it easier for end users to understand.
When you open the app, you’ll be greeted with a personal briefing of five stories Google thinks you should know about. The more you use the app, the smarter it will get, as a set of controls within the app allow you to decide if you want to see more or less of any individual topic. And if you see a topic you’re interesting in learning more about, you can tap on it to see the “Full Coverage,” which includes news stories, videos, tweets, FAQs, and more.
Once you’ve seen everything there is to see in your briefing, you can tap on the Headlines tab at the bottom of the app to see the rest of the biggest headlines from around the internet at the moment. Finally, if you want to follow any specific sources, tap on the Newsstand tab and follow or subscribe to all your favorite magazines and newspapers. There’s even an option to pay for publications like The Washington Post and The New Yorker.
