Circa, the year-old news app that wants to redefine how we consume news on our mobile devices, today launched on Android and also debuted a redesigned app for iOS 7.
Circa doesn’t give you full-length articles found in newspapers or on websites. Instead, the editorial team aggregates top stories and breaks them down into units of news that users can easily swipe through.
These units of news can be anything from news facts, background info, photos, quotes, videos, etc. To find out more, users can scroll down for more “units,” that provide extra in-depth information on a given topic.
The new Circa News 2 brings about a couple new features. The Circa storyline, which features a series of updates on a given topic, has been updated specifically for breaking news.
Readers have already been able to “follow” a storyline and receive push notifications for specific updates, depending on what type of news they want to receive. Now, though, the breaking news storyline will present new information at the top and show the rest of the storyline below ordered by importance — not reverse chronological order. The goal here is to allow readers to understand the news in as little time as possible, while also keeping them from scrolling through dozens of chronological updates.
Circa also knows what you’ve seen and what you haven’t, allowing readers to discern what’s new and what’s not.
In addition, pictures and maps embedded in the storyline are now interactive. New sharing features have also been added. The company also partnered with electronic musician BT to provide the sound for a breaking news alert (see below).
Circa, which hires writers from all over the world, has raised $2.4 million to date. Founders include Seattle-based Cheezburger Network CEO Ben Huh, CEO Matt Galligan and CTO Arsenio Santos. Circa has 18 total investors and employs 19 staffers, 10 of which are editorial.
Download Circa for iOS and Android. And here’s the new sound of breaking news for Circa:
