I hated Apple News+ so much I cancelled the free trial

I recently upgraded my phone and got Apple News+ free for three months. Three days in, I cancelled the trial and deleted the app. It was everything I hate about the modern web.

Every major publication has an app that could’ve easily been a website. Actually, there is a website. But if you go there from a mobile browser, you’re going to be buried in JavaScript popups asking you to create an account, enable cookies, and… actually? Just use the app instead. We have AN APP! INSTALL OUR APP!

Everything’s a goddamn app.

For news, there’s a million different options. I prefer RSS. There are probably a dozen good RSS apps for iOS. Some are free, like NetNewsWire, and some have tiered membership options like Inoreader. But I prefer hosting my own. I can use Miniflux as a website and nothing nags me to share or subscribe or install an app that just pulls the RSS feed from the website anyway.

With Apple News+ you pay as much as a Hulu subscription for a proprietary downgrade of RSS that has perfectly formatted native ads. And you do get access to a lot of premium news sources, but they’re all paywalled for anyone you might want to share an article with. But it’s okay; just let them know they can get a free three month trial by upgrading their iPhone!

Safari, on the other hand, is already the perfect “everything app.” Or any web browser for that matter.