# Keep your news app where people search every day.

> ASO for news apps starts with a declaration on Google Play: news and magazine apps declare themselves in Play Console and show the source of every article and up-to-date contact information, while on the App Store News and Magazines & Newspapers are separate categories for different publishing formats.

## What makes ASO different in this category?

- **News or Magazines & Newspapers?**: On the App Store, News is for apps about current events; choose it if you serve content as a newsreader or digest, or if you are a digital-first or broadcast-first outlet with frequent updates. Magazines & Newspapers is for apps that offer auto-renewing subscriptions to magazine or newspaper content, publish by issue or produce interactive versions of a printed periodical. [1]
- **The news declaration on Google Play**: On Google Play, news and magazine apps declare themselves in Play Console. An app in the News and Magazines category that describes itself as news or a magazine in its title, icon, developer name or description also counts as one. [2] [3]
- **Sources, freshness and contact**: Google Play's news policy requires the source of each article (the original publisher or author), regularly updated content, easy-to-find current contact information and, if a subscription is required, an in-app preview before purchase. Apps whose primary purpose is affiliate marketing or ad revenue do not fit the policy. [3]
- **The reader app rule**: Guideline 3.1.3(a) lets reader apps for content such as magazines and newspapers give access to previously purchased content or subscriptions and offer account creation for free tiers. Reader app developers can apply for an entitlement to link to their website to create or manage an account. [4]
- **No profiting from current events**: Guideline 1.1.7 rejects harmful concepts that capitalize or seek to profit on recent or current events such as violent conflicts, terrorist attacks and epidemics; keep that line in mind in your listing text and images. [4]

## Features that matter most

- [Alerts and team](https://uptika.app/en/product/alerts-and-team): Tells you on Slack, Discord, Telegram, a webhook or your phone when a rank drops, a rival passes you or changes its listing.
- [Keyword radar](https://uptika.app/en/product/keyword-radar): Reads your rank daily for news, breaking-news and topic searches: top 200 on the App Store, the first page on Google Play.
- [Rival log](https://uptika.app/en/product/rival-log): Logs rival publishers' title, short description, icon and screenshot changes by date.
- [AI echo](https://uptika.app/en/product/ai-echo): Asks an AI model questions like "What is the best … app?" every day and records whether your app is named.

## Questions

### Does a news aggregator need the news declaration?

Google Play lists news aggregators among the News and Magazines examples, and its news policy asks aggregators to make the publishing sources of third-party content clear.

### Is a preview required for a subscription news app?

On Google Play, yes: if membership or a subscription is required, the app must offer an in-app content preview before purchase.

## Sources

1. [Categories and discoverability (Apple Developer)](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/categories/)
2. [Choose a category and tags for your app or game (Play Console Help)](https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9859673)
3. [News & Magazines policy (Play Console Help)](https://support.google.com/googleplay/android-developer/answer/9935326)
4. [App Review Guidelines 1.1.7, 3.1.3 (Apple Developer)](https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/)

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Uptika is an ASO and store-intelligence tool for the App Store and Google Play. https://uptika.app/en/categories/news · Last updated: 2026-11-05