The past few days I've been using Particle, a news app for Apple devices. I must say it seems impossibly good so far. It uses AI to serve up news in categories you select and you're able to dial up or dial down your interests in each category or even turn them off entirely (goodbye Sports and Celebrities!). Though this isn't completely unique, it also summarizes content via multiple sources, and determines the bias of the publications serving you the articles.
In the past, I've tried Apple News, Google News, Flipboard, and countless other apps. This one seems the most in tune with my thinking regarding how news should be served.
For instance, here's a screngrab of the front page of their politics section as I write this:
If I click on the first article, about the arrested Ukrainians, it tells me there are 8 stories about this topic so far. It then gives me an overview of the articles and tells me what the people who are sharing these articles are saying about them. The column on the right shows me photos from the articles and I can click through them or click View All. Further down, there are links to the actual 8 articles and clicking on them takes me directly to them on the publisher's websites.
In the App, I can also specify how I want that Overview, with options for Explain Like I'm 5; Opposite Sides (presents right and left takes); The 5 Ws; and others.
The above is possible on Particle's website as well as in the App. However, in the app I can also tap the area between the headline and the Overview and see this, which breaks down the biases of the sources:
I can also hit that Political Spectrum dropdown and re-sort by Publish Date or Article Length.
You can also Ask Questions regarding the articles and the AI will answer them based on the source articles. For instance, about this article, I asked, "How do authorities determine connections to Russian state agencies?" and was given an answer. I also asked if these were Ukrainians living in Russia or living in Ukraine and was told places of residence were not specified. Questions are public, so other people can click them and see the answers.
You can also listen to any article by hitting the Play button. Great for dog walking or longform articles.
Pretty amazing. Can't believe it's free.
