What you need to know
- Flipboard's local coverage is now available in over 1,000 cities and towns in the U.S. and Canada.
- The latest version of the app will match your location with local stories such as COVID-19 news, weather forecasts, political updates, dining recommendations, and more.
- Flipboard says it will only use users' coarse location for showing relevant stories, and the data won't be stored on its servers.
Popular news aggregator Flipboard has rolled out a new update for its Android and iOS apps, which makes it much easier to stay connected to what's happening around you. Flipboard's local coverage is expanding from 60 metro areas to over 1,000 cities, towns, and regions across the U.S. and Canada.
Mike McCue, Flipboard CEO, said in a statement:
The recent crisis in Texas has again shown the importance of local news, both to provide citizens with reliable information about a crisis and where to go for help as well as to hold leaders accountable. With this launch we're making local information easier to keep up with by bringing together thousands of sources, big and small, all in one place.
Once you update to the latest version of the Flipboard app, you will be prompted to enable location and choose up to 15 relevant regional and local topics. You will then be able to view the latest local stories in your For You feed. Along with content from national sources, Flipboard also aggregates relevant stories from blogs, TV stations, Twitter accounts, and Flipboard Magazines curates by users.
Flipboard says it applies a privacy-centric approach to the location feature by giving users the option to choose 'coarse' accuracy. Users will be asked to share location data only when the app is in use, and their historical location data won't be stored on Flipboard's servers.
