While Facebook is prepared to change its News Feed to reduce the prominence of political posts and current events, newsreader Flipboard is releasing an update that gives users more control over their feeds. On the cover of its main newsfeed, dubbed “For you,” the firm announced the arrival of a new controller that allows users to select new topics to follow and reject those they no longer wish to hear about. Instead of focusing their home page on breaking news and politics, users may tailor their For You feed to give a wider selection of content pertaining to their varied hobbies, which Flipboard calls “an antidote to room scrolling.”
Given today’s events — a lingering pandemic, climate-change-related wildfires and severe storms, Afghanistan’s fall, and other calamities — it’s no surprise that people want to escape the daily news. Flipboard, on the other hand, may see less use of its news-reading app as a result of this trend.
While millions of people use Flipboard to stay up to date on breaking news and politics, the bulk of its users also engage with other topics such as travel, food, photography, fitness, and parenthood.
The business believes that by offering tools that allow users to create their own feeds, consumers would not only have better mental health but will also spend more time in the Flipboard app. Based on other recent adjustments made by Flipboard, this looks to be the case.
Topic personalization tools were recently launched by the company, allowing customers to focus on more particular interests — for example, not just food, but keto cooking; not just health, but mindfulness and sleep, for example. Flipboard discovered that users who customized their preferences spent an average of nine to twelve minutes per day reading stories about these themes.
Flipboard intends to deliver a similar level of customization and control to users’ own homepages with the debut of for-you newsfeed controls. According to the firm, the feature also answers the most common request from consumers, who want more control over the content selection in their For You stream. To use the functionality, go to the top of the main page and look for the new filter toggles. You’ll be sent to a window where you can tap and untap a variety of topics after tapping the symbol. You may also use the search box to find additional things you’re interested in that aren’t featured. When you’re done customizing, simply press “Save” to return to you is newly personalized for your stream.
Flipboard hopes that its customizability will set it apart from other news reading experiences, such as perusing news through social network feeds or using dedicated news reading apps.
