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Google News is the go-to source for millions to stay up-to-date with the latest happenings worldwide. Over the years, Google added useful features to personalize your Google News experience. You can check the full coverage of an interesting story, customize the reading view on mobile, save stories to check them later, and hide publications from appearing on your feed.
Google backs down and agrees to pay Canadian publishers for their content
Google decided not to play hardball and won't block Canadian news links
Canada's Online News Act (Bill C-18) prompted Google to follow Facebook's lead, threatening to block news access unless legislation requiring tech companies to compensate publishers for linked content was amended. Initial tests in February saw Google temporarily limit news results for about 4% of randomly selected Canadian users. By June, Google had announced plans to remove links to Canadian news in Search, News, and Discover after Bill C-18 was passed. However, in a surprising turnaround, Google has now struck a deal with the Canadian government, agreeing to pay publishers for displaying links in its search engine.
How to set up Google News alerts
Keep yourself up to date with news and specific subjects on the web
Google Alerts is a neat online tool from the search giant to monitor relevant content on the web. Whether you want to follow a specific keyword, sports team, political party, competitors, or your favorite company, set up Google News alerts and receive notifications and emails on your top budget Android phone.
Google News to deliver final blow to magazine support next month
Prepare to bid farewell to your magazine collection on December 18
In 2020, Google pulled the plug on its print-replica magazine service—you know, that thing you probably forgot existed. If you didn't notice, no worries; it's not like the magazine section was hanging out in the Play Store for a year anyway. Even though die-hard subscribers could still cozy up with their old issues on the Google News app, purchasing new subscriptions was no longer possible. And now, Google News is wiping out the last bits of magazine support in the app, just in case you are still clinging to those digital magazines you've hoarded in your library.
Google News: 14 fast tips to get the most out of your news feed
How to supercharge your Google News experience
Google News lets you read the latest news on a single app so that you stay on top of global current affairs. Its Material You makeover improves the Google News Android app experience, making it easier to read short articles on the go. The news aggregator app isn't perfect. It had an issue with news indexing that disrupted traffic to content publishers and reduced visibility in July 2023. Google announced on July 14 that it had resolved the issue.
RSS reader apps used to be popular back in the day. In the age of social media, people prefer to get the latest news from platforms like Twitter (now known as X). Google News is another popular source to stay on top of the latest happenings in your area, region, and world. While it's primarily designed to deliver a personalized news experience, you can use it as an RSS feed reader.
Read update
Google tries hard to update its suite of apps to match the ever-evolving Material You design principles. Because of the sheer number of apps, some of them only receive updates sporadically, and that’s something we can say for the Google News app. However, the latest update to the app adds two new widgets, so you have three to choose from in total.
Google News on smartphones finally picks up Material You makeover
Another step toward completing the rollout across Google's apps
While Google has increased its efforts to roll out the Material You aesthetic to a number of its very own apps including Gmail, Maps, and Photos, a number of others like the Google News app on smartphones have yet to receive the treatment. But after all this time, the company is now finally making due for News users as they get a new look that's been in the works for about a year, maybe even more.
Google tries hiding news from some users to avoid paying publishers in Canada
The Australian government says making Google pay has helped its news media
Google is constantly at loggerheads with regulators over a number of issues such as privacy, market dominance, and compensating news publications for distributing their content across its platforms including it search engine and Google News. It seems the company has launched a salvo in Canada as lawmakers there continue to debate Bill C-18, dubbed the Online News Act, which would effectively propose a framework for platforms like Meta and Google to negotiate rates with publications for using their content. In a demonstration of its opposition to the bill, Google began blocking news content for under 4% of Canadian users.
Google News preps Material You-style upgrades for tablets
The app has a few tablet-specific interface changes in its latest release
The arrival of Android 13 is one of the best things to happen to the operating system in a long time. It adds functional beauty to the Material You design guidelines Google introduced with its predecessor, Android 12. Those guidelines have themselves evolved since their introduction, leaving a few first-party Google apps playing catch-up. The latest to try on a new look is Google News, as the app updates its tablet view with a few Material Design 3 (MD3) components.
