´óÏó´«Ã½ News app for Android update released
Android Phones. Picture by , used under
I'm pleased to announce that we have released an update to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News app for Android devices. The update will be available to from today.
We've really appreciated your feedback since we launched the app in May. In response to your comments, the update offers:
- Homescreen widgets - offering you an at-a-glance view of the headlines, directly on your Android homescreen
- Improved personalisation - as well as adding and removing news categories, you can now reorder the categories to suit your preferences
- Ability to store the app on the SD card (widgets will not be available if you choose to use this feature).
We have also added the ability to send stories, video, and photos directly to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ News team. If you capture a news event, either as a photograph or video, then please send it to ´óÏó´«Ã½ News.
Audiences around the world will be getting an update via the International Android Market at a later stage.
To add a widget to your Android homescreen, find an available space on your screen and then long-press to bring up a list of available widgets. Choose from ´óÏó´«Ã½ News (large) or ´óÏó´«Ã½ News (small), then choose which news category you want to display. The widgets offer a quick glance at the latest headlines directly on your device's homescreen.
The ´óÏó´«Ã½ News app for Android also now offers the ability to store the app on the SD card, a key feature that Android users have been asking for. Android apps are installed by default to the device's internal storage but as you add more and more apps you can run out of storage space, so we have given you the option of moving the app to the SD card. If you choose to use this new feature the widgets will not be available; this is a feature of Android that is outside our control, but as many people have been asking for SD card storage we wanted to give the choice.
The ´óÏó´«Ã½ News app for Android has been downloaded more than two million times globally. We're really pleased the app has been so well received. Thanks for your continued comments and star ratings. Please let us know what you think of the latest update underneath this post, or via the hashtag.
Kate Milner is Mobile Product Manager for News. She reports to Anthony Sullivan, the overall Product Manager for News, within Phil Fearnley's Future Media News and Knowledge Group.
Comment number 1.
At 4th Oct 2011, Briantist wrote:Sorry to be negative, but ´óÏó´«Ã½ News app still refuses to install on Honeycomb though.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 1)
Comment number 2.
At 4th Oct 2011, MarkG wrote:Does it work on Android tablets yet or are the ´óÏó´«Ã½ still sticking their head in the iPad sand?
I’m guessing not. ´óÏó´«Ã½ are the slowest to adapt of anyone.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 2)
Comment number 3.
At 5th Oct 2011, Phil wrote:This looks good, and really shows the benefit of Android's support for widgets. I'd like to see a few more screenshots (and I'm sure the Android Market would benefit from them). Is it possible to see more than two stories at a time with the large widget? A text list of the top stories might be a helpful addition, if not.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 3)
Comment number 4.
At 5th Oct 2011, angrymartin wrote:I'm not sure that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ really get android. Why would you spend all this money on developing an app and then block it from tablets. You have to actually go out of your way to prevent it being installed on tablets, and you know it would work fine if you did - because unlike iOS, android is good like that. Seriously ´óÏó´«Ã½, what are you playing at?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 4)
Comment number 5.
At 5th Oct 2011, zebs wrote:Still not supporting Honeycomb!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 5)
Comment number 6.
At 5th Oct 2011, MarkG wrote:I'm beginning to think that the ´óÏó´«Ã½'s Android stance is deliberate, you only have to look at their reporting of anything Apple on ´óÏó´«Ã½ News, Focus Magazine, Click etc etc to see they are a bunch of Apple fanboys.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 6)
Comment number 7.
At 5th Oct 2011, fr wrote:Honeycomb support for this and the iPlayer app should be a priority
Complain about this comment (Comment number 7)
Comment number 8.
At 6th Oct 2011, Andrew Ramsey wrote:As a real news junkie I felt compelled to comment although this could be taken as a review.
I have been using the Sky News app for Android since its launch and must admit I have really enjoyed the simplicity of it along with the quick videos attached to some stories.
On hearing about the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news Android app and a 2 month trip abroad where I'd be starved of breaking and informative news it had to be on my phone.
As with any change at first I found the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news app so different that almost followed my own fingers to the familiar Sky news, but finding time on my hands I wanted to take a closer look at what the ´óÏó´«Ã½ were offering.
The tiled design remains me very much of a Windows phone home screen, something I'm not used to on my Samsung Galaxy S2, however after editing my chosen categories I have to say that I have been impressed with the service.
I particularly like the 'Live' function for watching live ´óÏó´«Ã½ news, this is something I hadn't done with the Sky news app and found myself comforted in a foreign country with news of home.
The 'rolling' LATEST news stories at the top of the screen is also impressive, the difference with the Sky news app is that you have to update/refresh and then if it is not marked as a yellow breaking story try and find out which stories have changed.
One point of criticism would be the large images, I would much prefer to have smaller thumbnails on a smart phone to maximise space for extra content, this is obviously not a problem if you are using an Android tablet but judging from previous comments it seems that there is no support for the honeycomb tablet OS.
