SmartNews: Now In Spanish Customer Service

UPDATE: (I am late posting this, but) within hours of me writing about my issue with pop-ups, the developers actually responded, and within a day or two, the problem was 100% rectified! I love developers who actually take the time to read and respond to the concerns of their customers, so because of that, SmartNews will forever have a supporter in me! I have been using Smart news several times a day, every day for years now, and I have enjoyed it for the most-part. However, as of January 1, 2021, I am now being greeted by a pop-up urging me to enable location services, which I have no desire to do. It is understandable that the app would request permission for such a feature, but it is requesting permission after EVERY•SINGLE•STORY read! It is beyond annoying and feels like harassment! If this problem isn’t rectified within a week, I will be uninstalling this app. Your readers should be given a choice of which features to enable, and not be harassed when they don’t choose in accordance with YOUR preferences. Update: I am updating my review to reflect a 4-star rating, because I am no longer being bombarded with popups. For everyone who’s whining about the app being too “left-leaning”, perhaps you should search for a Breitbart app, or some other tabloidesque news affiliate...and this is coming from an Independent.

I’ve checked out many news packages but always preferred this one. Relevant news, good layout, easy to personalize, MODERATE ADVERTISING. There in lies our problem. More and more advertising. Now I understand why they need advertisers, everyone deserves a payday for their work. But while other apps are definitely worse, (every other story is an advertisement), plus they want to make you pay and subscribe to every news outlet, magazine or newspaper, et cetera. Now SmartNews is still better, but they keep coming up with sneaky ways to try and push you into clicking on their advertisers. What really annoys me is when you click out of a story back to the headlines….but it doesn’t take you there. An ad pops up and your forced to respond…. after several seconds so they can force feed you part of the ad, then you have to click a close button, or an X, or something else (“So you don’t want to save $$$?”), always different and in different places on the page so you are forced to read some of it because if you click the wrong spot it throws you out of everything to start over. And it’s becoming more frequent. The almighty dollar chase has ruined more than a few good companies. Update: I’d like to add that this site just keeps getting worse. I’m looking for another news site. Now they have you tapping tapping tapping on adds waiting for an X to pop up so you can close it out. I don’t need the frustration. I’ll find another app. There are plenty of them.

Could we please be allowed an option for a one-time fee for an advertisement removal, like some other apps offer? I have used this app in-great length for a few years now. I’ve noticed one of the ad’s changed. Instead of clicking the little ‘x’ once - you click it twice, and it changes locations. Touch sensitivity increased, as well, and Safari kept opening. I began to force close the app. I’m tired of sifting through insufferable advertisements - I would rather pay for a permanent removal to further enjoy the app because, at this moment, I’m unable to do so. Please keep it in consideration. My rating would be five stars if it weren’t for the insufferable advertisements, and I cannot remove them permanently. Great app overall. My personalized digest is terrific! Update: These advertisements have gotten out of hand. Sometimes I have to force quit the app. Also, now I can’t share links without them having the app… a FREE app? You simply compile them all in one location, why do you think you have the right to make people download the app to read articles that you didn’t even produce? Doesn’t make sense in the slightest. I share my news all the time, and now I have to go through extra steps.

Love smart news and have recommended it to many of my friends. I would like to see a few very minor changes though. 1. Something to show “not interested” in a certain article/topic. For instance, I may read two articles on the same topic, be done with it, and then the app assumes anything related to that person or topic I want to know about and I relentlessly get articles about that (ex. Aaron Carter’s passing - I now get every article written about the tragic event, “his managers last text with him”, “his fiancé spotted at…”, “what happens to Aaron’s fortune now?” etc - all of which I, respectfully, don’t want to receive anymore or read about just because I read the article about his passing. 2. Because the algorithm does push so much that it thinks I will like, I tend to miss actual breaking news stories. Would be cool to differentiate breaking news notifications even more, maybe with a different color logo or something (not sound). All in all, I love this app and have used it for years. It has so many great features like the smart view and features that have evolved like being able to see the articles you were notified about all in one place. It’s very helpful for staying aware of things in a timely manner.

I was apparently one of the first regular user of the app and shared articles on Twitter constantly. 3 or 4 of the developers asked me for an interview via Skype and what Interested ME, was that they were all very young and what interested THEM was WHY I was so interested in the news. An earlier reviewer cited being fed too much liberal news and she should be happy with the addition of NEWSMAX which is definitely right leaning. Early on the developers said the algorithms choose the articles in your feed by the articles you actually read and your interest profile is just algorithms doing what they do but you have the option to choose a tab and read any article from any of the magazine you have added. I asked them to please keep it that was and not to start choosing ( as Facebook does ) articles to put forth an agenda, especially not a political agenda. So far I don’t see it happening. I have pretty eclectic interests and really enjoy the variety I have to choose from. This app also gives you the ability to swipe over to Reader View and read the articles without the annoying advertisements. All in all I hardly use any of my other news apps. I am afraid to count how many tabs I have on my home page! Love it!!

I have been (inundated)as of late, been looking for another platform to get my daily news needs met as I am informe and very interested in social issues in my neighborhood and my country on a daily basis,until recently, “I noticed that as I was reading or might I say(trying )to read a (interesting (ed op)I was repeatedly interrupted by the annoying commercials that you have allowed companies to interject into your forum,as I have to lost track an at times interest in what I have an interest in reading,then I must stop and look for that very small (x) and then try and tap on it with my large thumbs,because I don’t always carry a (stylus all times, well that being said I began looking for an alternative for(you)I’m not interested in commercials while I am reading,it is bad enough when I watch television,I understand you have a need to pay bills but it help if we were at least given an option to look and or listen as opposed to feeling like a (captive in your program,I do like your format as I can go to top and pick and change topics at will, but the commercials just pop up so fast that I get (frustrated,and start looking for another venue..Thank you James in (Sacramento.

I have loved Smart News for years. They have been my primary source of news on my phone. But two issues have unfortunately caused me to uninstall the app. The first (and more minor) issue is the lack of control over my feed. Months ago I asked the app to show me fewer stories from one source. You don’t have the ability to straight up ban a content provider. Or if there is a way, I haven’t been able to find it. When I contacted support, they said to use the “show less content from this provider” setting. After changing the setting I continue to see what looks like the same amount of content in my feed from the source. So, one star gone. The second issue (and more major for me) is the incredible battery drain I experience while using the app. I can read Apple News for an hour and see about 1% battery loss. But using SN for just 15 minutes causes my phone to heat up to the point of discomfort while holding it, and eats 3-5% of my battery. This is just astonishing to me, and it seems to be getting worse. I lost 7% of my battery yesterday morning while using the app for 18 minutes. So, second star gone. I really like Smart News, and I am genuinely sad to say goodbye to this wonderful aggregator. But I just feel like it’s no longer worth it considering how much better it consumes. I’ll give it a year and check back in to see if things have improved. But I don’t have much hope. This issues has persisted since I started using the app years ago.

