How to Use and Make the Most of Apple’s Hugely Underrated ‘News’ App

Apple News is a useful little app built into iOS that seems as if it doesn’t get enough credit.

As a news aggregator, the News app actually functions really well, and it comes with useful features that can help you find and read interesting stories.

To get started using Apple News..

1. Tap on the News app.

2. You’ll be greeted with a welcome screen and a disclaimer, but click on Get Started.

3. You’ll be asked to select at least one channel to get started, but it’s best to select a few so you get a variety of topics and articles. (You can always go back and add or remove new channels).

4. After that, News generates a custom magazine using articles from the channels you selected. To get to this, tap on the For You tab.

5. To read a full article, just tap on a story.

6. To get an option menu to Share, Save or Like a story, just tap and hold on a story.

7. You can Like a story by tapping on the Heart button.

8. Alternatively, to save a story to your Saved section — which is akin to Safari’s Reading List — just tap on the flag bookmark button in the right-hand corner.

News also features four more tabs besides For You, including Favorites, Explore, Search and Saved.

Favorites is where you can view, manage and edit the different publications and topics that you follow.

Of course, to add new channels to your Favorites, you can Search for them.

1. Tap on the Search option

2. Type in the channel or topic you want to add.

3. Tap on the Plus option to follow the publication you want.

One of the neater features of News is the fact that Apple has partnered with over 50 publishers to create feature stories specifically in an Apple News format. These partners pop up first when you’re getting started in News.

Apple News format includes large images, videos, slideshows, pop-up text, and other features that aren’t included in other formats.

And the icing on the cake is that, although News uses an iAd platform and Apple allows publishers to bring their own ad partners, ads are actually pretty few and far between on the platform.

Follow iDrop News on the News app, here. Happy reading!