An option to change the display to 'list view' rather than 'thumbnail' would be great for smaller smartphone screens.
I work within the industry running a [Unsuitable/Broken URL removed by Moderator] blog and have used multiple platforms, Android does always seem to be an afterthought for many large services after iOS but statistically there are now more Android devices in the market with more apps being downloaded than iOS so maybe a change is on its way?
Complain about this comment (Comment number 8)
Comment number 9.
At 6th Oct 2011, 128fish wrote:The bbc news app widget should be resizeable on the screen for android, if the ´óÏó´«Ã½ looked how it is done on the samsung gs2, you just hold yuor finger on the widget
to resize it to the size you like, The other thing about the ´óÏó´«Ã½ news widget is that
the news stories are not live like AP MOBILES NEWS WIDGET the pictures and the news stories should auto scroll to the next story, I am very disapointed with this
´óÏó´«Ã½ NEWS WIDGET, its more like a short cut to the ´óÏó´«Ã½ NEWS APP which is far better.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 9)
Comment number 10.
At 7th Oct 2011, Adam wrote:Looks lovely, would love a proper ´óÏó´«Ã½ app for Windows Phone, there's an unofficial one out there but it can be a pain (and for some reason has the World News logo on it)
Complain about this comment (Comment number 10)
Comment number 11.
At 12th Oct 2011, daz_2000 wrote:Good app on my phone, but really disappointing that tablets are not supported, same goes for the iplayer app. The news one should be a priority.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 11)
Comment number 12.
At 12th Oct 2011, paul wrote:Can we have an Official ´óÏó´«Ã½ Weather app and widget? I think this would be much more useful to many people than the news one.
Most of the weather widgets available on Android use useless forecast data from US-based weather providers. None of these are as accurate as the UK Met Office data.
It would be also great if the weather app could also have the following features:
- weather widget with forecast for day ahead in your location (and next day or two)
- show a live radar image (an optional part of the widget as well)
- let you pan around the British Isles forecast (and other) charts with your finger while also letting you adjust a forecast time slider (the panning around is actually very very annoying on TV and think you should just show the British Isles as static on that medium, but being able to pan around yourself on a mobile would actually be the first time that such an ability to pan would actually be useful!)
Complain about this comment (Comment number 12)
Comment number 13.
At 14th Oct 2011, netlaw wrote:I would be very interested in how the ´óÏó´«Ã½ explain their development of an iPad specific version of iplayer but fail to provide a version ( or block) Android Tablets. It seems to me that the ´óÏó´«Ã½ are using State Funding (´óÏó´«Ã½ being Funded by Government) to assist the marketability of Apple in breach of State Aid (at least in spirit) and I for one have written to the European Commission to ask why this practice is permitted to be maintained. Suggest other Android users do too!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 13)
Comment number 14.
At 17th Oct 2011, Rob wrote:I love the news app and the iplayer, but I can't believe they won't work on honeycomb tablets. This really needs to be urgently sorted out. And when the next version of Android, Ice Cream Sandwich (due very soon) comes out, I presume the apps won't work on that either?! PLEASE get this sorted out ASAP!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 14)
Comment number 15.
At 19th Oct 2011, mw wrote:Would it be possible to provide a direct link to this app so that it can be downloaded *outside* Google's Android market ? My Android device does not have access to this 'Android market', so I cannot install it. I am not alone.
I could install it if a direct link were to be made available.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 15)
Comment number 16.
At 20th Oct 2011, Kate Milner ´óÏó´«Ã½ wrote:Hi everyone. Thanks for all of your feedback. The current ´óÏó´«Ã½ News app was specifically designed for smartphones. We are aware of the demand for a tablet app and we will release an optimised version in the future.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 16)
Comment number 17.
At 1st Nov 2011, Rallicat wrote:Just want to add my voice in support of an official ´óÏó´«Ã½ News app for Windows Phone users. There are some great third-party apps in the store, but an official app with video support would be very welcome!
Pretty please? :)
Complain about this comment (Comment number 17)
Comment number 18.
At 5th Nov 2011, Big Grech wrote:Not working on the Sony Tablet S, when are you going resolve?. Come on ´óÏó´«Ã½ dont hold back!!
Complain about this comment (Comment number 18)
Comment number 19.
At 19th Dec 2011, darren_james wrote:This comment was removed because the moderators found it broke the house rules. Explain.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 19)
Comment number 20.
At 20th Dec 2011, stranraervillain wrote:Fantastic! But why can my wife get so many apps on ´óÏó´«Ã½ worldwide through her I-phone (old 3GS handset) and an I-Player app that streams 3G and not just through wireless. You have a huge market of TV licence payers you seem willing to just ignore. Look at your own news story about android downloads.
Complain about this comment (Comment number 20)