Apple News+ in iOS 14 Opens Article Web Links in Apple News, Intercepting Traffic From Websites

by

Apple News in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur has a toggle that's designed to open web links from ‌Apple News‌+ publishers directly in ‌Apple News‌, which has the effect of directing users who tap to read a news story in Safari to the ‌Apple News‌ app instead of to the publisher's website.

applenewsweblinks
Enabled by default in the Settings app, the option to open web links in ‌Apple News‌ is an ‌Apple News‌+ "feature," so an ‌Apple News‌+ subscription is required to have the ‌Apple News‌ app open when a web link is tapped.

The option to open links in ‌Apple News‌ instead of on the web was highlighted by Tony Haile, who points out that Apple is intercepting traffic from websites and directing it to the ‌Apple News‌ app instead, cannibalizing a publisher's audience and drawing more users to ‌Apple News‌+. Haile suggests that Apple can accelerate News+ growth by intercepting publisher traffic, with the ultimate aim of attracting more publishers to the platform with a growing subscription base.

Publishers are not likely to be appreciative of this feature, even limited to ‌Apple News‌+ subscribers, because the feature is enabled by default in the iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur updates. Apple has struggled to gain new subscribers to ‌Apple News‌+, while also dealing with publishers who are not happy with the service because of its low subscription rates.

There have been multiple reports suggesting publishers are unimpressed with the revenue generated from ‌Apple News‌+, which has fallen below Apple's initial promises. ‌Apple News‌+ attracted multiple magazine publishers from launch thanks to Apple's acquisition of magazine service Texture, but it has struggled to entice news publishers.

The New York Times and The Washington Post have refused to participate in ‌Apple News‌+, as have many other news sites. The New York Times recently ended its Apple News partnership entirely and pulled all articles from the service, stating that ‌Apple News‌ does not "align with its strategy of building direct relationships with paying readers."

The redirecting feature appears to be limited to publishers who participate in ‌Apple News‌+, so this change in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur could perhaps spur additional publishers to end their relationships with ‌Apple News‌. ‌Apple News‌+ readers on iOS 14 can open the News section of the Settings app to disable "Open Web Links in News" while macOS Big Sur users can get to the toggle by opening the News app and then going to the settings section.

Many ‌Apple News‌+ users have been asking for a way to open up web links in ‌Apple News‌+ to avoid paywalls on the web, so ‌Apple News‌+ subscribers that pay for the service are likely to be appreciative of the new feature.

Tag: Apple News Guide

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Render Front Page Tech

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. iPhone 17 Pro's alleged design via Front Page Tech Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone...
Read Full Article • 221 comments
iCloud General Feature Redux

iPhone Users Who Pay for iCloud Storage Receive a New Perk

Thursday March 20, 2025 12:01 am PDT by
If you pay for iCloud storage on your iPhone, Apple has a new perk for you, at no additional cost. The new perk is the ability to create invitations in the Apple Invites app for the iPhone, which launched in the App Store last month. In the Apple Invites app, iCloud+ subscribers can create invitations for any occasion, such as birthday parties, graduations, baby showers, and more. Anyone ...
Read Full Article • 30 comments
Generic iOS 19 Feature Mock

iOS 19 Coming in June With These New Features

Thursday March 20, 2025 2:04 pm PDT by
While the first iOS 19 beta is still more than two months away, there are already plenty of rumors about the upcoming software update. Below, we recap the key iOS 19 rumors so far. visionOS-Like Design In January, the YouTube channel Front Page Tech revealed a redesigned Camera app that is allegedly planned for iOS 19. According to Front Page Tech host Jon Prosser, the Camera app...
Read Full Article • 44 comments
iOS 18

Top 5 New Features Coming in iOS 18.4

Friday March 21, 2025 3:26 pm PDT by
We're not getting new Siri Apple Intelligence features in iOS 18.4 as expected, but the upcoming update does have quite a few new additions that will be worth upgrading for. We've rounded up the five best features to look forward to, and if you're not running the beta, you can expect to get access to these in early April. Priority Notifications If you have an iPhone or iPad that supports...
Read Full Article • 90 comments
airpods pro 2 gradient

AirPods Pro 3 Launch Now Just Months Away: Here's What We Know

Tuesday March 18, 2025 9:13 am PDT by
Despite being released over two years ago, Apple's AirPods Pro 2 continue to dominate the wireless earbud market. However, with the AirPods Pro 3 expected to launch in 2025, anyone thinking of buying Apple's premium earbuds may be wondering if the next generation is worth holding out for. Apart from their audio and noise-canceling performance, which are generally regarded as excellent for...
Read Full Article • 50 comments
Generic iOS 18