I like this app to get news across many different sources. It is good except for one glaring annoyance, the pop-up ads that make you sit there and wait for an x to appear. I have been using this app for years and have watched it get more and more annoying with the pop-up ads. The latest is where it brings up the ad and makes you wait until the x slowly fades in to close it. Even worse, if you click on the x before it fully fades in, it takes you to the link in the ad that you are trying to close. This is so annoying that I refuse to be part of it. When that type of pop-up ad appears, I close the app, and get my news from other sources. Not one time has that type of ad worked with me. Waiting for an ad, that I can read in one second or less, to fade in the x so I can close it has not resulted in me wanting the app or service advertised. I have never, on purpose, clicked on the link. What it has accomplished is me closing the app. I support having ads on this free app. In order for this app to remain free, there needs to be revenue creation. This particular ad style is not the way. It does not, at least for me, help achieve the revenue goals that are desired.

I recently reset my iPad’s settings and content, and upon reinstalling SmartNews, the app’s notifications won’t push anymore. It misses the scheduled update notification times and doesn’t display breaking news notifications. Stories aren’t even being put in the inbox. Also, for a long time, some stories featured on the app are unable to display the full article text in “smart mode”, either omitting paragraphs or not being parsed at all or correctly to display the complete text featured in the original source page. Oddly, the notifications were still working properly when I upgraded my iPad from iPadOS 13.7 to 14.0 after the latter OS was released, with the most recent SmartNews update installed. Also, I’d like to suggest changes to the weather page to include a summary of the current weather observations (adding dew point, wind, barometric pressure, “feels like” temperature, visibility and humidity, along with sky conditions and air temperature). The current format of putting just the current temperature and sky conditions in the hourly forecast panel just doesn’t make sense, given that the weather page provides more detailed information on the forecast while only providing the bare minimum when it comes to current conditions.

First off, to anyone complaining about it being “left leaning,” use your head for more than five seconds and control your emotions. I mean that seriously. The app is customizable to allow you to choose the exact news sources you want to see, provided they are in the app. Even if (not saying it is), the app is “left leaning”, do what I do. Just read from sources you trust, just add the right leaning channels. Or, get a bit of balance and have both sides presented before you when you open the app.. which is kinda the point of the app if you’ve seen the commercials. Anyways, I would give 5 stars if there’s a bit more customization. Customization on notifications, frequency of notifications, notifications for new stories from specific channels, etc. And, I would love a “Save for Later” feature. I often find myself opening the app, scrolling through, and seeing several headlines that sound interesting but I don’t have the time or just don’t want to read them at the time. Atm I’m just saving the link to those articles in Notes. I’d much rather be able to tap a button or two that saves it within Smart News itself in a “Save for Later” tab.

I absolutely love this application I found it by accident within the first 30 days you came out and I’ve been using it since I recommend it to all of my friends but there is one floor that fathers actually two floors that I would like to correct first floor is the ability to leave a review about an article read through your service and I would like the ability or have an area where we could have reviews for article and then go and find them or leave them etc. because some of the stories that you put out through no fault of your own make people look like a circus clown and I would like to comment on this check Rudy Giuliani for example there’s nowhere else to go with that one anyway moving forward if you could add that feature I appreciate it second feature if there’s a way to send a News app I guess so better to my phone saying breaking story if I want to add that feature is that available?t do you only problem is too many commercials.

This is my morning ritual. After waking up and tending to the needs of myself and my animals, I sit down with a cup of hot cocoa and read this app’s articles. This app features the best articles from all side, democrats, republicans and independents. I get both sides of an issue. I feel very informed and the best thing is I don’t have to see pictures of all the worst things like the tv news shows. I don’t need those images in my head. I can imagine, but it’s not the same as seeing it. Each article has a link to the original post if needed. But I get to choose if I want to go looking for pictures. Plus, I get fun stories and posts from Reddit, Bored Panda and BuzzFeed for lighthearted reading. Critical to my mental health in these troubling times. I highly recommend this app to everyone. ps…..to the execs at this app, I like the previous format of the top stores better. IMHO. Update…. Thank you for putting the top stories back to the old format. Much easier to stay informed.

When I first started using the app, the fact that it equally showed all sides of the equation. Left-right-Qs-nut cases etcetera. However, lately the app has started to freeze up after a few minutes of use. Sometimes it will unfreeze, but mostly it stays frozen until the app closes itself or in frustration I say screw this and and close the app myself. The same has happened to my girlfriend who introduced me to the app, so I know it’s not my phone which is btw a brand new. Both she and I have removed the app multiple time and re-installed it to the same results. Don’t get me wrong the info on the app is very informative and sometimes hilarious when the app is working. But it’s freezing up more than it works. Especially when you get to the middle that one really interesting article and boom frozen. The article might be there when it comes on but mostly it’s not. Just wanted you to know. A faithful but frustrated fan

I really like the simplicity of this app, especially the smart view of articles that strips away all the ads and such (though it does take images with it sometimes, it’s tricky). I also like that I can set a location and get local stuff mixed in. I would love a history feature where I can see a list of articles I’ve viewed, even the last like 25 would do. I often will want to share good stuff with someone when the topic comes up later in the day or I’ve even locked my phone halfway through an article, then get a notification for another interesting story and click it, only to remember I still had that other article finish which is now gone. Just a suggestion. Overall, really dig the app. Update: starting to see what others are saying about the spam-y articles seemingly being added to the “top” feed. I’ve unsubscribed to all the general channels and only follow publications now, but my top feed still has CNN and Buzzfeed mixed in. I assumed top feed was the aggregate of what I follow and nothing else. Would much prefer that.

I do like the content of this app. I have had to remove it from my phone several times because it makes my iPhone 7plus freeze and shut off. I had the same trouble with my iPhone SE. With both phones I have plenary of space and do not have a ton of apps on my phone or running in the background. I put it back on yesterday and the phone froze today. Disappointed because I like the content best of all the general news apps. I do not have this problem with freezing and shutting off when the app is not on my phone. It is 4 weeks later. I received feedback from Apple that sent the developers info regarding my phone. I just removed the app - again- because it causes my phone to close apps and functions randomly. I have over 50 g of available space and close apps when I am done with then. I am again disappointed I hoped the feedback from Apple would help but tonight Safari kept closing, smart news kept closing. I uninstalled it again. Phone is not auto closing now.

