The BBC’s new Newsbeat app will serve up news and features to the nation’s youth, direct to iPhones and Android devices.
The Beeb’s been hard at work producing all manner of app spin-offs for its digital content and the latest effort is Newsbeat, which features bite-sized current affairs and news stories for younger readers.
News is arranged into various categories, including Latest, Most popular, Music, Entertainment, Tech, Sport and the perhaps-slightly-condescending You what? – which focuses on unusual, off-beat stories and events.
The BBC’s decision to deliver a news app aimed squarely at younger users stems from recent stats, which show that half of the nation’s 16 to 24 year olds prefer to get their news fix from their smartphone, rather than desktop sites and services.
Newsbeat’s Editor, Louisa Compton said: “We’ll focus on the news we know our audience care about and present it in an accessible way – be it our own original stories on issues that affect 16 to 24 year olds, entertainment news or what everyone is talking about online.”
The Newsbeat app’s design is in line with the recent overhaul to the Newsbeat website and the UI is neat and intuitive, with content arranged in an interactive card-based system. Relevant social media posts are nested within the stories, so you’ll be able to see tweets, Instagram posts and even YouTube and SoundCloud-based media too.
Another feature, which serves as a telling reminder of the country’s collective state of mind, is that the app won’t store or process any personal information from your sharing accounts – though its devs have confirmed that the app will employ “technologies similar to performance cookies used by the BBC” in order to “analyse and improve” the service. So make of that what you will.
You can download the BBC Newsbeat app for your iOS and Android devices right now, and it won’t cost you a penny.
Leave a Reply