Flipboard adds rating system to head off Apple News

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Get more of what you like and less of what you don't with Flipboard's new rating system.
Get more of what you like and less of what you don't with Flipboard's new rating system.
Photo: Flipboard

Seminal magazine-style news aggregation app Flipboard is aiming to compete with Apple News by introducing a system that lets users rate stories and ultimately adjust the mix of their home feed.

“No matter where you are on Flipboard, if you see something you like and want to get more of it in your Cover Stories, tap ‘More like this,'” says the Flipboard website, “If you’d rather see less of something, tap ‘Less like this.’”

Founded in 2010, Flipboard quickly became the de-facto standard for elegantly designed content aggregators that make news beautiful to read on the iPad and other mobile devices. The recently announced Apple News app is similar, and stands a good chance of sherlocking Flipboard when it is released in the fall.

As a result, Flipboard is hoping to maintain its relevance by adding new features, including the new rating system — which gives users a Facebook-style method for giving a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to individual stories — and a muting capability to turn off specific news sources.

Adding your own likes and dislikes won’t only customize your own feed, but will help other users as well, provided you’re doing so on iOS and Android (not the Flipboard website), according to Flipboard.

“Finally, by fine-tuning your Flipboard, you’ll not only adjust the content mix in your Cover Stories,” writes the team, “but also you’ll send important signals that inform the entire Flipboard ecosystem, strengthening the experience for all readers.”

While these changes might not save Flipboard in the face of competition with Apple, it should go a long way toward maintaining current users by offering more than the Apple News app will (at least at launch).

Source: Flipboard

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