I love reading the news - but I hate news with an agenda. Before SmartNews, I had my local Fox News app, which is about as non-bipartisan as you can get. The reason I love SmartNews is because it gives me ALL the news...all sides, from literally all media outlets. I can go to the local tab (includes everything from the local Fox plus much more) or see what’s happening in our government, or the world, or to look at funny memes and animal pic compilations. I love how it’s not all doom-and-gloom news, they include the feel-good news, too! It’s amazing!!! I would highly recommend this app to anyone, 10-stars, big thumbs up 👍👍👍👍👍👍 P.S. I LOVE the recently read feature!!! 👏👏👏 Edit: I looked over some other reviewers and I’m completely floored that people would say this app has an agenda!! Every article is from its original source, so it’s clear where the article came from. If you get triggered by one side or the other, then go into your settings and adjust the scale so that you get what you want 🙂👍

Downloaded because I like these types of apps to read all the news soon as I opened it I could clearly see whoever does this has a hand in the liberal agenda to destroy America it’s way obvious then I read one of their cringe worthy articles and realize they really are scared most the new generation along with older hipsters and all the career students that racked up debt on pointless wemon study degrees etc. are so afraid they’re everyone else will pay for my bills and generally lazy lifestyle don’t fear trump doesn’t even need to campaign watch and see the deplorable will show up faster than you liberals can create voters bus them in from Mexico Canada it’s not even a possible outcome to loose I been over this whole country the last year just count bumper stickers from even the last election most elections even the winners voters take them off but they’re all still on even the Hillary jail ones and I’m pretty sure she has died already or went back to her hole she came from

Stories and News are Excellent, only reason I didn’t give five stars more times than not, stories refer to photos or images that are just not there. Example, the costumes were amazing, but there will be no photo, they will talk about many things with zero images to reference to. They just don’t bother with them on most stories.

I like it more than others

The best & only news app I used is now frustrating due to auto refreshes. I see several stories I want to read, but can only read one because they disappear after reading one, or sometimes two. I try to remember or write down keywords to search for the other stories. I used this app daily, but now rarely. Looking for a different news app.

Smart News is my go to news source where I get all my social media news.

I now go to SmartNews for all my updates. I still fact check articles alas some do indeed come across biased but for the most the articles have been well researched.

Accurate and timely

Have used SmartNews recently. I like the multiple news outlets available and quick update of current news events.

Excellent coverage on many items

It’s a pain that they can’t get this right although they update all the time. This app is getting lame. Fix it or lose it.

Some human should check the articles. They are interesting and good but it’s annoying to try to read them.

A must have APS to update one self in the latest news around the world. Local and foreign news in one place!

After seeing the ad multiple times, I decided to download & check it out. I usually just use Apple News on my iPhone or Google News when I’m on the desktop & those suit my purposes pretty well in addition to actually reading a real newspaper, printed on real paper every morning while drinking my coffee. I also watch a network evening “world news” program that has about 15 minutes of actual news, a “feel good” story & commercials. We watch a local news program. I watch some cable news programs & listen to a news/ political program on Sirius xm. I believe I am already pretty well informed, so... I’m just not sure I need even more news in my life, lol. It looks like this app serves up a LOT of news from various sources. Despite the complaints of far right reviewers, the app DOES include The faux news Fox propaganda channel. I didn’t see xenophobic Breitbart for the white supremacists & nazis out there, although it may be in there somewhere? There is a mountain of sources here! Right wing conspiracy nuts will probably be looking for something from Alex Jones’ “Info Wars.” I didn’t see anything from them either but no sane person would consider that “news” anyway? I didn’t see Trumps favorite, “The National Enquirer,” but does anyone really think thats a “real” newspaper? I will probably keep the app for now & check it once in a while but, again, it does look a little overwhelming. I did see, though, that you can “edit” sources & maybe I will update this review after editing out some of the sources so it doesn’t feel like “too much!”

I’ve had this app for a couple years and it does offer a huge range of sources of news and interests. It is relatively easy to add sources to the home feed. That’s the good news. The bad news is many online publications allow only a token number of free story reads and will not function unless one chooses “ Smart news”. Consumer Reports articles are notorious for this; one must subscribe to Consumer Reports online or nothing is displayed. Smart news would be smarter if it had the video and pictures available that the news publication has with the story. Smart news tab is basically, a non-graphics report and frequently doesn’t have any visual media attached. Another irritant with occasional stories is pop ups that open and block the story. Some pop ups don’t have close buttons so backing out and either choosing Smart news or blowing off the article is the only option. Another slightly annoying feature is the location of stories. The news stories show the source but typically in the TV station Wxxx format which can be god knows where. Some stories aren’t even in the US and are listed as Top Stories. Overall, I am satisfied with the diversity of sources and the fluidness of the app. One great feature is the developers Updates are small and focused unlike say Pinterest that seems to need an update every week. The Smart news updates actually do improve the experience. Give it a try. You can choose a “ local” news for your town or city from your local newspapers.

I was going to delete this News App. I have it set up for Notifications and throughout the day I keep seeing negative articles consistently about Donald Trump or anything related to Donald Trump. Its ridiculous and to the point where I dreaded seeing what the next negative Notification would be, so I delete the Notification option and don’t open the App anymore. With the latest update I read the Developer’s response to a similar review. The suggestion was to add more conservative new sources in the For You tab (way way way over- keep scrolling over, you’ll get there- yes, I’ll do that every time I want news- not) such as The Daily Caller, Fox New- not a conservative leaning outlet anymore, National Review (def not conservative the past few years) The Blaze, etc. So I started adding more balanced news sources and could not find one of the most popular on social media, on Sirius, etc. - Breitbart News. World class reporters, award winning news and commentary. Disappointed it’s not offered. So I stopped the Notifications, it’s just annoying and mildly depressing to see constant negative pings all throughout the day. I’ll try the For You tab- way out in Siberia and finally, I will hope that a developer will read this and suggest that Breitbart News is added. I’ll give it a few weeks and then if the convenience and Breitbart are not there, I’ll move to the Breitbart App as they have many of the same tabs without severe negative leanings against anything vaguely related to POTUS. Thanks!

I used to really enjoy this app when I first discovered it a few years ago. Now, over the past year when I’m using it, it’s causing my phone(iPhone 15 Pro) to get really hot, slowing the processing speed down, and draining my battery extremely quickly(talking 100% down to 75% in less than 45 minutes). It NEVER used to do that and it’s extremely annoying. This is the only app on my phone that does that. — The next issue I have is that it’s absolutely FLOODED with left leaning new outlets where it used to have a pretty even mix of both political biases. Even if you choose to “see less of xxx”, you still end up being presented with articles from that publication at the same rate as before selecting that option. No matter what I do to try and avoid the very clearly extreme left & right leaning publications, they’re still showing up with the same consistency. I just discovered a different “all in one” news application that I’m starting to use more and more. It shows each articles clear left or right biases and allows you to compare how differently things are being reported. It also doesn’t choke the life out of my phones battery. For those that read this and are curious to know, the app I mentioned is called “Ground News”. Really starting to enjoy it more over “Smart News”.

