Best Apps for Staying Informed in the Era of Fake News

With recent revelations that Russia purchased bots and spread thousands of dubious articles on Facebook and Twitter before last year’s election, staying informed seems like a greater challenge than ever. The news stories on even the most heavily-trafficked social media platforms might be skewed by algorithms and misinformation.

Fortunately, there are better apps for us to get news delivered to us than social media. Best of all, some news-aggregating apps will cater the news they deliver to each individual user, meaning everyone can rest assured they are receiving reliable news from sites without partisan slants they might be at odds with.

Read More: The Coolest News Apps for the Digital Age

Feedly
Feedly allows users to decide which news outlets they trust, and add blogs and YouTube channels to their assortment of more traditional journalistic sources. The result is a decidedly modern take on receiving news, combining the prowess of your favorite journalists with commentary from your favorite bloggers and YouTube channels. For the business-minded, Feedly also allows users to include industry journals and secure access to information from company sources, meaning it doubles as useful for staying up-to-date with work.

Inoreader
An up-and-coming app, Inoreader has pre-created topics users can choose to follow. These pre-made feeds make it an excellent fit for users who might not know which sources to follow on certain topics. Similarly, it is an excellent option for users who want reliable news but do not want to go through the work of curating which sources and topics they want to follow. It might also serve as a great complement to other news aggregating apps, introducing users to new sources they otherwise would not have thought to add to their personally-curated aggregators. The result is a less fussy, more streamlined app that otherwise provides an experience comparable to that of Feedly.

Flipboard
One of the most visually-appealing news apps on the market, Flipboard offers a customized news-reading experience with an interface that re-creates the experience of reading a magazine or flipping through a newspaper. Best of all, the breadth of topics available makes it an outstanding app to receive feeds from various specialized topics, from the entertainment industry to the latest advances in science. One unique feature is a channel dedicated to articles about leading a more productive life, helping to ensure users will not get so drawn into the experience that they lose track of time. The sleek, flashy design and enormous breadth of topics makes Flipboard a delightful choice among news aggregators.