Apple Seeds iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 Release Candidate With Priority Notifications, Ambient Music and More

Monday March 24, 2025 10:07 am PDT by
Apple today seeded the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming a week after Apple released the fourth betas. iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software Update. With iOS 18.4, Apple is adding the Priority Notifications...
Read Full Article • 43 comments
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature Iridescent Search

Foldable iPhone Expected to Launch Next Year, Costing Around $2,000

Monday March 24, 2025 3:43 am PDT by
Apple will launch its long-rumored foldable iPhone next year with a ~$2,000 premium price tag attached, expects well-connected Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman. Gurman's comments on Apple's launch plans for its first foldable device appeared in the Q&A section of his latest Power On newsletter. Earlier this month, the reporter said Apple's foldable iPhone could be arriving "as early as 2026,"...
Read Full Article • 150 comments
Windows Vista

Apple Might Be Having Its Windows Vista Moment, Says Analyst

Thursday March 20, 2025 6:52 am PDT by
Is Apple experiencing a "Vista-like drift into systemically poor execution?" That was a question posed by well-known technology analyst Benedict Evans, in a recent blog post covering Apple's innovation and execution, or seemingly lack thereof as of late. He is referring to Microsoft's Windows Vista operating system, which was widely criticized when it launched in 2007 due to software bugs,...
Read Full Article • 181 comments

Top Rated Comments

Marbles1 Avatar
Marbles1
60 months ago
What a horrid feature, especially for desktop.

The Apple News app is awful. They should have made the access to magazines front and centre, instead it's like a child's version of an rss reader only worse. It presents a poorly categorised dull mix of the same kind of news stories.

The curated stuff, when political, takes a very narrow political view too. It's quite preachy.

I got 6 months of apple news plus for free through my mobile provider, I tried really hard to like it. In the end I only use it to occasionally read a Times (UK) article, which are really hard to find as there's no proper search engine in the app.

Once the 6 months free expires, I'll be deleting the app across all my iDevices.

Subbing separately to news services, whatever mix you want, that interest you and you'll actually read seems like a better options.

Apple News+ is a solution looking for a problem.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
unobtainium Avatar
unobtainium
60 months ago
I subscribe to the New York Times because they still engage in a lot of (expensive) investigative journalism, and that’s worth paying for. They also have a clean app design and nice presentation. I’m not sure why anyone would pay Apple to gather together other people’s content and present it in a messy, ugly app.
Score: 13 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BootsWalking Avatar
BootsWalking
60 months ago
Sounds like Apple is panicking about the lack of traction of their News app and decided to start hijacking traffic to bring its numbers up.
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Jonathan Leclerc Avatar
Jonathan Leclerc
60 months ago
Wow, I wasn't expecting such a misinformed article here. Let's quickly review. When you subscribe to Apple News+ you get access to content within the app that is typically also available to non News+ subscribers behind pay walls on a given publisher's website. That's great, but what happens if you stumble on a news article outside of Apple News+ that you're interested to read? You have access to the content within Apple's app but it could be difficult to find it there, yet you're confronted to a pay wall on the publisher's website. Currently, Apple provides a way around by providing the use of a user specific and Apple provided email and password to use your News+ account on any pay wall of News+ participating organization. However, it's kind of a cumbersome solution. Now, this new feature basically makes this process automatic. And if you don't like being redirected to the News+ app (although that would be strange as the reading experience is much better compared to most crummy websites) you just have to toggle off the feature. Big whoop, right? And for all those clamouring that medias would loose money, you're just wrong: Apple pays royalties when a News+ subscriber accesses some content of a participing news publisher. What the publisher potentially would have made through publicity on their website, they will make through Apple News+ royalties instead. And you can be sure something like that is well provided for in the contracts that news organizations sign with Apple. So, ironically, this is basically a big non-news story. And I really didn't expect such Apple fearmongering from MacRumors.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
twinpeaks_sf Avatar
twinpeaks_sf
60 months ago
For me, this is a nice feature that I intend to keep on. I get access to a lot of content via Apple News+ but don't have (or want, for that matter) individual logins for each publisher. So it's really nice when I hit a paywall in Safari to have the News app open and display the article I have access to. I bet a lot of people will appreciate this. If it's not for you, the toggle is there to turn off and I don't think people without a News+ subscription need think about this at all.
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DoogH Avatar
DoogH
60 months ago
Am I the only one that likes this?

I subscribe to Apple News, and I regularly want to open the article there, because there's a paywall or ads.

As long as you can disable it, imo, it makes Apple News+ more valuable.
Score: 5 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Read All Comments