Read personalized news

Yahoo! for Android is a news browser app that provides news and connects to the larger Yahoo! network. This release on Android coincides with an updated version on iPhone, both of which use Summly technology. The main feature of Yahoo! for Android is short news summaries.

This news feed can be personalized further by toggling on and off related topics found at the end of articles. There is also plenty of social integration such as importing your Facebook likes into favored news topics or sharing stories using Gmail. Both of these do require signing in to a Yahoo! ID, though. Lastly, you can use the app to search the web or browse for videos from YouTube and other sites.

What it does

The main feature of the mobile app is the Yahoo! News feed. The feed can include stories from sources such as Reuters, Access Hollywood, ABC, Healthy Living, and more. Each story includes the title, source, a link to read more, and a drop down menu to dislike or share (via Gmail, Facebook, or Bluetooth services). The dislike option will allow you dislike topics or remove stories from your feed. Many stories also include a summary provided by Yahoo! and a related image from the article. In some cases a stock image is provided, which can be confusing when it has nothing to do with the headline.

Tapping on the “Read more” option will take you to the full article. This often includes an image or video at the top, the news source, and when the story was posted. In the upper right-hand corner is a button to quickly share stories. By default Facebook and Gmail are options, but the app will search for other installed apps such as Google Drive or Google+. Related topics show up at the bottom of the article. If you’re using a Yahoo ID, you can either add topics as favorites or remove them from your feed.

A slight annoyance is that if you scroll too far down, you will be taken to the next related story without a way to quickly return to the previous story. Thankfully the page will snap slowly during this, allowing you to easily cancel the motion.

Customize your experience

The mobile Yahoo! app has many great options for customization. You can disable the visual story feed if you become tired of it. This will cause stories to appear in a simple list with just the headline, source, and possibly an icon sized image. If you don’t want to see every story you can select a specific section of articles ranging from business, politics, technology, and many others. The most impressive feature is personalizing your news feed. In the topics preferences menu you can change which topics you’ve already picked as “My topics” or add them to “Removed topics”. Lastly, you can sync your Facebook likes and interests which imports them into your topic lists. This feature is very convenient and will allow faster customization than having to choose individual topics.

Search and apps

Being a Yahoo! product, there is an option to search the web, naturally. You can browse websites, images, or videos from sites such as YouTube or Mevio. These searches open each page inside the Yahoo! app instead of transferring to another browser or app. Quality and load times of sites are generally fast, though it depends on your connection.

It would actually be convenient if the Yahoo! app detected other apps installed during your search and prompted switching to them. However, there is an extensive apps menu which lets you download Yahoo! related apps, such as Flickr or Yahoo! Messenger, from the Play Store and open them once installed.

Conclusion

The Yahoo! for Android app has a great set of customizable features. If you’re displeased with the visual summaries you can quickly turn them off while still retaining core information. If you really don’t care for the featured news stories, the ability to easily import Facebook likes and interests will make a truly personal news feed. Better yet, your favorite stories can easily be shared across social networks or other apps.

Despite some minor interface issues, the app offers an excellent way to check the latest news.

Endless visual stream of storiesSummaries by Yahoo!Ability to personalize your feed by select topics you want more stories aboutRevamped web search experience including images and video

Changes

• Endless visual stream of storiesSummaries by Yahoo!Ability to personalize your feed by select topics you want more stories aboutRevamped web search experience including images and video