News Drift is an RSS based news agregator Android App. The app was developed by Abel Masai, a Kenyan developer. News Drift which is in it’s third version has undergone several changes since inception to improve on the user experience in delivering news.
Features of the app:
- You have a list of curated news sources from which to select your reader feeds.
- News sources divided into categories; News, Business, Sports, Technology and Lifestyle.
- With the app you get the Top news stories section when you load the app and the specific sites view where you can scroll through feeds from one site.
- Switching from one news site to the next within the category is just a swipe away.
- Moving from category to category requires going back to the menu which is located at the top left
- The app is usable in both portrait and landscape modes and when reading an article you get options like font re-size, share options and an icon to save a story.
- Saved stories are accessible in a sub-menu on their own.
- Within the menu we have a link to a featured section that has a list of other applications done by Abel, these are listed within the app and are links to the apps location in the Google Play Store.
- There is also the settings link that allows you select and manage your news sources.
- The app requires you to refresh your sources though it will load the new items in the feed on first load, anything new will require the menu control on the phone to select the refresh link.
- There is a search bar that allows you search from among the feeds you have added.
- The app works for all screen sizes and will resize to fit even tablets, Abel has even made the app available for devices running older Android versions from 1.6 all the way to Android 4.3.
Conclusion
Generally the app does have a great UI and it’s evident the developer knows his way around UI development. There are ads on the app at the bottom which I would assume are the developer’s revenue stream. Naturally one would expect him to sell a premium version without ads for those who would feel the ads being an intrusion to the experience, I am not complaining!
