Microsoft’s News app received a rather major update on Apple’s iOS devices today with a fresh new design and several new improvements that long-time users will likely appreciate.
The new design brings it more in line with the current look of the Bing app which has been sporting the new aesthetic for a while now on iOS and just revamped on Android earlier this week. The new Microsoft News app UI makes better use of space between icons and other content and also adds weather data, a new Bing search bar, and a more prominent focus on Microsoft Rewards.
Impressively, the new search bar features options for image and speech search directly within the search field.
Arguably the biggest change with this app update is the addition of the ability to hide specific news sources. This is something that users of Microsoft News have been wanting for years now so it’s great that the tech giant has finally given people what they want. The addition of this rather basic function does make a lot of sense as few people would use a news app if all it does is show them stories from publishers that they don’t like or trust.
Another notable change is the addition of Facebook-like reactions which can be made from news article pages and displayed on the main feed. Like on Facebook, the reactions are a bit hard to understand (Are people angry at what happened in the story for the people who wrote the story?) but they do make for a more dynamic and interesting news-reading experience.
Have you tried the new Microsoft News app yet? Let us know what you think in the comments below and then follow us on Twitter for more Microsoft app news.
