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Updated July 2026 · real, multi-region App Store reviews
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Is it worth paying for

SmartNews

45
Value score / 100 Worth paying? No Skip it

SmartNews is a free news aggregator that offers a wide range of articles, but frequent technical issues, excessive ads, and content bias significantly detract from its value.

Free to download seen up to $4.99 4.6★ lifetime (928,421) since 2014

SmartNews provides a diverse selection of news articles for free, which many users appreciate for staying informed. However, the app is plagued by performance problems like freezing and slow loading, an overwhelming number of pop-up and video ads, and a perceived bias in its news sources, making it a frustrating experience for many.

Free vs paid

SmartNews is advertised as a free app, with some users praising it for providing news without cost R22. However, the app's monetization strategy relies heavily on advertising, leading to an abundance of pop-up and video ads that interrupt reading R9R19R24R35. There are also complaints about a 'rewards program' that some find annoying and gamified, rather than a serious news feature R23R65R74R109. While in-app purchases are listed, reviews do not indicate a clear paid tier or subscription option to remove ads, with one user even suggesting a '$5 no advertisements' option R24 and another mentioning an inability to subscribe for 'interesting subjects' R281.

Value complaints

  • The app is overwhelmed with pop-up and video ads, making articles unreadable and frustrating the user experience.R9R19R24R35
  • Users are annoyed by 'rewards' notifications and a gamified approach to news reading, wishing for an option to disable these features.R23R65R74R109
  • Despite in-app purchases being listed, there is no clear option to pay to remove ads or access premium content, leading to suggestions for a paid ad-free version.R24R58R281

Where it delivers

  • Many users appreciate the app for providing a variety of news articles and viewpoints for free, making it a good source for staying informed.R5R18R22R26
Worth paying if

The app is not worth paying for, as there is no clear paid tier that addresses the major complaints of ads or performance issues.

Skip / stay free if

You should skip SmartNews if you are looking for an ad-free experience R9R19R24R35, if you prioritize an unbiased news source R10R11R14R16, or if you experience frequent app freezing, slow performance, or battery drain on your device R2R12R79.

Evidence note: Reviews indicate a strong negative trend regarding ads, performance, and content bias, despite a high lifetime rating. The listed in-app purchase prices ($3.99, $4.99) are not clearly linked to any specific features or ad removal in the user reviews, suggesting they might be for unrelated content or a feature not widely understood/used.

Frequently asked

Does SmartNews have too many ads?
Yes, many users report that SmartNews has an excessive number of pop-up and video ads that frequently interrupt reading and make articles unreadable R9R19R24R35.
Does SmartNews have performance issues?
Yes, several users report that SmartNews slows down their devices, freezes, or causes their phone to overheat, requiring reboots or making the app frustrating to use R2R12R69R79.
Can you block specific news sources or topics in SmartNews?
While the app offers options to 'see less from this' source or block certain topics, many users report that these features are ineffective, with unwanted content like celebrity news or specific political viewpoints still appearing in their feed R6R21R48R49.
Is SmartNews biased?
Many users perceive SmartNews as biased, with frequent complaints about a lean towards one political side (often described as liberal, anti-Trump, or far-right depending on the reviewer's perspective) and the inclusion of questionable or sensationalized sources R10R11R14R16.

What reviewers actually said

Built only from these 120 real reviews (foreign ones translated). Superscripts jump to the quote here. Apple has no per-review links, so [ref] opens that app's reviews on the App Store.

