How do smartphone news services work?

The evolution of smartphone news services is one of the more debatable advances in mobile technology.

Historically, if you wanted to know what was happening in the world, you loaded a news website or installed an app like BBC News.

In the early 2010s, news aggregator websites began to appear, combining content from multiple media sources into a single location.

Then in 2015, Apple introduced a mobile app and news aggregator for iOS devices, republishing news stories through syndication feeds directly to phones and tablets.

The following year, news aggregator Upday signed a deal with Samsung to have its app pre-installed onto new handsets.

For the first time, push notifications about breaking news could be spontaneously delivered to user devices, providing a real-time summary of domestic and world events.

And while there are plenty of news aggregators in today’s market, Apple News and Upday undoubtedly stole a march on competitors like Taboola, TopBuzz and Flipboard.

But how do smartphone news services work? And are they worth using, considering the likes of Upday can’t even be deleted from Samsung handsets?

Story telling

Delivered with on-screen pop-ups akin to messaging notifications, smartphone news services rebroadcast stories from reputable organisations like ITN, The Times and Reuters.

These content syndication services may also link to blogs and podcasts, though they tend to focus on breaking news.

Any news platform can request its content be considered for distribution through smartphone news services, but only reputable mobile-optimised platforms are generally approved.

Each contributor’s content is added to a constantly expanding database of stories, which are hand-picked to ensure the flotsam and jetsam of each day’s news doesn’t receive undeserved coverage.

Deep learning algorithms interrogate this database, distributing a curated selection of stories according to each smartphone user’s past activity.

This process becomes optimised through regular use. It’s hard for the algorithm to determine if a story is of interest if there’s no user history to reference.

The algorithm uses keywords linked to particular articles, though this relies on aggregator staff accurately summarising the relevant themes or topics of an article.

Someone with a known interest in Middlesbrough FC might see an article appearing in their timeline even if it relates to an ex-Boro player, or a story affecting the whole Championship.

When a story is clicked on and the browser redirects to the original publisher’s platform, the aggregator will be programmed to prioritise similar content in future.

Equally, if the story is ignored, this is used to reduce the likelihood of similar content being sent on in future.

All the news that’s fit to print?

Aggregator services appeal to contemporary demand for real-time updates, with bite-sized stories designed to mirror today’s limited attention spans.

It’s often useful to be told about breaking news before you’d otherwise become aware, particularly stories of national interest.

However, it’s important to remember aggregators are advertising-funded services, not independent news outlets like the BBC.

Important stories may be glossed over or ignored entirely, if the aggregator deems them unworthy of coverage for any reason. There’s no accountability here.

To protect their own income streams and audience share, some news platforms have withdrawn content from aggregators, reducing the pool of contributory media outlets.

Like social media platforms, news aggregators also entrench confirmation bias – they only send us information they think we’ll like or be interested in.

The bigger picture is often lost in the pursuit of higher click-through rates.