When it comes to military news I'm kind of a junky. You probably already knew that, considering how much of what I bring you here on Military.com's SpouseBuzz blog is spouse news related. But what I am definitely not is a news app junky. I prefer to get my information through radio or news websites I visit on my laptop. I almost always save my phone for other things like social media, email and personal finances ... until now.
Here's why: Military.com has released a news app, and it's kind of awesome.
Designed for both Android and iPhone systems, there are a few things I particularly like about this app.
Pick the news you want.
The Military.com news app is great because instead of dumping all the military news ever in your lap, it lets users pick and choose their categories. Don't care about the A-10 (A-what?) ... Easy -- don't get bombarded with A-10 news. Really, really care about Tricare news? Select the "pay and benefits" option.
To pick what you want, select the menu at the top right of the screen, and then "edit topics," -- behold! All the topics. You can see my priorities.
Pick how it displays in the app's navigation.
Using the same section under the right hand menu where you picked which news you wanted to see, you can drag and drop the categories into the order you want them displayed on top of the app's home page. That means if you want to just jump to that category, you can do so easily. I moved "family & spouse" waaaaaaay up the list.
Get news alerts.
Fact: I hate push notifications. HATE THEM. Facebook messanger notifications? Turned off. Pinterest? Off. Instagram? Off. Mint? Off.
The only one I have on? The Military.com news app. Here's why: the app will only send you a notification for truly breaking news when told to by the Military.com editors. The internet word for that is "curated." Since I'm a Military.com senior editor, that may mean I'm the person deciding whether or not something is urgent enough to buy people about on their phone.
You want alert when I or my smarty pants coworkers think something is a super big deal and you should know about it pronto? Turning on "notifications" is your jam.
How to get the news app.
You can go here to download it for Android or for your iOS devices (like iPhone). Darn snappy.
Tiny little note: if you have the old less-cool but still pretty-cool Military.com app, get rid of it. They aren't going to release updates for it anymore. Sad day? Not so much. This new app is better. BYE, FELICIA.
