BBC News App

Stay up-to-date with BBC 

Today (the day you read it actually) I want to introduce you to my favorite app if it comes to news, namely the app BBC News from the British Broadcast Corporation. You can download the app via Google Play Store for example, just as I did. It is free and should be available for every smartphone which has access to the Google Play Store or any other store that’s similar to it (as far as I know the iPhone users for instance have their own one). 

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The design of BBC News is very clear and well-arranged, featuring a red-black-grey style (the well known BBC’s crimson red). The collectivity of topics is subdivided in categories like Top Stories, US & Canada, Asia, Europe, Health, Science & Environment, Business and so forth. If you are not interested in some categories like Sport or Entertainment & Arts for example you can simply tap EDIT in the upper right corner and mark off the categories you don’t like (as you can see in picture Nr.4). Additionally you can also adjust if you want to allow the app to send breaking news notifications directly on your device. Within a category the articles are placed in a horizontal order thus you can 
slide from right to left to get to the other ones, that's why it looks as if they are cut half in the first picture, just in case you wondered.

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The articles themselves are very well written in a rather formal style, using a wide spread vocabulary, therefore they are perfect for students of the English language like I am. For our PC1 or PC2 exam we had to learn the word ‘to spark sth.’ (for example a revolution) and I’ve never really heard or read it before so I was surprised how often they use this expression in their articles, due to the fact that apparently there are protests, strikes and demonstrations all over the world nowadays. If you like an article and want to share it with your friends, you can tap on the symbol with the three connected dots next to EDIT and immediately get access to Facebook, Bluetooth or WhatsApp etc.

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If you are one of those who prefer listening or watching to reading, this app doesn’t disappoint you either. Just tap on the symbol that features three lines next to an arrow and you can choose between listening to the Live BBC World Service or the World News Bulletin and watching the World News Summary where the main news and incidents of the day are shown in a short video. 

I like to read it especially in the morning while I’m on my way to university in the bus, this way I’m always informed about the newest happenings within about twenty minutes. Sometimes if I don’t have the time or if I’m not in the mood to read a whole article I just look over the headings and get up-to-date anyway. Many articles have a short video as well which makes it even easier to gather news in as little time as possible. 

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All in all, this app is very useful being both very informative and absolutely user-friendly so I can’t but advise you to download it and give it a try. I’m sure you will like it.