UPDATE TO WHAT I HAVE WRITTEN ALREADY…. Just adjusted my rating of MSNBC FROM4 stars to two, their still at it with the game advertising within the stories that are hard to navigate and bypass to read on!!! So make your site less appealing that just results in less advertising revenue coming in “from just saying “😊😊😊!!!! There is a reason for advertising on sites and in the actual articles, it pays the bills… “I get it.” I have enjoyed the Smart News site for years but now they have gone ad crazy!!! Lately you get into reading an article, you get so many paragraphs in and the page returns to the first paragraph on its own “whats up with that?” Come to find out there’s this “gaming ad” that if you can get too it, you have to pass by before reading the next paragraphs of the article. Sometimes it’s so hard to go on with your reading frustration sets in and you say f—k it, this is not worth it!! So, Smart News, I thank you for all the good articles over the years but your style has diminished with this new “let’s get our readers attention by frustrating them policy”!!!!! Gary “THE ABOVE QUESTION WAS SUBMITTED SOME TIME AGO BUT THE SAME FRUSTRATING AD PROBLEM EXISTS!!!!!” By the way thank you for getting back to me on the original question however I was just unable to read the full story about the giant blue piece of jewelry! 🙁

This app is now randomly throwing up full screen ads with hidden dismiss buttons. It’s amazing how something can go from good to junk apps with one greed based change. Ditching it, you should too. However, this review won’t make it anywhere near the top of reviews for obvious reasons. I’ve found great replacement that doesn’t force feed ads and in comparison to this app, they get me the news I want to read, while still allowing me to find what I want that’s outside my immediate interest. Importantly, without then flooding me with garbage because I read one article. You can say what you don’t like, and that stuff isn’t forced down your throat either. It’s not hard to find something much better, you should look. The developer is asking for suggestions. The suggestion is do not pop up full screen ads that are difficult to close and require user input, or worse killing the app. Simple. The inline ads were (are) plentiful without this. The fact that people don’t click them except accidentally is not a cue to make them full screen and hard to close. That motivation is about $ and advertisers, which has nothing to do with delivering the news. Not the product spots masquerading as articles, the actual news. Either you are a news app or an advertising outlet. Smart news seems to have made that choice. That’s why I, and many others are abandoning the app. It’s not a hard calculus.

I downloaded this app based on the expectation that it was a different, more balanced and objective source of news. It is not. It simply provides another distribution channel to CNN, MSNBC, and HuffPost, among others, as each continues to work in an orchestrated effort to provide a very specific point of view. If you want real news, and not propaganda, this is not the right vehicle. *******response to developer’s response***** Thank you for taking the time to respond. I misunderstood the value proposition of Smart News based on advertising on TV. The ad gives the appearance that this is a new source of “news”, when in reality it is an aggregation point for existing outlets. I understand that you are not promoting any of the content providers. Unfortunately, the reality that we live in is that the vast majority of content providers are not only left-leaning, but also very focused on shaping popular opinion to align with their views. When that is all/most of what you are providing “out-of-the-box”, before the user tweaks their app preferences, the perception is that you are pushing the same propaganda. Some people may like that, as they don’t have to do any work to form their own opinion. However, I believe my expectations are fairly representative of most people in the USA (and elsewhere). We just want facts and real news to be reported, and then we’ll formulate our own opinion. When you have an offering that aligns with that, I’ll come back and give you five stars.

I used to like this app a lot more than I do now due to a couple of issues. 1) It overheats my iPhone, then articles freeze and crash the app, and scrolling is slow to nonexistent. These issues seem to be connected. Takes less than a half hour of browsing for these problems to happen. 2) there is one particular news source that consistently crashes the app and the option to not see news from it doesn’t work. It keeps showing up. The problem is that the articles are often interesting and I tap on one based on the headline, only to find it’s nearly unscrollable and only then do I notice the source. 3) in the past the ads were fairly unobtrusive, they would show up and then go away within a couple of seconds, or, mostly would just sit politely within the article’s page. Recently, they have taken over the screen and stopped whatever I was reading until a 30 (?) second timer runs out. I have closed the app and either gone to another news source, or shut down and restarted my phone. I was kind of willing to put up with these as stand alone issues but as they’ve accumulated, I’ve taken the app off my home page screen and relegated it into a folder of less frequently used news apps.

I have no problem accepting ads as part of the deal for this free app. I have been a Smart News user for years. I did not mind the apps in the news streams. I felt the pop ads that take over the screen a bit annoying. The Taboola ads were just about where I drew the line. But recently the app has become unusable. A new type of ad that pulls the screen black and starts a video ad in the middle of reading an article. Ok annoying. Hit the close button and it comes back or appears in another 10 seconds. Or worse I have to close the app down. At this point I feel it has made the app too much of nuisance to use. Maybe they will change this ad type but for now I guess I am back to Google News. UPDATE: This is better now the Taboola pop ups are lees frequent. But the pop ads still are annoying. New issue for me at least is the amount of battery energy being used in a short session. In 10 minutes my battery will drop 5% it’s like a gas guzzler. Are ther magical settings to help with this? I have location services off and background app refresh off still destiny’s my battery. I save using the app to late at night. If the app uses energy for ads I would be down for an ad free version.

Being fed up with pretty much all media outlets having a noticeable political bias and wanting to JUST k ow what happened, not someone’s analysis of it, I’ve been looking for an app that just gives the news. Let me figure out what it means. an app that I can open up, see what happened in the world today and close it. I gave this app about 4 months. Every time I opened it it seemed to get worse. If there was a Trump/Republican bashing article anywhere on the net, you’ll find it on the front page here. You don’t even have to read the articles to see that everything on this site is for liberals. The titles are hilariously liberal. Don’t think I’ve seen a single article pertaining to the US government or the White House or republican that wasn’t a negative liberal opinion piece. I scrolled through about 5 minutes ago and it was ridiculous. Finally decided to delete it. This isn’t a news site. If you really just want to know what happened in the world today, this is not the site for you. Update: Based on the developers feedback, it’s obvious that anyone who points out that this is a liberal leaning site is told to try Fox News for your conservative views. I’m not even a conservative. Just someone looking for unbiased news and this poser is telling everyone that points out their obvious bias that they’re a conservative and need to look elsewhere for their conservative views. This won’t be around long.

I wrote to their customer service before when I got tired of these issues, but as you can see they just copy paste the same template developer responses that don’t really give an answer or make you feel like they aren’t listening. This is not a news app. I know most of the comments you see are probably bots complaining about fake news, but what’s at issue is a larger problem much like Facebook had when they just let publishers run amok on their platform. Most legitimate news organizations require subscriptions to read full length quality articles that provide nuance and context. So what you won’t get is quality articles from actual journalists who even somewhat care about their reputation like you would in The Wall Street Journal or NYT. Instead you get a lot of clickbait headlines from news aggregators and ‘bloggers’ who don’t hold to any journalistic standards. It wasn’t like this before but as Facebook changed its publisher model a lot of those awful publishers moved to places like SmartNews. Coincidentally you might also notice that that’s right around the time SmartNews’ user base and valuation skyrocketed to what’s now reported as north of a $1 billion. Most of what’s on their now is clickbait stuff that isn’t really good for your mental health. Don’t download SmartNews, and delete it if you already have it and just happen to read this. Also don’t bother putting one of those ‘developer notes’ on this comment. I know your managers probably make you leave them, but I already heard it a million times and your company refused to listen.

