News24 Edge
Free for Android users at the Play Store, and for iOS users at the App Store
With content aggregators being hailed as the future of mobile news, it was only a matter of time before News24 entered the market with its own offering of this emerging technology.
After launching its News24 Edge app last week to major interest from its substantial subscriber base – the biggest on the continent – we gave it a try.
Basically, News24 Edge allows you to personalise your News24 app so that you only see the news that you want to see. On start-up (following a quick, expensive-data-friendly download), you get going by selecting which topics you’re interested in from the diverse array of in-app platforms, such as South African news, entertainment, movies, music and politics.
It then recreates the News24 app homepage so that you never miss the content you’re most interested in. As a journalist, I am particularly reliant on these aggregators to collect the stories I am looking for from across the globe, so I found the app totally in line with other great aggregators such as Feedly and SmartNews – two of my favourites.
The design is totally fresh, and is a great antidote to the look and feel of News24’s classic blue and grey. I believe the “history” tab of the app is going to be really useful in future. What with all the news we read in a day, a catch-up at a later point would be a great reminder. I’m also excited to make use of the bookmark function for all of those stories I didn’t get to during the week.
But does this mean I’m deleting the News24 app? No, most probably not – it’s still great to have the day’s big stories collected for me, but when I don’t feel like reading the sports stories, or endlessly depressing Donald Trump stuff, the Edge will be my new go-to.