Media and community Case study
Newsology: personalised news apps for iOS and Android
Native iOS and Android apps that rank top news stories by a reader's interest groups, publishers and join codes, with social sign-in and sharing and push notifications.
- Client
- Newsology
- Service
- Mobile apps, Integrations
- Years
- 2020–2021
- Stack
- Swift, iOS, Android, Firebase Cloud Messaging and 13 more
- Platforms
- iOS, Android
Overview
Newsology is a news-reading app for iOS and Android. After signing up, readers choose their industry, job title and location, pick interest groups and publishers, or join a group with a code, and see a prioritised feed of top stories. They can delete articles as they read them, block a source, mark an article insightful or dislike it, and share through Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram. We worked on both native apps and the API calls behind them between 2020 and 2021: upgrades and new features, bug fixing, testing on a range of Android versions and devices, and the releases to the App Store and Google Play.
The challenge
The same personalised experience had to work on two native platforms against one API: a prioritised feed that stays fresh in the background, a sign-up flow that gets a new reader to their interests quickly, and sharing and push that behave the same on iOS and Android.
What we built
- Upgrades to the native iOS (Swift) and Android (Java) apps, including the Google Play Services and Firebase updates on Android
- A redesigned sign-up and login flow with autofill, and the reader's industry, interest group and publisher choices saved through new API endpoints
- A prioritised home feed with per-interest and per-publisher lists and article actions: delete as read, block source, dislike and insightful
- Background fetching of articles and publisher lists with pagination, a new-articles prompt and state kept when the app is restarted
- Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram sharing and social sign-in, with the sharing bugs fixed on both platforms
- Push notifications through Firebase Cloud Messaging, with the device token registered through the API
- Layout, image and navigation fixes, and fixes for crashes in article display and pull to refresh
- Testing across Android versions and devices, TestFlight builds, and App Store and Google Play releases with updated descriptions and screenshots
How a system like this fits together
Reference architecture: personalised news apps
Simplified reference architecture, not a client schematic.
- Both native apps call one REST API over HTTPS with JSON for sign-up and sign-in, the reader's industry, job title and location, interest groups, publishers and join codes, and the ranked article lists. Each app keeps a local store (Core Data on iOS, SQLite on Android).
- Readers can sign in and share articles through Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn from inside the apps.
- New articles trigger push notifications through Firebase Cloud Messaging, with badge counts on Android.
Technology used
| Layer | Choice | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
| iOS app | Swift, UIKit storyboards, AFNetworking, Core Data | native reader app with a local store |
| Push | Firebase Cloud Messaging | push notifications and badge counts |
| Android app | Java, Retrofit, OkHttp, Picasso, SQLite | native reader app with a local store |
| API | REST API over HTTPS with JSON | accounts, interests, publishers and ranked article lists |
| Social | Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn SDKs | sign-in and sharing |
What happened next
- Delivered
The work described above was delivered to the client.
- Operational facts
- Our work on this project spanned 2020–2021.
Could this be your project?
- You are planning an iOS or Android app, or have one that needs a stronger back end behind it. Mobile app development
- Your product has to connect to payment, accounting, messaging or other third-party systems.
- You work in media and community and want a team that has built for it before. Media and community work
Questions about this project
How long did this project take?
Our work on it ran from 2020 to 2021.
What technology was used?
Swift, iOS, Android, Firebase Cloud Messaging, UIKit, Core Data, AFNetworking, Java, Retrofit, OkHttp, Picasso, SQLite, REST API, JSON, Facebook SDK, Twitter Kit, LinkedIn.
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