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SmartNews: Comprehensive Review of the News Aggregation Platform

by SmartNews, Inc.

3.7
ANDROIDNews & Magazines
SmartNews aggregates content from major publications with algorithmic and editorial curation. The app serves news consumers seeking diverse perspectives through personalized feeds and daily SmartTake digests.

Detailed Review

SmartNews positions itself as a comprehensive news aggregation platform that combines algorithmic curation with human editorial oversight. The application sources content from over 3,000 major publications including established newspapers, digital media outlets, and specialized trade publications. Its core proposition involves delivering personalized news while maintaining editorial quality through the SmartTake daily digest feature, which provides curated summaries of important developments. The platform's functionality centers around several key components: personalized news feeds based on user-selected topics, trending news sections highlighting viral stories, and offline reading capabilities. The algorithmic curation engine analyzes reading patterns to surface relevant content, while human editors curate the SmartTake feature to ensure balanced coverage. Technical implementation includes adaptive loading for varying network conditions and a clean interface optimized for rapid content consumption across multiple categories including politics, technology, entertainment, and local news. User experience demonstrates thoughtful design with a card-based interface that facilitates quick scanning of headlines and article snippets. The navigation system employs a bottom-bar layout with clear section divisions, while the reading view offers adjustable text size and dark mode options. Real-world usage patterns show highest engagement during morning and evening commuting hours, with particular popularity for the offline reading feature among subway commuters and frequent travelers who experience intermittent connectivity. User feedback reveals consistent appreciation for content diversity alongside technical reliability concerns. Positive reviews highlight the extensive publisher network, with Cheryl Morningstar noting 'All major publications appear in the SmartNews line-up' (2025-06-28). However, technical issues persist as Dan Laurence reported articles 'reloading in the middle of reading' (2025-06-26), while Monica Munn requested more granular source control options (2025-09-01). The development team demonstrates responsiveness, with Doug Barnes noting improvement after reinstalling the application (2025-06-29). The application excels in content breadth and curation quality but faces challenges with technical stability and advertising implementation. Strengths include the dual algorithmic-editorial approach and extensive publisher relationships, while limitations involve occasional loading issues and limited source customization. Ideal for users seeking broad news coverage from established sources who can tolerate standard advertising formats and occasional technical hiccups in exchange for comprehensive content aggregation.

Key Features

  • SmartTake Daily Digest provides editor-curated news summaries offering balanced overviews of daily important developments
  • Personalized news feeds algorithmically tailored to user reading history and manually selected topic preferences
  • Offline reading capability downloads articles for access without internet connectivity during commutes or travel
  • Source diversity featuring content from 3000+ publications including major newspapers and niche outlets
  • Trending news section highlighting viral stories and socially shared content across multiple categories
  • Category-based organization allowing users to follow specific topics like technology, politics, or entertainment

Why Users Love It

Extensive publisher network
Dual curation approach

Perfect for: News consumers seeking diverse perspectives from established publications

Screenshots

SmartNews: News That Matters screenshot 1SmartNews: News That Matters screenshot 2SmartNews: News That Matters screenshot 3SmartNews: News That Matters screenshot 4SmartNews: News That Matters screenshot 5SmartNews: News That Matters screenshot 6

App Preview

Ranking History

Track SmartNews: News That Matters's performance in News & Magazines over the last 30 days

Top 5
Top 10
Top 15
Below 15

Current Rank

#23

3 from last week

Best Rank

#20

All-time high

Average Rank

#24

30-day average

User Reviews

Cheryl Morningstar
Jun 28, 2025

Love, love, love Smart news. I love the way it's organized and content is great. All major publications appear in the Smart News' line-up!

Dan Laurence
Jun 26, 2025

The last update brought back the issue of articles reloading in the middle of reading, causing the whole page to reload. Would love the option of a paid version with no Ads.

Tina Williams
Jul 28, 2025

This app shows an awesome number of publishers and current articles about a lot of topics. I see people having an issue I used to have also, opening an article but it won't load, leaving you hanging with just a blank page. When that happened I would go to my tablet settings and bring up the SmartNews app, go into storage and clear the cache. This usually solved the issue, but it rarely happens now.

Rosa Carter
Jul 17, 2025

Good news app. I enjoy reading from this app--the various topics. However, sometimes, I've selected a specific story to read, but the updated articles pop up. This is so annoying!

arumugam rajarathnam
Jul 23, 2025

I am a fan of Smart News. I have installed the app and get regular notifications on my subject of interest. Particularly I am interested in Science and Tech, gadgets, software on which Smart News provides latest information. Thanks to its developers.

App Details

Developer

SmartNews, Inc.

Platform

android

Rating

3.7

Last Updated

10/7/2025