Common Sense Media Review
By Amanda Bindel
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Read latest news with different views without data or Wi-Fi.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 13+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Download
Videos and Photos
SmartNews: Local News Break
Parent and Kid Reviews
Privacy Rating Warning
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
Privacy Rating
Our expert evaluators create our privacy ratings. The ratings are designed to help you understand how apps use your data for commercial purposes.
Pass
Meets our minimum requirements for privacy and security practices.
Warning
Does not meet our recommendations for privacy and security practices.
Fail
Does not have a privacy policy and should not be used.
What's It About?
SMARTNEWS: LOCAL NEWS BREAK lets readers customize their news. They can choose from a variety of news topics and create tabs for each (or use the defaults -- Top, Entertain, Lifestyle, U.S., Politics, Sports, World, Biz, Tech, Science, Buzz, Social, and Social. There's also a Discover tab that highlights some new sources that are trending or of special interest. Within each tab, there are dozens of current news articles, and readers can choose to read the "smart" version of the article -- a quicker-loading, mostly text version of the story, or read it directly from the source's site. In settings, if readers choose (default) to have the app refresh continuously, those "smart" versions of the stories are available even when not connected to data or Wi-Fi.
Is It Any Good?
Choosing the sources and topics for the news you want to read, and being able to read that news without blowing through data is smart. The interface is easy-to-read with large but uniform headlines accompanied by photos on each tabbed subject. Readers can clearly see, too, the source for the article. The colorful tabs are easy to navigate, but even better, easy to customize. Readers can choose to receive push notifications for news or not, making this a truly design-your-own approach to staying up-to-date on news. It's a great tool to help teens interact with current events so they can explore a variety of sources about the main topic -- and discuss with you!
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can use SmartNews - Local News Break together to read about special interests and current events and discuss. Ask kids: What do you think about what's happened? Why? Are there other opinions about it?
Talk about the different sources included and how each presents different content and different prespectives. Use the app to encourage news literacy by comparing the approach of varied sources.
App Details
- Devices : iPhone , iPod Touch , iPad , Android
- Subjects : Language & Reading : discussion , reading , Social Studies : cultural understanding , events , global awareness , government
- Skills : Thinking & Reasoning : collecting data , investigation , thinking critically , Emotional Development : perspective taking
- Pricing structure : Free
- Release date : September 19, 2019
- Genre : News
- Topics : School ( High School , Middle School )
- Publisher : SmartNews, Inc.
- Version : 6.3.0
- Minimum software requirements : iOS 11 and up; Android varies
- Last updated : September 30, 2025
Did we miss something on diversity?
Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by
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Common Sense Media's unbiased ratings are created by expert reviewers and aren't influenced by the product's creators or by any of our funders, affiliates, or partners.
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