Unfortunately this app is getting worse all the time on my iPad Pro. I loaded Smart news as an option to Flipboard some time ago as Flipboard was becoming unbelievably sluggish to navigate. Now, SmartNews is becoming so slow and freezing up my iPad Pro that I’m considering an uninstall. Yes, my IPad is very capable of running this program easily, and I always have to clear SmartNews stored cache multiple times a day to even use it. When originally installed, I would have given this 5-stars as it is a great app. It seems the issues really started when the advertisements within the application really started to increase exponentially, with way more animated and video clip ads….i mean a lot of them!. It seems profit from ad revenue is more important than functionality of the SmartNews app IMO. The news app is kept up to date as new releases come out, but there are never any settings within the application to restrict or limit streaming video ads and clips. I believe this is why the program has become more and more sluggish over the year. SmartNews, please give some options within the program to have some user control over the relentless downloading and playing of these types of ads that are ruining this good news app.

I’m so sick of the political trash talk. If your going to post news on our President, post the positive as well. There has been more jobs created , our Military is once again the strongest in the world, our vets are being cared for, terrorist are now afraid of us and not the other way around like Obama made it. Of course he was also funding them. The Country I love is on its way to being what our founding fathers created. The Constitution was under attack and the fight against our right to bear arms was almost a reality. The only ones who would carry arms would be criminals and the Government. Do we need to stop illegal immigration? YES! Just ask anyone that followed protocol and became a U. S. Citizen legally. They worked hard to make new lives for their families. Look at California ( my home state ) so many people are getting out as fast as they can, except the ones who can’t afford to leave so they live in tent cities. The illegals are give everything and the American Citizens have to pay for it and get nothing in return. The middle class would be no more if President Trump did not win the election. I shudder to think where we would be today. It is no longer between Republican and Democrat parties. I was shown the proud this past election that they sail in the same ship. That’s why we need non-career politicians. We need politicians who are not willing to sell their souls to the devil. When someone like George Soros is funding certain politicians and stops at nothing to get what he wants , we have better be concerned .

The news coverage here is timely and well done for the most part. There are too many suspect sites where the “news” is pure propaganda and a series of blatant, but well presented lies that are discovered only after extensive cross referencing. Both of my degrees are research based and I’m used to such circumstances, but someone just reading and trusting will be easily and wrongfully biased in one way or the other. I would prefer a site that more closely vets its information before printing it. This is true for both political articles and especially the sports related items. Too many sites lie too often to be taken seriously. Shame! Also, there are too many totally misleading headlines which essentially fall into clickbait. The sports articles are speculative and often based on a particular author’s desires for their team. Even though I can “customize” my choices, I seem to receive the same claptrap daily. I’m becoming much less impressed and spend much of my time looking for more accurate and less biased sites. There are also far too many questionable articles from unreliable sources that need constant verification. So, given that and some other criticisms, one needs to be very careful with what you believe.

Below is my former 5 Star Review and I am now rating this ZERO Stars and this has nothing to to with politics as some have commented In the past, you could go to the Discover Tab and add Tabs from the various content providers (AP, CNN, Fox) Inexplicably that ability has been removed for the Follow Tab, which requires 4 more clicks to read the same content You folks literally took the best laid out app I have ever seen (News or otherwise) and created an app that I had to delete Whoever came up with the idea to eliminate the ability to add Tabs for the “Following” Tab should be fired in one of the most egregious screw ups in iOS history ————————- I have tried numerous News Apps and have left each one as they were not exactly what I was looking for From Design to Content, this is exactly how I would have built it myself. I do NOT understand the reviews which state that it leans one side of the aisle or the other...just don’t pick that particular channel if you feel that way My only criticism (and it is no biggie) is on the Top Stories tab, I could do without the “For You” section. I rarely find those stories interesting and would just prefer additional “Top Stories” to continue on scrolling down that page That aside this is the perfect News App

Here's the scoop. I've been using it for a few days and I've really enjoyed it. The way it is layered out (not a typo) means that I am likely to read some stories that I would never see otherwise. I like how it swipes from page to page. And, in web view if you normally comment on articles the comments are there. But what I really like is the choice between "Web" and "Smart" views. In smart view it looks more like a magazine article and all those "12 reasons why her abs are fake" or "This one wierd trick proves that insurance is a scam" click bait ads are NOT. EVEN. THERE. It would get a 5th Star if Smart View was able to be the default view. And, you can add your own news feeds as well. But, I would not recommend turning it into "All Sports" or "All Lifestyle". You need some balance. So, make sure you keep the real news. Because you really needed to know that POTUS had a sore throat. Updated to drop from four to two stars. When you share a news item it takes the person to a “get the app” page. So, attaching to social media means anyone looking has to have the app. The work around was to open in Safari Reader and copy the URL. Now, those don’t work. Might as well start looking for a new aggregator.

I live in a small town in Washington state. I use news aggregation apps to increase my access to local stories. Like many other competing apps, this one regularly confuses articles about “Washington” (the state) with ones about “Washington DC” (the nation’s capital). I have to sort through the relevant vs irrelevant items. This may be a limit common to current search engine algorithms, an inability to refine results within the same keyword. Aside from that problem, I like the way this app is able to be configured to favor a wide range of specific topics as you refine your interests. The tab arrangement facilitates rapid navigation. The ads are able to be scrolled past easily. They don’t obscure content on the home page, which is a plus. I do not like the ambiguous “pitch” notification used under the “profile” button to try to get your email, which suggests signing in will make the app work significantly better or faster. I tried it side-by-side several times with other friends who signed in while I didn’t. We got identical results with the same topics selected, whether signed in or not. That alone cost the app a “star”.

Update #4: the kids are back with irritating pop-up ads. Won't they ever learn? Update #3: These children know no shame. They were crushed with complaints on outrageous ads that went from vertical to horizontal. They scaled back after being ridiculous when some low life asked for feedback and screenshots. Now the revamped strategy is to get users to accidentally click ads. Accidental? They do this on purpose. Isn't this annoying and childish? They want higher click through numbers even if no one is interested. They don't learn anything. These are mischievous brats. We continue to let them get away with it. What does one do? Delete delete delete and never install this junk app again! Stomp this app! Let them go broke! No one needs to be tortured by these immature sadistic children. Update to Update: you still want a screenshot of an annoying ad? Never has a development team been so ridiculously out of touch. People are talking about the implementation of EVERY ad. You've ruined the app. Update.: so, the developer responded and asked for a screenshot of the problem like they were unaware of what they have done. They know exactly what they have created. Therefore, please stop pretending innocence. Get a spine. Grow up. Quite torturing users. Act like responsible adults or shut down the app and never create anything ever again. Oh no! We have these long vertical and horizontal monstrosities of ads. It's quicker to force quit the app and restart it than it is to painfully watch this mess unfold. From the very beginning these uneducated kids have tried to kill this app rather than make it something worthy. Thanks, children!

