Smart News is a popular news aggregator application. As of today, it has 50 million users around the globe and a superb rating on iTunes and Play Store. SmartNews supports Android 2.2+ and iOS 9+ operating systems. It consumes 5 to 6 megabytes of storage memory and 3 to 4 MB RAM on Android devices. Unlike some newsreader applications, SmartNews doesn’t require account registration.
Smart News app review
User interface and features
Smart News has a beautiful and colorful tabbed interface. The tabs are nothing but the news topics/categories. You can reorder or hide the tabs in the Smart News application. To change the tab, swipe left or right on the screen. To change the order, open the settings interface of the app or long-press the tab. Smart News has a tab dedicated to social news where it displays trending topics on Facebook and the micro-blogging site Twitter. Connect the application with your Twitter and FB accounts if you want to access this tab.
The app features a tab called Discover, where you’ll find the list of top news websites and their trending topics. To read news published on your favorite website, tap the website name. Then, select the Add option. Now, head over to the main interface. You’ll now see a new tab. Select this tab. That’s it! Stories in the SmartNews application are displayed in a list. The list boasts the title of the story and a featured image. If you’ve reached the end of the list, scroll to the top of the list and swipe down to load new stories.
Reading News
When you select a story from the list, SmartNews will open its newsreader interface. This interface boasts two options – Web and Smart. If you choose the 1st option, SmartNews opens the page where the story was published. If you tap the 2nd option, the app opens a toned-down version of the page. SmartNews allows you to share news on social networks. It also lets you save the story as a note on Evernote. SmartNews can open the story in the default browser app on the user’s phone. To see this option, long-press the story you want to read and select the “Open in browser” option.
Supported countries
SmartNews brings news from major publications in 90+ countries to your mobile device. By default, it displays the stories of US-based publications. To change the country, the user must navigate to the app’s settings panel.
Also read: Best news apps
Settings
The settings option, denoted by a gear icon, is hidden. To see it, swipe downwards. The settings interface flaunts the following options:
Push notification timing: Smart News generates four reports daily – morning, midday, evening, and night. When the app generates the report, it will display a push notification. SmartNews allows you to change the time of the push notification.
Font size: The SmartNews app lets users change the size of the font.
Autoplay videos: Some websites play videos inserted in their pages automatically. By default, SmartNews will play the videos embedded in a web-page. The autoplay option allows users to disable this feature.
Offline reading: Users can configure Smart News to download stories when a WiFi or mobile data connection is active on their device.
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Drawbacks
No search utility: Discover is the only interface where the search option appears. You cannot search for a story by a word in SmartNews.
Limited topics: People who love reading offbeat, crime news, or blog posts from their favorite authors won’t like this application because it has limited topics to follow.
Conclusion
The SmartNews app is updated regularly by its developers. It is an excellent app for reading regional and international news on the go.
Smart News just started popping loud and annoying ads when you exit a news article. If it happens once more, I’m uninstalling the app.