How to develop a short news app like InShorts?

The world is constantly changing, and we are all interested in being informed about the latest news. We no longer rely on traditional media sources like newspapers or TV. But gain our information from various news apps developed by intelligently curating stories on topics users are interested in. One such example of short news app development is Inshorts app. Founded by Azhar Iqubal, the app is a very popular application. It allows you to select your favorite topics, receive notifications, and read the most interesting news.

The Economic Times report of 2021 revealed that this startup company raised $60 million investment. With more than 10 million users and 3 billion page views per month, the  valuation of the app accounted for $550 million as of 2021.

As the numbers speak volumes for themselves how fruitful it can be to own a short news app. But how to develop an app like InShorts?

Resting your curiosity, through this piece of writing we will delve into features and the development process that should be taken into account for short news app development similar to Inshorts.

What is InShorts app?

Founded in 2013, the InShorts app started out as a way for college students to keep up with developments in their industry. It eventually became the one-stop destination for all the news needs. Inshorts is an app that gives you news in a bite-sized, easy-to-read, digestible format. The app pulls out the essence of each article and merges them with other like-minded articles to create an engaging experience for different types of users.

The app brings the news in condensed format at regular intervals so as to be more accessible to people with busy schedules or little interest in reading long articles.

It’s perfect for someone who wants to stay up to date on the latest current events and developments, but doesn’t have a lot of time to read through long articles or watch news segments and journalistic shows.

Why do people love the InShorts app?

With a simple user interface and free availability, Inshorts quickly grew into an app that provides business updates, political news, sports coverage, and more—all in 60 words or less.  

Here are some of the great features that helped the app take the online news industry by storm:

1. 60 words news

The app provides you with 60 word news from multiple national and international newspapers. This helps you to stay updated with the latest happenings and developments in just a few minutes. Also, these short bits of news help you save time which can be used in other productive things.

2. Multiple categories

With just one tap on your smartphone, you can access multiple categories like national, international, politics, sports, technology, entertainment, business and much more. The app also allows you to read regional news in your preferred language like Hindi and Bengali.

3. Offline access

With the offline access feature of the app, you can read the saved stories without internet connection anytime, anywhere. Simply tap on the download button beside any story and it will be available to read when you are offline or have a slow internet connection.

4. Share stories

The app also allows you to share any story with your friends instantly on WhatsApp or other social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook and more. 

5. Personalized feed

We know that different people are interested in different things, so we make sure to give you the option to customize your feed. You can choose which categories of news you want to see more or less of, so you can focus on the updates that are most important to you.

6. Local language

The app offers the news in almost eight local languages making it a very popular platform among users of diversity. Since the app is trying to cater to the local language barriers in the Indian internet landscape, it has become the fastest growing news app in the market.

Features to be integrated while developing the news app like Inshorts

Below are the top features that should be in your app if you want to create a news app like Inshorts.

1. User registration/login

The first feature of any news app is its user registration and login feature. It allows users to register themselves with their credentials and view the news articles according to their interests. The user may choose any username and password or can even register with their social media accounts, such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

2. Push notifications for Real-time updates

Push notifications play an important role in delivering real-time updates to users about breaking news, new articles, trending events, etc. The users may also choose the type of notifications they want to receive on the basis of their specific interests. Push notifications allow you to send relevant updates to your users. A strong push notification strategy can drastically improve user engagement and retention.

3. Share articles on social media platforms

To make it easier for users to share the news articles on social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp and so on, it is a highly imperative feature to be integrated.

4. News feed

A news feed is an essential feature for any news app. Your users will be able to see all the latest news on their homepage while they’re logged in. You should enable swipe gestures so that your users can easily navigate through multiple stories.

5. Search

A search feature allows your users to look for specific topics or articles, saving them time and frustration if they’re looking for something specific. You should also enable voice search so that your users can verbally express their search query. This will make it easier for them to find what they’re looking for without having to type in a long phrase or sentence

6. Bookmarking

Bookmarking lets your users save articles they might want to read later or refer back to later on. They can access these bookmarked articles from their personal profile page, making it easy for them to pick up where they left off or find information when they need

How to develop a short news app like Inshorts?

There are already a lot of news apps in the market. Some of them are better than Inshorts, while others lag behind. But with so many news apps out there, how do you make your own stand out?

Check out this quick little roadmap of how you can develop your short news app like InShorts:

1. Planning stage

To begin with, you must start with figuring out exactly what your app is going to do. You’ll need a plan that details all the requirements for the app. Go into as much detail as possible now, so that during the next phase you can make sure you’ve got everything you need set up to start building your app.

