Apple News is getting a significant upgrade. The news aggregation app, which ships preinstalled on Apple devices, is introducing several new features for readers and premium subscribers, including audio stories, a daily audio briefing called “Apple News Today,” and expanded local coverage.
The audio briefing is somewhat of a competitor to Alexa’s Flash Briefing, which has become a popular way to catch up on the top news headlines. But in Apple’s case, the briefing is hosted by people, not a virtual assistant. Apple News editors and co-hosts, Shumita Basu and Duarte Geraldino, will guide listeners through the day’s headlines. They will then spend the remainder of the briefing discussing around three or four articles in a more in-depth fashion.
In total, the briefing will run for roughly seven to eight minutes in length and will be accessible to all Apple News readers in the U.S.
A new briefing will arrive every Monday through Friday, and can be played in the Apple News app in the U.S., in Apple Podcasts, or it can be launched using Siri voice commands across Apple devices, including Mac and HomePod.
Another new audio feature, audio stories, is only being made available to Apple News+ subscribers, however.
Starting today, Apple News will produce around 20 new audio stories per week across a range of topics, which are narrated by voice actors. These stories aren’t original content, but will instead be professionally-narrated versions of feature reporting and other long-form pieces published by Essence, Esquire, Fast Company, GQ, New York Magazine, Sports Illustrated, TIME, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, and others, as well as newspapers like The Wall Street Journal and the Los Angeles Times.
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