Swiipe: Tinder Meets the Daily News Headlines
Reading the news has become a chore for many of us, and not a very pleasurable one. Alex Goodison, a 14-year-old from Ireland, decided to try making it a bit more entertaining, at least. With his new app swiipe, you go through the news headlines like you're browsing potential dates in Tinder. Swipe in one direction for maybe, swipe the opposite direction for not a chance. It's definitely an interesting take on reading the news.
When you're reading the news, you usually have to scroll through headlines in a long list. Swiipe is different, giving you just one headline at a time. With another unique twist, the app lets you interact with the headlines like you would potential dates on Tinder.
If a headline catches your eye, you just swipe it to the right to save it for later. Swiipe maintains a running list of your bookmarks, which you can revisit whenever you have time.
On the other hand, if a story isn't at all interesting to you, just swipe it to the left. It will go away, never to bother you again. I never really thought of the "hot or not" concept coming to news headlines, but I have to admit I rather enjoy it.
News headlines, meet Tinder. It's an interesting mix, and a great way to wade through the morning news update and save the articles you want to read later.
The app is clearly still a work in progress, but it functions remarkably well for a project that young Goodison undertook during his summer break from school. He's continuing to work on it, squishing bugs, and is very open to getting feedback on the app.
You can check in with Alex's current progress and leave him your feedback either through the app's ratings or on Swiipe's Product Hunt page.
News headlines, meet Tinder.
When you're ready to read your articles, just tap the bookmark icon and they'll be waiting for you. Tap to read, or swipe the headline to the left if you decide you want to erase it from your list.
The article will load up in a web view, pulled directly from the source's web site. It's a bit small sometimes, but still readable even with my aging eyes.
Goodison is still adding sources to pull news from, and that leads to the best part of swiipe. You can set it up to show you just what you're interested in. BBC News, Ars Technica, Associated Press, and Bloomberg are there, just to name a few.
According to Goodison, there are currently more than 50 news sources available to you. He plans to quickly expand that to more than 250 sources. I just hope that he categorizes them for quicker perusal and selection.
This is a relatively new app, so it's still got some room for improvement. Even so, it's currently my favorite news app, and should get even better as time goes on.
Who would have thought you could read the news like you're browsing Tinder? Not me, but in hindsight, it really makes perfect sense. Swiipe offers a very intuitive way to save the articles you want to read later, while dismissing the ones you aren't interested in.