The ever-increasing streams of news can be daunting and overwhelming. With the rise of online news sources, it can be difficult to keep track of what is being reported. Google has made it easy to discover the latest news on any topic you want. Google Search has a dedicated news feed that shows the latest news on the topics you searched.
Get ready for Google News on your Wear OS smartwatch
New evidence shows a watch version might be in the works
The Google News experience is pretty polished on our Android smartphones, but the app has, so far, lacked a Wear OS version. As part of Google's renewed commitment to Wear OS and the release of the Pixel Watch, one might be in the making, though. New evidence shows that Google might be preparing a super-simplified version of a Google News feed that you'll be able to read right from your watch.
Google News has a fresh new look on the web, here’s how to enable it
The web interface is now much more in line with the mobile app
Google News is one of the biggest news aggregation services out there, providing a birds-eye overview of news since 2002. Twenty years after its initial release as a beta on the web and countless redesigns along the way, Google thought it was time to brush up the service once again. A new Google News website is now available, and it looks much more in line with the mobile app on Android and iOS.
Google News finally starts flirting with the idea of a Material You makeover
We're talking baby steps, but it's progress all the same
Android 12 arrived as one of the best-looking platform release in years, thanks in no small part to the responsive, graceful presence of Material You. We've spent a lot of time in the months since keeping track of the many apps picking up Material You integration of their own, and Google's own software has been of particular interest. Not every app has been super quick to make this transition, though, with some, like Google News, positively dragging their feet. It's still not ready for its full Material You makeover, but it finally looks like News is just about to start making some of those changes.
Google News is now blocked in Russia over 'inauthentic' war coverage
The latest restriction from the Russian government
Restrictions to freely available information in Russia continue to be rolled out by the country's government, and the latest move blocks access to Google News for its citizens (via Reuters). Russia's communications regulator accused the Google News service of providing access to false information on the country's military operations in Ukraine.
Google trolls Redditor with constant alerts about Wheel of Fortune host Pat Sajak
Please, Pat, don't hurt 'em
When I was a kid growing up in Nashville, Pat Sajak was, for a short time, the weather guy for our local NBC affiliate. Then Sajak headed off to Hollywood and stardom — well, fame, I guess — doing the job he still has today as the host of "Wheel of Fortune." Nashville didn't necessarily miss him. Like LA, the city is a little jaded about would-be and current celebrities. Google, however, thinks the weather guy turned game show host is pretty damn important to one unlucky Redditor who recently shared a weird and frustrating glitch which is alerting him to very important Pat Sajak news several times a day.
Most of Google's apps received Material You-themed redesigns ahead of Android 12's official launch last year, including Maps, Play, and Photos. There's a handful of services that have yet to receive a visual refresh, with Google News chief among them. While the app has yet to get a full Material You redesign, an updated look is currently being tested with a select group of users.
Google kills off Your News Update audio briefings in Assistant
Another Google service bites the dust
Google orginally launched Your News Update back in 2019 as a way to bring users convenient little clips of audio news, rather than having them sit through entire podcasts. Now, two years down the line, the company has rather quietly removed the service and gone back to offering only its standard news briefing.
After an absence of seven years Google News is returning to Spain
The Kingdom of Spain says “bienvenidos” to Google’s return
In 2014 Google News decided to cease offering its services in Spain due to strict legislation regulating how news links and excerpts are shared online. But now winds of change are blowing through the streets of Madrid. In response to new laws passed in EU capital Brussels, Spain is loosening its restrictions on link sharing and Google has announced that it will be resuming its news service in Spain early next year.
Big Moments could mark an editorial shift for how Google presents news
The feature would serve to highlight breaking news in real time
Social media plays a huge role in where and how we consume our news. Right now, Google News can be really inefficient when it comes to ongoing, breaking news events. Instead, we get our breaking news from places like Twitter, where someone can just pull out their phone and tell the world what's happening in seconds. Google seems to want to catch up a little in this regard, which is why the company is reportedly coming up with something called "Big Moments," which has the potential to change how we read our news.