Look here, it’s not smart news when I have to physically add stories and sources. If you had good AI, you would know what I read and don’t read, which would give you a sense of what I am interested in, instead of spamming me with all kinds of liberal political news. And here’s the kicker, you defend your system, vice taking my recommendations to make your system better. The fact you refuse to make changes tells me that 1) the system is doing what you want, or 2) you lack the maturity and business sense to operate the business you are selling. UPDATE: Now why don’t you tell the truth? Almost all the stories are big-time left wing stories. Every once in a while you you toss in a conservative website origin story, and you call that balanced. Sometimes I would search for a conservative story and have to dig pages into searches. How about news that is not political, period? Or like I have seen quite a few liberals who think that media such as MSNBC and Huffington Post is centrists...maybe you actually believe that. Anyways, as long as you keep this business model, you will keep me away. Tried a long time but almost all the news is extreme liberal news. There is no balance...and it certainly could not figure out I want real news, not politics.

Fair and balanced? It is not! Primary stories are from Huff Post, NYT, Washington Post, NBC, etc. Really? Fox News and just a handful of more conservative media is at the very very end of the list. Any use who gave this app a high rating must be a very progressive liberal. Very despicable of Smart News people to try to deceive the public. This app does not fairly display the stories from ALL media outlets. It just doesn’t. I tried it so I could see for myself. And I will delete this app. Note to the Smart News responder .. “if you want a more conservative view you should add add Fox News, blah blah .. “. why didn’t you program it in there to begin with, so that the app would appear as you advertise it will be on your lame commercial? Why should CONSERVATIVE people have to tweak the app? It should be FAIR to begin with. You see, a very liberal person will think this is great and will continue to believe they are getting fair news. THEY ARE NOT! Shame on YOU! I received an inadequate reply from Nathan telling me exactly what I thought he would say .. same as above. They just don’t get it. What I’m saying is that they should set up a FAIR sampling of media outlets in the first place. Instead, they are setting up LIBERAL publications, and then I have to change my selections. Why can’t you be more fair?

When I first saw the app - was pleasantly surprised on the scope of of the feeds - seemed to collect from all sources. Now it seem too many - perhaps based on trends of what people are clicking on the most from each of the “news sources”. My observation : Looking at the “Top” stories tab it appears to me 50% of the stories are not what I consider news but how some socialite lost their spouse, who is sleeping with who, how a Instagram star was refused service because they were being obnoxious... I generally do not see the value of the stories on that section which is disappointing. To me those types of stories are interesting but it is not news. I know they are eye catching but feels more like buying a family size bag of tortilla chips only finding it 1/4 full of chips and 3/4 air because the product is sold by weight and not volume... I did not want the air - I wanted to chips... HOWEVER the app does most other do not - pull from sources you don’t see on others like Google News, Apple News...etc. I like SmartNews and will continue to use it as my top news aggregator but will generally avoid Top tab.

While you do present a sort of a neutral news source, your analysis, lead stories and story lines lean left. Although I’m not a fan of Trump or Biden, articles on Trump’s negatives far outweigh negative articles on Biden, of which, there are many. Currently, the Hunter Biden fiasco is strangely missing. Other news outlets claim it to be Russian disinformation for not reporting and flooding the internet and airwaves but that didn’t stop you guys from covering Trump’s collusion with Russia. Was about to close but how about an article on Pelosi and what she hasn’t done for the American people. With this pandemic, all she has done is criticize when she should be asking “What can I do to help?” Too few people have asked that question. Best, Mike Update August 2024. How did Biden’s lack of acuity escape exposure? Particularly after the Hur report. It’s been evident for quite some time that Biden couldn’t speak extemporaneously having read all of his speeches, never answering questions and not granting interviews. An even greater concern is “who is running the country?” And who will do so until the next president is elected? Why haven’t you or the numerous so called journalists you publish dig into these questions and expose the sham of the Biden presidency? At least, force the current administration to identify an individual for making decisions and guiding our country. Certainly, the current VP is too busy running for president rather than stepping up to take charge. And NO ONE is talking about invoking the 25th amendment. Aggregator, huh? Please review your top three(3) “aggregated” headlines the morning of August 19th. Rather than an aggregator, you appear to be nothing more than a a schill for the Democratic Party.

I have been using this app for a long time. The selection and variety of news is one of the best I have found through an app. With that being said there have been some issues that are leading me to look elsewhere for my news. They have prioritized advertising over content. While the advertising hasn’t been bad in the past, and I know it’s a stream of income, now the advertisements block portions of the article. I have to search for the article and read it online to get the whole thing. In addition the advertisements override your sound feed. I listen to music and audiobook apps, and intermittently they will cut off my audio and hijack my sound. At that point I am no longer interested anymore. I have sent in requests to address the problem (I have loved this app for many years) but have not had any feedback or changes to the app. At this point they seem like all they want to do is hijack your attention for advertising, while making the news difficult or impossible to read. Being a great sources of many different news subjects to the reader no longer seems to be a priority. Honestly I will be sad to have to find another way to get my news.

I really love this app. I read this news every day and sometimes several times a day. I supported that it had ads as that what it takes to fund an app that doesn’t require purchase. But the ads have gotten out of control. Back to back full page ad with Hidden delete buttons that it becomes so hard to touch that you open an ad just trying to close it. And the ads are so consistent and ridiculous that you almost memorize them and hate them every time you see them because you see it so much. They pop up in the middle of reading some thing I’m really interested in and then I end up clicking 10 times just to get back where I was to finish reading an article that’s available on so many other apps. I just loved it the way that this one was designed but now it’s become a bit too much. I try to ignore the refresh that loses my place when trying to get to another article but now reading the news on this app has become more work than it is pleasure. With that note I’m gonna have to say goodbye SmartNews. I wish you well in the future and I hope that you can conform a little more to the readers and keep their interest while funding the project.

I’m on the hunt for a new news app and I truly am so upset about it. I have been using this app for years and I truly believe it is one of the best resources I’ve found for a well-rounded news wrap up. The ads in the articles don’t bother me, but every other article I click on pops up an advertisement usually for some sort of app and even when I click to exit the ad, the ‘x’ just disappears and I have to force close the app. I have tried to ask for an option to pay to remove ads (as I see other people here have also asked for the same thing) and since this still doesn’t appear to be a feature they will be implementing I need to find another way to get my news. The other dealbreaker that I am no longer willing to compromise on is the fact that I cannot share any news articles I find with someone unless they also download the app- forcing me to have to google a news story to share the story from a different source- adding multiple steps to something that should be simple. As I said, I do love this app but until there are some changes to improve usability I will have to find another app.

