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Today, newspapers and televisions are not the only sources of consuming news. People are adapting to new ways, and a news app is one of them. This blog has curated 10 must-have features of a news app for the enhanced reading experience.
The era of digital media has revolutionized the way content is accessed nowadays. Most people are abandoning the conventional ways of doing things and turning more towards adopting the digital approach for the same. Similarly, most people have shifted their means of news ingestion from radio, newspapers, and websites to news apps for a better reading experience.
With the advent of news apps, even TV channels are losing viewers day-by-day. This is because, in today’s world, people are always running out of time, they are constantly in haste; they don’t have much time to spare for watching news sitting in just one place.
Therefore, a smart news app lets people consume the latest news on their smartphone on-the-go. If you are thinking of developing a great mobile news app, an experienced news app developer can help you strategize to get a feature-packed news app.
Top 10 Must-Have Features to Include in Your News App
1. Great UX/UI Design
The first thing that draws users’ attention towards any app is its enticing interface. UX/UI design is the users’ primary means of interaction with apps. Though, keeping your mobile app users engaged is a fierce battle because the design of any app can do wonders or can disappoint the users to a certain extent.
Thus, when creating a news app, you need to design it with user engagement in mind. With that said, your business needs to build a news app that is user-friendly and easy-to-navigate to give your users a smart and optimal on-screening reading experience.
2. Breaking News on the Top of Others
Several events and incidents take place all around the world. It is a well-known fact that some news is more relevant than others and deserves to be on the top as compared to others. That is why showing breaking news at the top of the rest is a must-advisable feature while developing your news app to draw potential users’ attention right away.
You can update your users with breaking and the latest news via push notification and ensure they do not miss any important news. Including this feature in your news app will help you engage your users to your app, resulting in maximum ROI.
3. News Categorization
Adding categories of news is one of the significant features to incorporate in your news app. This feature can alone draw the users’ attention instantly. Every user is different and holds different interests related to anything and everything, and the news is no exception.
Therefore, enabling users to browse from various categories such as entertainment, sports, technology, lifestyle, science, and more can ease their efforts and allow them to consume news as per their preference. Also, with this, users can edit the category order as per their interest that can do wonders for your news app development.
4. Offline Access
Most news apps can only be accessed if users have an internet connection. To give users a smart view experience, a business must keep users’ perspective in mind and should incorporate the feature of offline news access if it wants its news app to be successful.
This feature will allow users to consume news on-the-go even if they do not have an internet connection. Users can save the news for offline view and can access it later. Incorporating this feature will make your news app stand out from others and help in getting maximum user engagement, resulting in increased revenue.
5. Discover and Add Favorite Channels
Every user has its interest and choice related to the intake of news, and picking up the best news channel among all is a tough job. Though trust in the news domain is vital, and users usually rely on several news channels as per their preference.
Providing the feature of discovering and adding favorite news channels to users can do wonders for your business in terms of customer engagement. Incorporating this feature will allow users to customize their list and add multiple channels for needed news, that will be accessible to them on their fingertips.
6. Sharing Option
Many a time, users encounter an appealing and informative piece of news, which they think of instantly sharing with their friends, family, or their loved ones. But they curb themselves as there is no such feature of news sharing in the news app they are using, which leaves users with a poor impression.
Including a share option by social sharing buttons in your news app to give users a hassle-free news-sharing experience is a must-include feature. You can add various social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Pocket, or on email, WhatsApp, and many others to give your users a fantastic experience.
7. Personalized Settings
This feature got first introduced in the Apple news app. Users automatically get attracted to the app that takes care of their preferences. With that said, the personalized setting feature is a must-advisable to consider in your news app development.
The users can schedule their news as per their accordances, such as scheduling the news notifications as per their suitable timings, font size adjustments, reading mode (day or night), and many other options. Adding such a feature can surely give your users better news reading experience and take your news app development a notch higher.
8. Accessing All Types of Media Files
Images, videos, GIFs, and something like this work as adding a feather in the cap. Keeping your users engaged with visually appealing media files is an excellent way of grabbing their attention towards your news app. You can enable access to all types of media files on your app for enhanced user experience.
Incorporating this feature in your news app will leave a lasting impression on your users as more convenient accessibility always results in maximum customer engagement.
9. News in Audio Form
Hours of reading on the phone are not a healthy habit as this might give a strain on the readers’ eyes or cause other health issues as well. To combat this battle, a news app must have the feature of availing news to the users in the audio form as well.
With this feature, users can get the latest update of their preferred news just by giving it a listen. At the very same time, it will be a beneficial choice from the business viewpoint as well, because more features give users more options to explore, resulting in high customer engagement.
10. Ad-Free News
Who likes to get interrupted while immersed in reading informative news. No one, right? Getting rid of unimportant ads can help you to gain maximum users on your news app. Instill the feature of ad-free news in your news app to avoid the news reading interruption of users. This feature will allow users to enjoy news reading hassle-free, which will result in maximum user engagement.
Summing Up
Various news apps are available in the market, but with the 10 powerful highlighted features mentioned above, you can give your news app different look and feel and make it stand out from others. Building a dedicated news app with these features can work as the secret formula to win users’ hearts that will make your users want to use your app more and more, and more.
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