Developer(s) | Apple Inc. | ||||
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Initial release | September 16, 2015 | ||||
Stable release(s) | |||||
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Operating system |
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Predecessor | Newsstand | ||||
Available in | 2 languages [1] | ||||
List of languages English, French [3] | |||||
Type | News aggregator | ||||
License | Proprietary software | ||||
Website | apple.com/news |
Apple News is a news aggregator app developed by Apple Inc., for its iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, and macOS operating systems. The iOS version was launched with the release of iOS 9. It is the successor to the Newsstand app included in previous versions of iOS. Users can read news articles with it, based on publishers, websites and topics they select, such as technology or politics. [4]
The Apple News app works by pulling in news stories from the web through various syndication feeds (Atom and RSS) [5] or from news publishing partners through the JSON descriptive Apple News Format. [6] Any news publisher can submit their content for inclusion in Apple News[ citation needed ]. Stories added through Safari will be displayed via the in-app web browser included with the app.
News is fetched from publisher's websites through the AppleBot web crawler bot. [7] The bot fetches feeds, as well as web pages and images for the Apple News service. It has received criticism for being poorly behaved and not being fault tolerant; resulting in high loads on websites. [8]
The Apple News version distributed with iOS 9 made it hard to differentiate traffic originating from within the app from traffic originating from other apps. Apple News version 2, introduced in iOS 10, began identifying itself using its own User-Agent string, making it possible to measure the reach of Apple News using web analytics solutions. [9] Traffic analytics was previously only available to paying publisher partners through iAds.
Apple News was announced at Apple's WWDC 2015 developer conference. It was released alongside the iOS 9 release on September 16, 2015, for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad. At launch, the app was only available to users in the United States, but within a month had become available to users in Australia and the United Kingdom. [10]
It was reported in 2014 that Apple Inc. had acquired the Netherlands-based digital magazine company Prss, developers of an application that simplified the creation of iPad-compatible magazines using a WYSIWYG editor that didn't require any knowledge of code. [11] Prss was seen as a magazine version of iBooks Author. The idea for Prss came after entrepreneur Michel Elings and longtime travel writer and photographer Jochem Wijnands designed their own iPad publication called TRVL. The Prss invention became what is now 'Apple News.' [12]
On June 13, 2016, during the keynote address at WWDC 2016, it was revealed that with the forthcoming iOS 10 update the News app would undergo new icon and app redesigns along with an improved For You section organized by topics. Furthermore, it was announced that there would be support for paid subscriptions for certain news sources and publishers as well as an opt-in system for breaking news notifications and email on top news stories.
On June 4, 2018, during the WWDC 2018 keynote address, Apple announced that the Apple News app would be ported to macOS and be available to users in Australia, United Kingdom, and United States starting in macOS 10.14. [13] The app is installed by default in every region but is not made visible to users outside those three regions. Users can still open it using various workarounds. [13]
In February 2019, Digiday reported that publishers are frustrated over the platform's lack of revenue, [14] despite seeing steady growth in audience over the past year.
On March 25, 2019, iOS 12.2 was released with the updated News app that introduced subscriptions through Apple's "Apple News+" service, which was announced on the same day. [15] The icon for Apple News also changed, putting the N in the icon front and center with a slightly changed design. [16] The same month, Apple introduced support for the News app in Canada, including the News+ subscription service. [17]
In July 2020, Apple added an Audio tab for US News+ subscribers, as well as support listening to audio news stories in CarPlay. [18] In March 2023, Apple introduced a dedicated Sports tab to the app with the release of iOS 16.4, providing stories and coverage for a user's favourite teams. [19]
On March 25, 2019, Apple announced Apple News+, a subscription-based service allowing access to content from over 300 magazines, as well as selected newspapers. [20] The service was preceded by the digital media subscription app Texture, which Apple acquired in 2018. [21]
The Wall Street Journal , one of the newspapers available through Apple News+, will reconfigure its services to offer more articles for casual readers. It will not actively display business-intensive articles through the Apple platform, though they will still be available by searching through a three-day archive. [22]
On July 15, 2020, Apple announced the addition of audio stories in Apple News+, which allows subscribers to listen to narrated versions of articles in a similar fashion to a podcast under a new Audio tab. [18]
On September 15, 2020, Apple announced that Apple News+ would be bundled in the Premier package of Apple One alongside iCloud, Apple Music, Apple Arcade, Apple TV+ and Apple Fitness+. [23]
Safari is a web browser developed by Apple. It is built into several of Apple's operating systems, including macOS, iOS, iPadOS and visionOS, and uses Apple's open-source browser engine WebKit, which was derived from KHTML.
The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in the macOS, iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and visionOS families as well as other Apple software; new hardware products are sometimes announced as well. WWDC is also an event hosted for third-party software developers that work on apps for iPhones, iPads, Macs, and other Apple devices. Attendees can participate in hands-on labs with Apple engineers and attend in-depth sessions covering a wide variety of topics.
iOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. and was first released as iPhone OS in June 2007, coinciding with the launch of the first generation iPhone. iPhone OS was renamed iOS following the release of the iPad, starting with iOS 4. With iOS 13, Apple began offering a separate operating system, iPadOS, for the iPad. iOS is also the foundation of the newer audioOS and tvOS, and shares some of its code with macOS. New iOS versions are released yearly, alongside new iPhone models. From the launch of the iPhone in 2007 until the launch of iPhone 4 in 2010, this occurred in June or July; since then, new major versions are usually released in September, with the exception of iOS 5, which released in October 2011. Since the launch of the iPhone in June 2007, there have been 18 major releases of iOS, with the current major version being iOS 18, released on September 16, 2024.