  1. [R9] 1/5 · US Too many pop ups!: Too many pop ups and distractions. Too much advertising!
  2. [R19] 1/5 · US Too many pop up ads: All to often I cannot complete reading an article due to the voluminous number of pop up ads. Also, it’s very obvious that many of the articles are AI generated. They are sloppily written with many grammatical and structural errors, as well as suspect information. This app is getting worse by the minute. I’m disappointed.
  3. [R24] 1/5 · US Advertising everywhere!: Hey devs: Maybe consider “$5 no advertisements” option? Also: if I wanted to watch a bunch of short videos, I’d go to TikTok, an app dedicated to that. Please, just give me news stories only.
  4. [R35] 1/5 · US Way too many biases and ads: I’m not sure how adding auto add popping up constantly help to sell anything!! All it does is irritate the reader. Trying to scroll the news and accidentally somehow touching one of the MANY advertisements… at what point does reader education trump greed??
  5. [R23] 4/5 · US Top of the Mountain: After reading story after story after story after story after story after story after story, I’ve almost made it to a whole dollar with the rewards program. Truly an exciting moment. A few thousand more stories and I should have enough to buy a small pack of gum from the clearance section at the grocery store!
  6. [R65] 3/5 · US Popups again: Mostly garbage news sources these days. And full page popups are back. Nope nope nope. Delete. Update: Developers respond to requests, so that's nice. Wanted to be able to block specific publishers to try and limit the fluff and sure enough they added the feature. Current issue keeping me from using the iPad app at all now, and to some degree the iPhone as well, is the damn gamif
  7. [R74] 2/5 · US Nagging “Rewards” alerts!: Wish I could turn them off!
  8. [R109] 3/5 · US Going downhill: This used to be the best news app out there, but it has become more fluff over the last few years. It also has stupid features in it like rewards, that gamify it, instead of keeping it as a serious news feed. Unfortunately, it looks like these trends are going to continue and at some point, I will dump it and find a different one.
  9. [R58] 4/5 · US Ads: Great app. Is there some way to get rid of ads? Thanks
  10. [R281] 3/5 · CA Subscription: This is probably best news app, but unfortunately somehow, I can not subscribe (pay extra for some interesting subjects)
  11. [R5] 5/5 · US Best News: Love it
  12. [R18] 5/5 · US Smart News: So easy to follow; to pursue the stories that interest me
  13. [R22] 5/5 · US Imagine free news: At last. The free press is free again. Great news at a great price. FREE!!
  14. [R26] 5/5 · US Smart News Articles: Smart News stories are very interesting and informative.
  15. [R2] 2/5 · US Slows down iPad & freezes.: 7/16/2026 App works well at first, but the longer I read articles, the slower it gets scrolling and closing. Soon the whole thing freezes up my iPad and affects it even after closing and clearing cache. The only remedy is to shut down the iPad and reboot it. It’s got to the point where I hesitate to read even interesting articles because of the anticipated downtime awai
  16. [R12] 2/5 · US iPad will not scroll: Locks up. I’m giving up on this news app. There are others.
  17. [R69] 3/5 · US Review: My phone gets hot when I on the app. Too much tracking
  18. [R79] 2/5 · US Battery drainer: This app drains my battery faster than any other app on my phone. Like the different sources of news and information. However any time there is a big story, end up seeing 15 different news outlets with the same story.
  19. [R6] 2/5 · US Preferences Ignored Celebrity News: I keep getting news about celebrities like Kim Kardashian. When I click on it to stop suggesting, I’ve already checked “less news about celebrities”, “less news about the Kardashians”, “less news about Blake Lively” “less news from CelebGossip.com” Seems like I can’t escape these topics no matter what. Good app otherwise Edit: decreased to 2 stars because th
  20. [R21] 3/5 · US Almost but not quite there: I use this app regularly but it still irks me that it fills my feed with stuff I don’t want and can’t block. My follow tab should only have what I select yet it still gets articles that are immune to blocking. Even when I select “see less from this” source it has no effect. Fix the block mechanism so it applies to every source.
  21. [R48] 1/5 · US either MMA violence or Mandatory immature sexual innuendo: FIRST ,, ADS ON EVERY ARTICLE THIS MORNING THEN absolutely deceptive telling you you can curate and block sites as a matter fact if you try to block a site it shows up more than ever, all the childish sexual innuendo at mandatory that keeps being jammed into my feed about panties and bras is disgusting bunch of sexual perverts, then it's
  22. [R49] 1/5 · US Decent but Biased App: This app will not let you block biased media companies that shill for a specific party. I should be able to block news from fringe left and right sources.
  23. [R10] 1/5 · US Biased: The most one sided biased news site I have ever seen. This isn’t news it’s an obvious attempt at manipulating people to have a certain opinion.🤦🏼‍♀️
  24. [R11] 1/5 · US Biased and one sided news media: I would be ok if you had news outlets that spoke from both sides, but it seems that you are hell bent on having biased news sources plastered all over your app. Either this stops being a biased source or you completely take the app down and go completely out of business never to get involved in any business whats ever again.
  25. [R14] 1/5 · US Liberal anti-Trump: I read through most Articles mostly for health news but the slanted and hate filled anti Trump news real and imagined prevents Many of My friends from following
  26. [R16] 2/5 · US Too many race baiting articles: I like the news app, however there seems to be an agenda to publish white supremist, or entitled people’s actions and views against African Americans, and the physical or verbal response is highlighted in your features. Way to many of these type renditions and not enough of positive race interactions. You have a class act journalistic pursuit, why sully it by not

Synthesized from 120 recent App Store reviews · updated July 2026 · View on the App Store