“Ads in the news articles themselves are one thing . BUT getting stuck with full screen video ad, which cannot be skipped, and when it ends, take you to another advert for the same item! No worries if you blocked a category because you'll…”
Independent automated assessment · 6 signal sources · 566 reviews scanned · analyzed 2026-10-06.
SmartNews: Live News & Rewards
SmartNews, Inc.We combine the best of quality journalism with expert curation to help you st…
3.8 ★701,472 ratings
50M+Downloads
12+Age rating
—App size
Free · In-app purchasesIn-app purchases
About this app
We combine the best of quality journalism with expert curation to help you stay informed—and feel good while doing it. With quality articles from trustworthy publishers, you can easily curate your feed based on the topics that interest you most.
Discover top news from premium publishers in one app: Bloomberg, The Atlantic, USA Today, TIME, The Huffington Post, Bleacher Report, Quartz, The Verge, LAT, VOX, AP, Reuters, Buzzfeed, Fast Company.
SmartNews rewards you for staying up to date and informed. Earn points every day by reading articles and exchange them for gift cards from your favorite brands or donations to charities you support.
Rewards -Earn points for reading articles and completing daily reading missions. -Redeem those points for gift cards from your favorite retail brands or for donations to charities you care about.…
Preview
Real screenshots from the store listing.
Independent evidence report
The evidence behind this assessment
This is where the page changes from an app-store listing into an evidence report: findings, important reviews, pricing and a dated history.
Which version this describes
When we ran this analysis, and what the store lists now.
This analysis describes version 25.9.20 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-06 . The app may have changed since.
The store currently lists version VARY, updated 2026-10-02.
What we measured
Each line is a measurement published as a measurement, never a verdict.
Each line is a measurement, published as a measurement. Where we have not looked, the line says so rather than reading as a zero.
Developer replies to reviews
Replies to at least 1 review in 20
Price in the store description
States no price and billing period
Cancelling, in the store description
Does not say how to cancel
Themes reported by reviewers
1 theme reported
Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.
Five-star share of ratings
Under 65% five-star
Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.
In the package we scanned
From the package we downloaded and read — version 25.9.20, scanned 2026-09-21.
Permissions Android classifies as dangerous
6 or more requested
Counted against the eighteen permissions listed in collect-package.ts. A dangerous permission is one Android asks the user to grant; requesting one is not itself a finding.
Analytics or tracking SDKs in the scanned package
1–2 found
Advertising SDKs in the scanned package
10 or more found
Counted as distinct SDKs in the package we scanned. One mediation bundle can contribute several, so this is not a count of advertisers.
Graded bands · predicate set 1.4 · how these are measured
What the analysis found
App-specific findings, grouped by what each one rests on. How they are graded lives on its own page.
The catch list 1
Charges we publish at a strength we stand behind: measured from an artefact, agreed by independent sources, or reported by enough users to clear that charge's own published bar.
Multiple ad networks bundled
The package embeds several distinct advertising or mediation SDKs — a stack built for ad volume, not for a single house ad.
What we saw: Bundles 15 distinct ad networks / mediation SDKs: AdColony, Amazon Publisher Services, AppLovin MAX, BidMachine and 11 more
Context 1
Measured and published because a reader would want to know — deliberately not a charge. The measurement alone does not show a harm.
Asks for more sensitive permissions than similar apps
The package requests substantially more of the device's sensitive permissions than the typical app in its category. This is a measurement, not an accusation: a permission is granted because a feature needs it, and a wide request list is a reason to look rather than a finding on its own.
What we saw: Requests 6 sensitive permissions (ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, CAMERA, READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, READ_PHONE_STATE, RECORD_AUDIO); the median for 22 scanned apps in News & Magazines is 2
Positive evidence 1
Things this app does right, published at the same strengths as the catch list.
Developer says data deletion can be requested
The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.
What we saw: The developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text
One source only — shown, not confirmed 2
A single kind of evidence. We publish these because withholding them would be the bigger distortion, and we do not treat any of them as a finding we stand behind.
Reported by users: Aggressive ad load
Advertising volume or placement that interrupts normal use: ads between every action, unskippable or forced full-screen ads.
What we saw: Aggressive ad load: raised by 20 distinct reviewers (3.5% of 566 reviews scanned)
In the app's own text: Trial terms not stated in the app's own text
The app's own screens offer a free trial without stating, beside it, what happens when the trial ends. Read this as context rather than as a charge: renewal terms are normally shown on the store's purchase sheet instead, which we cannot see, and we can only observe one kind of evidence for this — so it is shown, but never counted as a charge.
What we saw: Offers a free trial ("Accept 1 month free") with no renewal price, renewal date or auto-renew notice anywhere in the app's own text
Highlighted reviews
Representative public review excerpts shown as user reports, not Appworthy audit evidence.
“TOO HARD TO LOAD. DISPLAYS SMART NEWS THAT ADVERTISES THE APP SO YOU CAN'T READ THE ARTICLE. TOO MANY ADS POPPING UP INTERFERING WITH YOU READING THE ARTICLE. STARTED OFF GOOD BUT IS NO LONGER GOOD. A DISAPPOINTMENT NOW. SMART NEWS SAY…”
“Way too many ads. Fake news articles that are actually ads, video ads everywhere, 4-5 ads per article, unskippable 30 second ads. There is not a single section not filled with ads. They are plastered all over the app. This app is no…”
Assessment & version history
App changes and Appworthy events in one timeline.
Store listing updated to version VARY.
What this app sells
Useful store-disclosed pricing, kept below the app listing.
Items shown0
Lowest—
Highest—
Google Play does not publish per-purchase prices.