How to Set up the Updated Google News App
iOS / Android: Google News is now largely become synonymous phrase, and the company has just released a major update to its application for Android and iOS, which adds a lot of machine learning. Presumably, this will help you get more relevant and interesting news to read in the app.
Whatever makes Google stop feeding me news about Kimye, I’m totally for it. Here’s a quick overview of the new Google News design and how you can customize it to deliver only the news that interests you:
View what Google News has in store for “For You”
The first screen you see in the new Google News app – once you agree to share your location with the app and receive news notifications (if you like) – is For You, a summary of the news that Google thinks you are more addicted to everything.
On the surface, it should be a mix of timely location and national content, mostly from major news sources that you are likely to recognize. In some cases, you will see a small tiny icon instead of the name of the news agency. This is annoying, but there is nothing you can do to fix it other than finding out which tiny icon corresponds to which news source – this is easily done by clicking on the three-dot icon below the title of any story.
This little three-dot icon is what you will click on if you want to save a story to read later, hide all stories from that particular news source (if you hate it), or tell Google News’s machine learning tools. that you want more orless stories like what you just saw. Remember, since Google News relies heavily on algorithms to serve you content, the more you customize the service, the more relevant your news will be (in theory).
Headlines only please
If you want to ditch the custom feed and just see what’s going on in different news categories like USA, World, Business, Technology, Entertainment, and more, just click the Headlines icon. Same deal as before: if you find a source that you care about (or don’t want to see it anymore), the three-dot icon below the article title will allow you to save the story for later, go directly to the landing page for all of this. Source Stories in Google News, or hide this source forever.
You can also click on the weird little icon that looks like a blue border, with green images partially outlined with red and yellow lines (huh?) To see what other sources might be reporting on a particular topic. Google calls this a “Full Coverage” feed, and it can be a useful way to see what others have to say about a topic or story that interests you.
Customize your Google News experience
Google News would be a pretty boring app if it just told you what Google thinks you are most interested in reading. To set your preferred topics and news sources, as well as places you would like to hear news about, click the Favorites icon in the application.
If you click on the plus sign under Themes or Sources – oddly enough, both will take you to the same screen – Google will suggest several ideas and sources that might interest you. You can always find and add more by clicking on the star icon next to what you’re interested in. Don’t be afraid to detail; after all, this is your news feed.
As you select a few themes, you will find that they appear as large square cards in the Favorites tab. Click on any to view all stories related to a topic or source, and click View All & Manage to change the order in which they appear in the Favorites tab. You can also share topics that interest you with others – although I’m not sure why you would want to do this at all – download stories on a specific topic if you want to read them later when you have an unstable connection and stop following any topics that you don’t care anymore.
There is no plus sign on the Google Places card — a curious omission — so you’ll have to use the plus sign on the Sources or Topics card to then search for places that interest you. Add one (or more) and Google will also start providing you with the latest news for those areas.
Finally, you’ll find your saved stories at the very bottom of the Favorites screen. They don’t disappear automatically after you read them, so when you get to the end of a saved article, be sure to click the three-dot icon in its upper right corner and click Remove from Saved Stories.
If you need a little inspiration for news sources that you might be interested in more often, click on the Press icon at the bottom of Google News. You will receive a quick list of sources dedicated to specific categories. Scroll down a bit and you’ll also see sources and topics that are trending right now.
Don’t forget to check your Google News settings
Even after you’ve spent all this time customizing Google News to suit your interests and preferred news outlets, you still have to tinker a bit with the app. Click on your icon in the upper right corner of the application and click on “Settings”.
Among the many options you can play with, you can choose whether you want videos in Google News to play automatically, you can show sources that you accidentally pulled from the app’s news feed, and you can set which notifications you want to receive. from Google News (and more importantly, how often the app should send them). Keeping up with the latest news is great, but not if your coworkers kill you because your smartphone is buzzing every five minutes.