Google News unveils new, customizable ‘Following’ tab for Android users

Google News is getting a bit of a redesign on Android, and it should make finding useful articles a little easier. 

Previously, Google News would let users follow general topics like world news, digital currency, finance, business, tech, etc. — even certain cities. Those selected interests, along with Google’s search history algorithm, would determine what stories appeared in the main Google News feed. A “Following” tab let users click and see sources to find news related to those areas, but didn’t actually show any content. 

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But now, the Google News “Following” page has a series of cards at the top that can be tapped on, each card representing an area of interest. Once a card is opened, articles related to that topic appear — including a headline, source, image, and details on how old the article is. The feed actually looks very similar to how Chrome’s feed looks when you open up a new tab.

Topics can easily be followed or unfollowed from the “Library” section, but the cards unfortunately can’t be organized, and they’ll be sorted in whatever order Google decides to display them. 

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The changes come after Google News received a Material You makeover earlier this year. If you’re not familiar, Material You is Google’s newest design language being implemented across all Google products, including the latest Pixel Watch and Pixel 7 Pro phone. It’s designed to make Android products more personal and more customizable.   

This isn’t necessarily a huge update, but it certainly makes finding focused news a little easier than the For You page, and it gives users a little more control over what news appears.

The updated version of Google News is available for Android devices now and is expected to hit iOS devices later this year.