06/01/2020
NewsGuard launches Android app, bringing its Nutrition Labels for news sites to users’ mobile devices
The Android app allows users to search NewsGuard’s database of ratings for 4,000+ news sites and get alerts on unreliable sites—right in their mobile browser.
(June 1 , 2020—New York City) NewsGuard, a company that deploys journalists to issue trust ratings for thousands of news and information websites across the U.S. and Europe, today announced it has launched a mobile app for Android that will make its ratings available to NewsGuard users on their mobile devices. An app for iOS is in testing and expected to be released in the coming weeks.
Previously, users of NewsGuard could get access to ratings on desktop and laptop computers through the company’s popular browser extension, which displays NewsGuard ratings as icons next to links on popular search engines, social media sites, and platforms. In addition, Microsoft has installed NewsGuard on its Edge mobile platform.
The Android app expands NewsGuard’s functionality, offering users three simple ways to identify trustworthy sources of news and avoid misinformation from an Android mobile phone. With the app, users can:
- Search a news site to access its NewsGuard rating and Nutrition Label. NewsGuard’s database of ratings includes 4,000+ news and information websites that account for more than 95% of engagement with news and information online in the U.S., U.K., France, Germany and Italy.
- Check any link they encounter in another app — such as in an email, an end-to-end encrypted messaging app like WhatsApp or Telegram, or a social media app like Facebook or Twitter—to call up its NewsGuard rating.
- Get optional pop-up warnings in their mobile browser when they visit a site with a red “unreliable” rating from NewsGuard.
“Our mission is to provide users with the context they need to decide which news sources to trust and which to take with a grain of salt,” said NewsGuard Co-CEO Gordon Crovitz. “Microsoft was the first to make NewsGuard available on mobile devices, through its mobile Edge browser, where access is free to users. Now, all users of Android devices can access NewsGuard, which is a big step forward because we know that many users consume the vast majority of their news on mobile devices.”
The app offers a powerful new feature for NewsGuard users. “The most common request we’ve gotten from users since our launch has for us to make NewsGuard available on mobile devices,” said NewsGuard General Manager Matt Skibinski. “Now we’ve delivered a great solution that adapts and expands on all of the features our desktop users love into a crisp, user-friendly mobile format.”
To download the Android app, click here.
Access to the mobile app is included for any user with a membership to NewsGuard. Membership is free through July 1 as part of NewsGuard’s efforts to fight COVID-19 misinformation, enabling any user to try the browser extension and Android app at no cost. After July 1, membership costs just $2.95 per month after a two-week free trial and includes unlimited access for the subscriber and their immediate family across all of their computers and devices, both desktop (through the browser extension) and, now, mobile.
“We know there are many services asking our users to sign up for memberships and subscriptions, so we wanted to make sure a NewsGuard membership offers users as much value as possible,” said NewsGuard Co-CEO Steven Brill. “With detailed and rich ratings on thousands of news sources across the world now available on desktop, laptop and mobile devices, we’re confident a NewsGuard membership is a great deal.”
“But you don’t have to take our word for it,” Brill added. “Try it free through July 1 and see for yourself.”
To get a free membership to NewsGuard, click here.
About NewsGuard
Launched in March 2018 by media entrepreneur and award winning journalist Steven Brill and former Wall Street Journal publisher Gordon Crovitz, NewsGuard provides credibility ratings and detailed “Nutrition Labels” for thousands of news and information websites. NewsGuard rates all the news and information websites that account for 95% of online engagement across the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, and Italy.
NewsGuard rates each site based on nine apolitical criteria of journalistic practice, including whether a site repeatedly publishes false content, whether it regularly corrects or clarifies errors, and whether it avoids deceptive headlines. It awards weighted points for each criterion and sums them up; a score of less than 60 earns a “Red” rating, while 60 and above earns a “Green” rating, which indicates it is generally reliable.
NewsGuard’s ratings and Nutrition Labels can be licensed by internet service providers, browsers, news aggregators, and social media and search platforms in order to make NewsGuard’s information about news websites available to their users. These ratings are made available to consumers through its browser extension, which is available on Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Firefox browsers, on Android devices through a mobile app, and on iOS or Android devices through the Edge mobile browser. Hundreds of libraries globally use NewsGuard’s free media literacy browser extension on their public-access computers to give their patrons more context for the news they encounter online. For more information, including to download the browser extension and review the ratings process, visit newsguardtech.com.
Contacts:
- Steven Brill, Co-CEO, steven.brill@newsguardtech.com, +1 212-332-6301
- Gordon Crovitz, Co-CEO, gordon.crovitz@newsguardtech.com, +1 212-332-6407
- Matt Skibinski, General Manager, matt.skibinski@newsguardtech.com, +1 973.818.4698