I enjoy the app but I wish there weren’t horribly biased “news” services mixed in with reputable ones. Some “news” outlets are gossipy, completely without merit, or are laughable propaganda. I can’t control the contributors on “Top” news for instance. “TheBlaze, Popsugar, Footwear News, US! Weekly, or People” are not offering headlines that are worthy of my time, in fact, someone perusing the top headlines should rightly conclude that Meagan McCain is the most important person in the world, Brian Kilmeade is second, and Kirstie Alley is tied for third with some random “Real Housewife of Where Ever.” This makes the world look nightmarish. It’s wearing me out sifting through the garbage. I have never clicked on Fox, TheBlaze, PopSugar, Footwear News, TMZ, Vogue, Mediate, The Pluralist, or Entertainment Tonight, yet I am not seeing any diminishment in their prominent representation in the top stories of the day, in fact, I’m finding that the more you don’t click on a news source, because you find it disgusting, the more you see it. Maybe the algorithm is broken. How can I successfully navigate through the day without seeing the”Top” news stories concerning the Kardashians, Tomi Lahren, or the Bachelorette? The advice I’m getting so far is not getting the Jessica Simpson out of my “Top News.” Sad.

**Update regarding the developer's response below. The app does allow me to remove high level topics, none of which are "celebrity gossip". They talk about the app being a news aggregator, but then say I would have to manually add different tabs from various news sources. Well, if I have to switch between numerous tabs to look through the news then it's not doing much aggregating. Seeing all my preferred news sources on one tab would be aggregating. Finally, the links to contact the developer don't work! I wanted to clarify their comments and ask for support, but was unable to. And I've tried emailing my questions to the address provided, but with no response. Downgrading my rating to one star. Original review: The layout is nice, but that's the best thing I can say about this app. I like that I can see multiple news headlines on the screen at once. Other apps gave large photos or text so you can only view one or two without scrolling. But - there are way too many junk tabloid articles and over the top partisan hate pieces. I just want factual news which I might be able to achieve if this app let me block certain "news" sources. But it doesn't. I'm tired of wading through all the junk.

I really enjoy reading different viewpoints to make my own decisions and opinions. That is why I originally subscribed. Unfortunately so many articles have an interesting headline but when you click on it you cannot read more without paying to subscribe or the page blacks out after reading a few sentences. Sometimes the entire SmartNews site shuts down when I click on an article and closes out on my iPad. I have to reboot everything. It can be very frustrating to locate information and learn more about an article. Sometimes it seems as though many of the articles are only there for you to click on so that you can be bombarded with ads to sell something (almost all are things I have no use or desire to have and some have been borderline pornography!). If I need something I go looking for it on the web. I understand the need for having advertisements to cover the cost of the site and can deal with straightforward ads, but stealth/misleading clickbait articles brings down my enjoyment of your site and pushes me to go elsewhere.

This app is clearly clearly clearly clearly guilty of pushing a liberal agenda. Pathetic. You are guilty of helping divide the country. Law abiding conservatives are being labeled as racist bigoted people every single day. So false! Disturbing and wrong when you scroll through the top stories, it is so obvious that this app is purposely pushing a liberal agenda. The hypocrisy level is off the charts where left leaning news outlets are writing headlines and articles themselves that are misleading and biased. Putting everyone and everything in buckets based on race or sexual orientation. It’s almost as if the Democrats have nothing left to offer other than being ‘nice and kind’ which is far from what I see with my own eyes on a daily basis. Lies with an agenda. Y’all are not news agencies. Simply put y’all work for the Democrat party. Your developer response is not helpful. It’s auto generated and actually admits that you feel news should be based on your preference. News is news regardless of what you want to hear. It should be factual. Period. Leave the opinions to the readers, not the writers and then and only then will you have smart news!

It started with just plainly reading any article and suddenly being taken away to a “twitter platform” page within the app to now just scrolling through the feed and all of a sudden twitter platform opening on a different browser, makes no sense and is pretty infuriating. When this happens while reading an article, it happens every 10 seconds or so as I navigate back to finish what I started reading then after the third back navigation the article itself renders with an ad blocking the entire view (understand no way to scroll and just an ad sitting in the middle of my screen). This used to be a relatively ok app but with things like that you start alienating your users. Adding another issue, apparently interactive ads are now being fed to users in article views, you cannot scroll them as you naturally would, why, you ask? Because they are interactive and hold your tap hostage and move the character instead of your actual article you are reading. Folks, get it together! I have had multiple instance when I wanted to throw this app away and it is getting worse by the minute!

This news app is IMHO the best of a bunch that are mediocre at best. The most infuriating thing about the app is the number of ads inserted into every article you read. The app will insert the same ad over and over while you are scrolling down reading an article, this will cause you to lose your place at times requiring you to find where you were at. The same ad will also be inserted into all articles you read over and over and over. If I was interested in what they are advertising I would have clicked on it, I don’t need to be irritated by multiple ads of the same thing. Don’t get me going on the pop ups as well. Just ginormous amounts of ads. The app also refreshes way to often resulting in missing an article(s) you spot but haven’t had time to read, then you have no way to search for the article. Developers I can refresh the articles myself so stop with the auto refresh. The app also slows down and freezes on my tablet and gets flaky with it flipping across tabs and articles at random. Infuriating to say the least. I no longer use it.

When will the indoctrination and attempted persuasion of those who don’t really pay attention to the news end? This self proclaimed “smart news” is nothing more than another liberal social media. For instance, and the final straw for me was, I just got “10 other scandals of Brett Kavanaugh that doesn’t include sexual assault”. I’m a retired US Army Officer, current contractor, and on my free time, coach girls fast pitch softball, but also have been really paying attention over the last 10 years. Folks, you ALL need to reject trash like the stuff Smart News, whose only mission is to continuously pumped out fake news 24/7. We as a nation HAVE to see through this or we are ALL toast. Burnt toast. Like the kind you throw in the trash and start all over. My opinion is 99% of news you here is twisted or straight up garbage. I believe we have already crossed a line of no return of people accusing people of crimes, knowing they are lies, and they get away with it because they are protected by politicians or activist judges. Folks, I’m not saying NOT to receive these types of info. In fact, you should receive news from sources such as Smart News. Once you follow many sources like this, you WILL see a trend of talking points that are fed to sources like this to report and feed you trash to sway you. You will realize that all these so called sources do nothing but feed the same trash as all the other sources with ZERO research done. In almost every case, it’s so called news that is fed to the media by politicians or a group of random plotters gathered around a table to develop some convincing story (a lie) and feed to the American people. It’s up to YOU to discover this trash that’s going on within our country.

