Apple News+ Long-time Apple News users: What workflow have you settled on? Any tips or lessons learned?

[purdnost]

I’ve recently started using Apple News (including News+) as my primary news app and am trying to learn the “best” way to use it over the long term.

I’m less interested in News+ magazines specifically and more interested in how experienced users use Apple News itself.

Some of the questions I’m thinking about:

• Do you primarily start in Today, or do you spend more time in Following?
• Have you found that the Today recommendations become noticeably better after using the app for a few weeks or months?
• Do you let Apple recommend stories for discovery, or have you enabled Restrict Stories in Today so it’s more like an RSS reader?
• Do you follow broad topics (like Tech or Business), narrower topics (like Apple or iPhone), or mostly publications?
• Have you found that following lots of topics helps, or does the algorithm do a good enough job that you only follow a handful?
• How often do you browse your followed publications directly versus just reading what appears in Today?
• Have you ever used Clear Recommendations or Clear All? If so, what prompted you to do it, and did it improve your feed?
• How do you use the 👍 and 👎 buttons? Do you use them frequently or only occasionally? Have you found they noticeably improve the recommendations in Today? Do you think they affect specific topics, publications, or your feed more generally?

Right now I’m leaning toward treating Today as my personalized front page for discovery and using Following mainly as a curated library of publications and topics that I occasionally browse directly. That seems like it preserves discovery while still giving me quick access to favorite sources.

I’m interested in hearing what your workflow evolved into after months or years of using Apple News. What ended up working best for you, and what would you recommend to someone just getting started?

 

[Dancin-Ted-Danson]

Nice try, research intern.

 

[doogm]

I generally use Today, I sometimes thumbs-down stories I have no interest in, any stories that I want to read I mark to save, and then go to Saved Stories (sometimes later) to read through the ones that I marked.

I do have magazines that I read in News+ as well, but what I listed above is generally how I use news.

 

[purdnost]

Nice try, research intern.

😂 Fair enough. But seriously, I’m genuinely curious. After using Apple News for a long time, what workflow have you settled on?

 

[Dancin-Ted-Danson]

😂 Fair enough. But seriously, I’m genuinely curious. After using Apple News for a long time, what workflow have you settled on?

I stopped using it because it is terribly designed (and I pay for Apple One). When you hide a source it just shows a huge box instead of replacing it. There is no reason for me to spend time trying to make it work in my life when there are 3,000 other better apps for this. i.e. Kagi News, Ground News, or even Google News (where it understands the concept that I do not want certain topics or sources as featured stories)

Also, I want local news in my feed and Apple News falls on its face once again.

That said, if they fixed this stuff I'd look at it again. Until then it is the most worthless part of Apple One

 

[purdnost]

I stopped using it because it is terribly designed (and I pay for Apple One). When you hide a source it just shows a huge box instead of replacing it. There is no reason for me to spend time trying to make it work in my life when there are 3,000 other better apps for this. i.e. Kagi News, Ground News, or even Google News (where it understands the concept that I do not want certain topics or sources as featured stories)

Also, I want local news in my feed and Apple News falls on its face once again.

That said, if they fixed this stuff I'd look at it again. Until then it is the most worthless part of Apple One

I have to agree with you on this. I genuinely love the look of the app, but there’s also plenty that falls short of the Apple brand name itself (I’m talking specifically about the ads, even with an Apple One subscription). I hope Apple takes a hard look at the app and addresses what users and subscribers keep complaining about. Especially with AI in the picture, there’s real potential for a more usable, personally curated experience in the near future.