Apple Books is an e-book reading and store application by Apple Inc. for its iOS, iPadOS and macOS operating systems and devices. It was announced, under the name iBooks, in conjunction with the iPad on January 27, 2010, and was released for the iPhone and iPod Touch in mid-2010, as part of the iOS 4 update. Initially, iBooks was not pre-loaded onto iOS devices, but users could install it free of charge from the iTunes App Store. With the release of iOS 8, it became an integrated app. On June 10, 2013, at the Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, Craig Federighi announced that iBooks would also be provided with OS X Mavericks in Fall 2013.
FaceTime is a proprietary videotelephony product developed by Apple Inc. FaceTime is available on supported iOS mobile devices running iOS 4 and later and Mac computers that run Mac OS X 10.6.6 and later. FaceTime supports any iOS device with a forward-facing camera and any Mac computer equipped with a FaceTime Camera. FaceTime Audio, an audio-only version, is available on any iOS device that supports iOS 7 or newer, and any Mac with a forward-facing camera running OS X 10.9.2 and later.
iCloud is a cloud service operated by Apple Inc. Launched on October 12, 2011, iCloud enables users to store and sync data across devices, including Apple Mail, Apple Calendar, Apple Photos, Apple Notes, contacts, settings, backups, and files, to collaborate with other users, and track assets through Find My. It is built into iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, macOS, and visionOS. iCloud may additionally be accessed through a limited web interface and Windows application.
iPadOS is a mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for its iPad line of tablet computers. It was given a name distinct from iOS, the operating system used by Apple's iPhones to reflect the diverging features of the two product lines, such as multitasking. It was introduced as iPadOS 13, reflecting its status as the successor to iOS 12 for the iPad, and first released to the public on September 24, 2019. Major versions of iPadOS are released annually; the current stable version, iPadOS 18, was released to the public on September 16, 2024.
CarPlay is an Apple standard that enables a car radio or automotive head unit to be a display and controller for an iOS device. It is available on iPhone 5 and later models running iOS 7.1 or later.
The iPad Air 2 is the second-generation iPad Air tablet computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It was announced on October 16, 2014, alongside the iPad Mini 3, both of which were released on October 22, 2014. The iPad Air 2 is thinner, lighter and faster than its predecessor, the first-generation iPad Air, and features Touch ID with the height, width and screen size the same as the iPad Air.
tvOS is an operating system developed by Apple Inc. for the Apple TV, a digital media player. In the first-generation Apple TV, Apple TV Software was based on Mac OS X. Starting with the second generation, the software is based on the iOS operating system and has many similar frameworks, technologies, and concepts.
The Apple TV app is a line of media player software programs developed by Apple Inc. for viewing television shows and films delivered by Apple to consumer electronic devices. It can stream content from the iTunes Store, the Apple TV Channels a la carte video on demand service, and the Apple TV+ original content subscription service. On iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, Vision Pro, and Apple TV devices it can also index and access content from linked apps of other video on demand services.
Shortcuts is a visual scripting application developed by Apple and provided on its iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS operating systems. It allows users to create macros for executing specific tasks on their device(s). These task sequences can be created by the user and shared online through iCloud. A number of curated shortcuts can also be downloaded from the integrated Gallery.
iOS 12 is the twelfth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple. Aesthetically similar to its predecessor, iOS 11, it focuses more on performance than on new features, quality improvements and security updates. Announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 4, 2018, iOS 12 was released to the public on September 17, 2018. It was succeeded for the iPhone and iPod Touch by iOS 13 on September 19, 2019, and for the iPad by iPadOS 13 on September 24, 2019. Security updates for iOS 12 continued for four years after the releases of iOS 13 and iPadOS 13 for devices unable to run the newer versions. The last update, 12.5.7, was released on January 23, 2023.
Swift Playgrounds is an educational tool and development environment for the Swift programming language developed by Apple Inc., initially announced at the WWDC 2016 conference. It was introduced as an iPad application alongside iOS 10, with a macOS version introduced in February 2020. It is available for free via Apple's App Store for iPadOS and Mac App Store for macOS.
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iPadOS 13 is the first major release of the iPadOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc. for their iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iOS 12 on those devices, it was announced at the company's 2019 Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 3, 2019, as a derivation from iOS, with a greater emphasis on multitasking and tablet-centric features. It was released on September 24, 2019. It was succeeded by iPadOS 14, released on September 16, 2020.
Apple Podcasts is an audio streaming service and media player application developed by Apple Inc. for playing podcasts. Apple began supporting podcasts with iTunes 4.9 released in June 2005 and launched its first standalone mobile app in 2012. The app was later pre-installed with iOS beginning October 2014. The Apple Podcasts directory features more than two million shows. Apple Podcasts is available on iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, tvOS, CarPlay, Microsoft Windows operating systems, and on Amazon Alexa devices.
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Apple News is now available in Canada, with a free experience that includes handpicked Top Stories, a personalized Today feed, and support for both English and French