News apps vie for attention on the Apple Watch with unique content

BY Evan Selleck

Published 21 Apr 2015

New York Times Apple Watch

For many iPhone owners, the Apple Watch is going to work as a means of accessing the content they normally would on their phone without pulling the smartphone out of their pocket.

As such, many apps will work as a way to extend the natural elements from an application on the iPhone to the Watch, providing just the right amount of information when it arrives. At least, that’s the goal. Re/code has put together a list of news applications that are vying for attention on the wrist, thanks to the updates to their iOS apps that have garnered Watch support.

At the tail-end of March, the New York Times updated its own iOS app to support the Watch, and brought “one-sentence stories” to the wearable. With this methodology, the news outlet wants to provide just enough information to get the user interested in the story, so that they tap further into it and read it later on their iPhone or iPad.

Washington Post Apple Watch app

Now, many other news apps have launched their own updates to bring Watch support to the table, and many of them have unique ways of delivering the news to the wearer:

  • The Washington Post: The update brings what the news outlet calls “Big Story, Small Screen.” A daily feature telling a major story with high-powered visuals, which will also be accompanied by Top Headlines that are easy to browse and sift through. With Handoff, stories can be sent to the iPhone to read later.
  • Associated Press: This process is a bit more straightforward, with notifications for breaking and top stories right on the wrist. The app will also make use of Force Touch, which will allow users to save a story to read later on the iPhone.
  • CNN: Get up-to-the-minute breaking news across 12 personalized categories – from Top Stories and Health to Entertainment and Politics. Tap to open a story; then choose to save it or continue reading on your phone. You can even launch live CNN TV on your phone, right from your watch.
  • Circa News: Now you can see featured stories at a glance, stay caught up with your Daily Brief & Updates, and more all from the tiny computer your wrist.

There are quite a few others to choose from, and all of them look to deliver the news on the wearable in different ways. Do you plan on staying up-to-date on the news with the Apple Watch?

[via Re/code]