Amaya Toman The present time is characterized, among other things, by constant changes, events and news. On the one hand, it is necessary to keep an overview of current events and to have information about all the latest news, but on the other hand, there is a risk that we sometimes miss really important things, or that, on the contrary, we are overwhelmed by all kinds of news. The FlashNews application, which we had the opportunity to review, promises to help you stay on top of what's happening in the world and in your immediate surroundings. Is that really the case?
Basic information
FlashNews is a Czech news aggregator, i.e. a service whose task is to collect reliable and verified information from all possible sources and display it to the user based on his preferences. The FlashNews cross-platform application is subtitled "What you live for". This sentence is the basic motto and main idea of this platform. The FlashNews application is supposed to bring you only the news that you really care about and that interest you. FlashNews is available not only in a version for iOS devices, but also for iPad and for web browsers.
Principle of operation
The FlashNews application cannot be denied for its really well-thought-out, easy, intuitive operation and perfectly clear user interface. After your first launch, FlashNews will guide you step-by-step through the setup and customization of the content you want to display, giving you a clear introduction to the controls. For me personally, controlling this application was a breeze from the very beginning. FlashNews offers all the information in a clear and chronological order in one place, but you don't have to worry about being overwhelmed by content that doesn't interest you. Already at the first launch, you determine which topics, personalities, but also resources you will follow.
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In addition to traditional and less traditional news websites, you can also use FlashNews to follow Twitter accounts or news from the local government of your chosen cities and towns. The application offers the possibility of tracking individual topics, personalities, but also places. The selection is really large and of course also includes foreign sources. The creators of the app are also great about disinformation and similar sources. You will be duly notified in FlashNews that you are about to read a message from such a source, and you have the option to block these sources (along with any other sources) of course. However, one of the principles of the FlashNews platform is that it only wants to provide users with serious, relevant and verified information from sources that meet the basic requirements for journalistic work.
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Interface and features
As I mentioned above, the interface of the FlashNews application is clean, well-designed and very clear. From the main page of the application, you can move to resource management, for example, and on the bottom bar you will find buttons to go to the main news overview, search, saved content and settings. In the channel of the news you subscribe to, you can set the order of categories or hide individual sections, in the upper part of the FlashNews home page you can switch between the mentioned sections.
The application offers support for a system-wide dark mode, customizing the display of previews, fonts, but also hiding selected resources. In addition, you can manage resources directly on articles, so it is not necessary to switch to settings for this purpose. Of course, there are bookmarks, the possibility of sharing or setting up push notifications regarding important messages.
Finally
I tested the FlashNews application for a long time, and during the testing the application itself and the notification functioned absolutely reliably. I was really getting exactly the information I was interested in, and the tedious and often frustrating browsing of news sites and being overwhelmed by the news was gone. A great bonus was the possibility of receiving local news, which otherwise I would have had to look for specifically on the city's website, for example. FlashNews is completely free, with no ads, in-app purchases, or subscriptions, and I can really recommend it to anyone with a clear conscience.
Except that you won't find all the sites and sources you follow because they haven't connected to FlashNews...