Biased left wing rag! Couldn’t even get past one topic that gave the story from the middle. UPDATE: your response to my review leaves me with a chuckle. The point of your site is to provide unbiased reporting to the people that have chosen to download this app...UNBIASED! Get it? To have me add or update Fox News et all is ludicrous... 1. I could download their apps. 2. You assume those are conservative sites. 3. You assume I’m looking for a ‘ slant’ to my news. All of which are wrong and ignorant. I’m looking for the news! Plain and simple. YOUR SITE FAILS WHAT YOU ACTUALLY ADVERTISE. I don’t care what your opinion or the opinion of who you paste and copy from is. I want the news straight and to the point. EXAMPLE? Sure... your NFL coverage of the kneeling during the anthem. 100% in line with liberal ideology. You’re nothing more than a cut and paste app. Much like the Patch sites. This is a loser of an app! A fraud! A lie! I’ll gladly let everyone I know not to waste the 10 seconds it takes to download your plagiarized cut and paste crap. Not worth the time or effort. Reviewing you however was more than worth it. You’ve been called out for the charlatan that you are. You can’t even get a simple business model right.

Huge downgrade from the International version to the local US version. As someone from Canada, the local US version is completely useless to me. The layout of the app is different and now I am constantly bombarded by stupid ads. Please go back to International!!

When a story comes up that is not of interest you have the option to select “show less”. Using the selection is useless as the topic or even the original story keeps reappearing. Very frustrating!

Too much clickbait and sources you can’t block. For example “inside the magic” is an irresponsible news site with sensationalist headlines - can’t block it. This used to be a great app but it’s just gotten progressively worse.

Now it’s just another ad clogged, trendy people magazine style “news” app. I deleted it today after it hung up on another ad. Was great, is junk!

The new US edition so called “TOP” daily articles is now just full of endless tabloid type topics,often repetitive on the same page,and useless information with built in commercials.”TOP” should mean “Coles Notes” version of useful ,concise and relevant daily news .Shame on you for bastardizing your website.NOT SMART! I am looking into other websites to rely on .

As a Canadian viewer the merging of International version with local version has made this app useless for me. It will no longer recognize my Canadian location… just gives an error message and says tryi again. Going to delete the app.

Ruined the app by merging International with US. Now lost the appeal. Deleted!

I’ve been a fan for years, butI’m troubled by the increasing number of inflammatory and dubious articles from Fox News and the NYPost. Like HuffPost, they should be presented as separate channels so the these screeds aren’t visible to those of of us who despise these right-wing rags.

I find their news extremely biased.

Because many Canadians follow this app it would be advisable to carry more Canadian content. In the Sports area it’s always about European news. How about covering NOrth American tennis golf hockey etc …

A lot of absurd articles from right-wing propaganda sources started to arrive in the past six months, after using the app for a number of years. Despite providing feedback, the app’s mechanism is quite limited to minimize receiving such articles, and one cannot chose not to receive such topics or such sources.

The layout and feel of the app is great, but I’m not sure why it’s available on the Canadian App Store as it only support 1 news feed from an obscure publisher. Even searching for Canada in news bring up US publishers with the work Canada in their articles. Definitely not local news. Great app if you want news on the US and world news from a US point of view.

Remember when HIIT alists took pride in presenting facts. ALL the fact so people could decide for themselves? You may be better than most of your garbage Left media but Left none the same

This app has gone down the toilet. “Top news” is mostly pure disinformation or clickbait. Many formerly available channels are gone.

No news from Canada...what’s up with that?

Fox News is propaganda and The Province is a trash tabloid that doesn’t report facts. This is NOT smart news.

While I appreciate different viewpoints I don’t appreciate viewpoints that rely on lies, misinformation, half truths or conscious omission of some facts to lend credence to their story. Rags like The Blaze, Epoch Times, The Washington Examiner and of course Faux (Fox) News are a few of the rags that the general public can do without. I guess that these BS “journalistic” sites/rags are able to rely upon the general stupidity of the average American. Not sure if obesity is the cause of Americans stupidity or if it is the Republibigots never ending war against good public schools and good curriculums. Suffice to say, it would be great if SmartNews had a rule that only stories that have been fact checked get promoted on their app. This would easily eliminate the aforementioned sites/rags from having their Fake News stories on this app. Wake up all u right wing morons. It’s time for you all to move to Texas. Then we will happily build a wall. Oh, don’t forget your MAGA hats u morons.

Bunch of left-wing garbage written by brain washed fascist diversity hires.

One sided typical fake news

It also said sign in to access your profile and change settings, etc, I signed in and there’s still nothing under my profile . And no ability to change settings. Also, no way to sign out! Also every headline is radical leftwing.

The best & only news app I used is now frustrating due to auto refreshes. I see several stories I want to read, but can only read one because they disappear after reading one, or sometimes two. I try to remember or write down keywords to search for the other stories. I used this app daily, but now rarely. Looking for a different news app.

Well, they do try to cover everything they can. Whether it be political, entertainment or sports. It does appear to me to be a very slanted reporting. In One Direction. You will have to be the judge on that. I prefer my News to be balanced. Not taking a side, but simply reporting the news. They could take a lesson from the Epoch times.

Everything I get is right wing propaganda so definitely deleting this app

I have been using SmartNews for so many years because i love the diversity it offers, but recently, they added this « forced refresh home page » feature which is one of the main reason i left Facebook after 10 years of using. It is simply a culture of frustration to which i want no part in. I want to see the same page i initially opened, after reading whatever article. I want a manual refresh button, or i’m out of here.

There to much opinion and interpretation, and not facts.

There are a concerning amount of articles from suspect sources, they seem to pushing bizarre narratives. Don't use this app..

No Canadian content

Like the app but has ads that lock up the iPad screen and to get back to view news you have to force quit the app and reopen. This is a real inconvenience. It only happens on some adds.

This app supposedly can gather news stories from around the world. Since it is an American App, it thinks that the world is contained in the states of the US. It’s impossible to train it to suit my preferences, despite the fact that I’ve actually selected many international news agencies. Pretty much useless app for me.

Too much garbage that passes as news coverage

The app is ok for content but when scrolling through articles there are naturally ads which is ok but it’s so sensitive on the ads that you literally can’t scroll without opening an ad. I believe this is done on purpose so they can get more clicks/hits on their ads so the advertisers will pay more.

So many ads, it’s probably 50% ads: it makes it hard to scroll through to find relevant articles and difficult to scroll within articles because there is so much junk. I’ve had this app for many years but unfortunately I’m deleting it and finding an alternative. I like that articles are available offline.

I like the format and content of Smart News but now an ad to retrieve my xrays appears between every two articles on every page. I'll have to delete the app soon if nothing is done.

I allowed location access to the app , it didn’t find any of the major Canadian cites I typed in ,looking for Canadian news content

The Tab “Top” is the champion of publishing misinformation: Wow!!! Amazing what a BT is written here, it should be forbidden.

Close to half of the news is over a week old. There should be a place to set the timeline you want to read. If you check daily or more you want current news.

Does not allow to block specific news sources

What happened to fair and balanced.

I no longer want to see articles from the Irish star and this source is garbage and fake