BBC News app for iOS and Android to receive major update

Many news junkies consider the BBC to have the fairest and most reliable stories. Now, the BBC News app for both iOS and Android is receiving an update that will allow users to select more specific feeds like apps, genetics and Oban. According to the BBC, users will be able to receive news from a Taylor Swift feed!

Android and iOS users in the U.K. will get the update this week with global users to receive it soon. A BBC News app for Amazon devices is expected to launch in three weeks. Sorry Windows Phone users, but the BBC says that it is not planning on developing the app for the platform.

Robin Pembrooke, general manager of news products at BBC Future Media, shrugged off worries that existing users might get upset with the changes. "We know we have got a very large number of people who used the existing app and they really like it," the GM said. But Pembrooke said that the update adds local news, something that is not available now to users of the BBC News app.

The update changes the UI from a horizontal focus to vertical. New features include the ability to view the most read articles on the BBC website, and access the most clicked on video and audio selections. My News shows stories selected from topics selected by the app's user. Individual topics show stories based on user-selected themes. A new tagging system that will be put into place by the BBC will require the journalist responsible for a story to tag it using keywords.

The BBC found that app users are more interested in the stories they see on the BBC News app. App users are responsible for just 10% of the visitors to BBC News, but account for 40% of page views.


source: BBC via AndroidCentral