You blocked this channel

screenshot of Apple news saying "You blocked this channel"

I am pretty sure that Apple News doesn’t understand the meaning of blocked.

I blocked a channel in Apple News, now as I understand the reason I blocked the channel was because I didn’t want to see articles from that channel in my news stream.

However despite blocking the channel, the stories still appear in the stream.

I can still see the headline, the only difference is that the story picture has been replaced with the words You blocked this channel. The story is still a live link, yes you get a warning, but I am not sure that this would count as blocking.

The way I would like it to work, is that when I block a channel I don’t ever see it again. There could be a list of blocked channels, in settings, but otherwise I wouldn’t want to see it.

If I hide photos in Photos then I don’t see the hidden photographs, but I can access them if I need to. I don’t believe I can hide channels in Apple News.

So, though I have blocked stuff, I still see it, what is that about.

But I blocked the Sun….

So I really miss Google Reader and I also miss Flipboard which worked really well with Google Reader. I’ve not really found an alternative that works for me in the same way that combination did.

I do use Apple News, but really don’t see the point of paying £10 a month for access to what appears to me to be The Times and Newsweek!

My main issues with Apple News are:

Over positioning and pushing of Apple News+ stories in an attempt to get you to subscribe to Apple News. So much so that much of the feed appears to be Apple News+ stories that it almost becomes a pointless exercise scrolling through the app.

Another issue is that local news is ignored to the point that news from Weston-super-Mare for example can be weeks or even months old and no new stories. Part of the problem is that Apple News uses mainstream sources for news, which means local news often is sidelined.

My final complaint about Apple News and hence the title of the blog, is that there are buttons you can use to like and unlike stories, and you can block certain news sources as well. However blocking to me, means that you don’t see the news stories at all! Well for Apple News, blocking means still having the news in the feed, but just then placing right there in front of you.

I blocked the source because I didn’t want to see it, so don’t put it in front of me, ever!

I really should be looking at alternatives for Apple News, so what are you using for curating and collating the news?