Apple News gets an update adding new audio features and expanding its local news offerings for readers. The premium offering, Apple News+, gets a new daily audio briefing, and curated local news collections. The new curated local news experience is only available in five areas of the US at the moment – the Bay Area, Houston, Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco and features a variety of content from a diverse collection of local publishers, including a major newspaper in each city and region. Coverage includes topics most important to local communities, such as sports, dining and restaurants, weather, news and politics as well as personalisation for each user.
Apple News will produce about 20 audio stories a week across a wide range of interests. Narrated by professional voice actors, these are audio versions of some of the best content published by Esquire, Essence, Fast Company, GQ, New York magazine, Sports Illustrated, TIME, Vanity Fair, Vogue, Wired, and more, and newspapers including the Los Angeles Times and The Wall Street Journal. Audio stories are now available to Apple News+ subscribers in the US. Apple have also created Apple News Today, a daily audio news briefing which is free to all listeners and available mornings Monday through Friday directly in the News app in the US and on Apple Podcasts.
Audio stories and Apple News Today can both be found in the newly added Audio tab, located at the bottom of the News app, where users can manage their queue and get personalised recommendations. Both new audio features are available on iPhone, iPod touch, and CarPlay.
Apple has also introduced support for the News app in CarPlay, so users can listen to audio stories and Apple News Today while driving. Users will be able to sync listening progress across devices so yo can listen to an audio story with CarPlay from your iPhone and pick up listening to or reading it later at home.
Apple News has over 125 million monthly active users in the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada but it is not clear what news content will be available in other territories outside of the initial five areas.
Apple News is available for free in the US, the UK, Australia, and Canada on iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices. To access the new audio and local news features, users must update to iOS 13.6, iPadOS 13.6, and macOS 10.15.6. Apple News+ is available in the US for $9.99 a month, Canada for CND$12.99 a month, the UK for £9.99 a month, and Australia for AUS$14.99 a month. Customers can sign up for a free one-month trial, and the plan automatically renews after the trial ends. To subscribe to Apple News+, customers must update to iOS 12.2 or later and macOS 10.14.4 or later.