2. Requirement analysis

The requirements gathering process involves figuring out the ins and outs of your product: not just its functionality, but also how it will be designed, how data will be inputted and stored, and how users will interact with it in order to achieve their goals. The goal of this phase is to identify what features must be included in order to meet users’ needs and expectations. This stage includes interviews with stakeholders and end users, as well as market research. 

This is also when we decide on the best technology stack for your product. You and your team need to gather the requirements, analyze them properly to get the correct insights regarding the project. Manage them effectively and trace them during the entire software development life cycle.

3. Design stage

Now that you know what you want, it’s time to design it. This includes design aspects like UX/UI and architecture design—everything that makes the user experience better and more functional. Thus, design stage is the first step in creating an app, and a good design will help you attract and retain users. Designing an efficient user interface (UI) can be achieved through wireframing, which helps to create the structure of your app.

In this phase you create mockups for all screens in the app. The goal of this stage is to produce a high-fidelity prototype that you can test with real users..

After creating wireframes for all screens in your app, you should create an interactive prototype. It lets you test out your product flow and see how different pages link together. 

4. Development

This is where all the magic happens! The developers take all of those designs and turn them into code that will actually work on your devices of choice (iOS/Android). But first we need to create a technical specification document (TDD) which will outline every feature in detail so developers know exactly what they need to build. 

There are four parts to every app: backend, frontend, mobile app, and web. You can develop these components by yourself or use a team of skilled developers. 

5. Testing

Testing is a process of executing a program or application with the intent of finding the software bugs. It can also be stated as the process of validating and verifying that a piece of software or hardware. It is to check if they meet the business and technical requirements that guided its design and development.

This is done by testing different modules, which work together in an integrated fashion but independently, in terms of functionality. Testing is carried out to detect and identify defects in software so that they are rectified before delivery to customers.

6. Deployment

Deployment is the process of moving an app from the development environment to the production environment. It takes place after development and testing. Because before an app is deployed it must be tested for potential errors or security vulnerabilities. 

It’s important to note that deployment is not just a one-time thing; it’s part of a continuous cycle. Any time you want to add new features or fix bugs, you’ll need to go through this process again and update your application so it reflects all recent changes.

It can be done manually or automatically depending on how much control you want over what gets deployed where (and when).

7. Maintenance

A well-maintained and high-performing app is an essential part of any successful online venture. There are many elements to ensuring that quality, including fixing bugs, adding new features, updating existing features, adding new content, updating existing content, scaling up your servers to handle the load of more users and data, maintaining security so that people’s data isn’t compromised or publicly visible, improving performance through load testing and optimization of code, monitoring the app’s usage and uptime/downtime, providing customer support to users who experience difficulties or have questions.

Get your own short news app developed by Idea Usher

In the last decade, we have observed the rise of various news apps designed to meet the needs of their users. Some of these apps have come and gone, while others, such as InShorts, have stood the test of time.

If you’re one of those people who has always wanted to develop a news app like that of InShorts, you are in luck! Idea Usher is a platform for anyone to develop their own short news app with minimal effort in a reasonable amount of time. We have a talented team, who works with an objective in mind – build what you have never built. We work with the latest tools, technologies and techniques to build world-class mobile apps. 

For more information and a detailed understanding of the short news app development process, you can contact at.

E-mail: [email protected]

Phone Numbers : (+91)9463407140, (+91)8591407140, and (+1)7329624560

Final words

News media has been transformed by the advent of digital media, and connection to the internet has transformed the way people consume news. Said that, this inclination is leading to a bombardment of news apps in the market. News apps comamong the most downloaded types of apps out there—Inshorts alone has been downloaded over 5 million times on Android alone!

Thus, seeing how news apps are one of the most lucrative applications to develop. Therefore, the news app development is a great idea for businesses who want to cater to their audience with up-to-date information that interests them. 

However, there are many news apps out there, but only a few have the ability to keep you up to date with the latest news stories. If you’re pondering over the news app development process and want to get streamlined, hire the right developers today!

FAQS

Q. How long does it take to build a short news app?

A. Depending on the app functionality, design, platform integration, technology stack, and features, the average time taken can vary from 3 to 6 months. However, if you want to get the app developed fast and in an economical way, contact Idea Usher. 

Q. What factors determine the cost of short news app development?

A. The cost of short news app development will vary from company to company depending on several factors. However the common factors that will give you an estimated amount of development include:

• App features
• App functionality
• Turnover time
• Resources and tools induced
• App platform

Q. How to monetize an app like InShorts?

A. The app makes money by displaying advertisements on its platform. Also, it charges users for premium features such as unlimited access to all content. Users can also sell in-app subscription upgrades, allowing users to upgrade their subscription plan at any time.