Apple News offers you an efficient way to keep up with current events. It’s a sensible, if somewhat generic-looking, way to stay on top of the news you care about. If you want more, Apple News+ offers free access to top publications, local news and magazines. And to sweeten the menu, it has fun daily puzzles, delicious recipes and audio stories.
It’s true that few people pay for Apple News+ themselves. He’s hardly a fan favorite. But if you have the Apple One Premier package, you can enjoy all its hidden benefits – here’s how to make the most of it. Continue reading or watch our quick video.
How to get the most out of Apple News+
As the way we consume news evolves, paywalls, rogue ads and clickbait are becoming the norm. And Apple News+ solves some those problems. A standalone subscription costs $12.99 per month, but Apple News+ is also included with the Apple One Premier package for $37.95 per month.
You might be an Apple News+ subscriber and not even know it!
In addition to a customizable news feed that allows you to follow your favorite topics and specific sources, Apple News+ offers a lot of extras that make it even more impressive.
Contents: Apple News+ features under the radar
- Free access to the main news channels
- Daily word games, crosswords, Sudoku and puzzles
- Lots of great recipes with easy to follow instructions
- Free access to stacks of magazines
- Audio stories you can listen to
- Follow Cult of Mac on Apple News
Access to Apple News+ features The Washington Post, The Verge, The Wall Street Journal and others
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple News+ offers access to hundreds of top publications, including many similar ones The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, NYT Wirecutter and The Verge which places much of their content behind a paywall on their websites.
Your Apple News+ subscription means you can read these stories without paying an extra fee. And a cool Safari trick makes it easy to read these stories for free in the Apple News+ app.
Imagine this common scenario: You see an interesting article that everyone is talking about on Bluesky or Mastodon. Click the link to open it in your browser, but hit a paywall. (This happens to me almost every day.)
When this happens, there’s a quick way to open that paid link in Apple News+ (if the publication is part of the app). Just tap on Share in your browser, scroll through the list of applications (you may need to tap the More at the end), then tap on News. The same article opens immediately, but in the Apple News+ app.
This works for unpaid stories as well, giving you the option to read them without the typical clutter of most ad sites. (This is similar to, and in many ways better than, Safari’s Reader Mode and Hide Distractions.)
Daily word games, crosswords, Sudoku and puzzles
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
The basis of printed newspapers is were daily puzzles. And how Wordle proved to be good for The New York Timesthis tradition lives on in the digital age. Apple News+ is no different.
Game on Apple News+
Subscribers get access to a number of games:
- Crossword is a full size crossword puzzle that will test your knowledge and word knowledge. Use the clues (and other words) to fill in the whole thing. It gets progressively harder from Monday to Sunday.
- Crossword Mini it’s no bigger than 5×5 tiles and can be done in minutes – less than a minute with a little practice. It’s one of my favorites. (For more information, read our post: How to play Apple’s daily crosswords on iPad and iPhone.)
- Sudoku is a numbers game where each piece of a 3×3 9×9 puzzle must contain all the numbers from 1 to 9. You have to figure out the only correct solution. Apple News+ offers three daily puzzles: easy, medium, and hard.
- Quartiles it shows tiles containing word fragments and you have to put them together to make as many words as possible. Each puzzle always contains five words that are four tiles long — quartiles. Finding them all can be tricky! (For more information, read our explainer: How to play Quartilesdaily word game on Apple News+.)
- Emoji game represents sequences of emoticons that represent words and phrases. You have to figure out what they mean and put them together in the right order. It’s surprisingly hard. (See Surprise! Released by Apple for more information Emoji game soon for World Emoji Day.)
I’ve gone through phases where my family, friends and I compete in daily word games every day and text the scores. They are very fun and the interfaces are thoughtfully designed. It’s a smarter and more rewarding way to kill some time.
Apple News+ has tons of recipes with easy-to-follow instructions
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple News+ Food is a fantastic way to find out what to cook for dinner. Gets excellent recipes from many trusted sources. You can filter them using smart categories like Slow Cooker, <30 minutes, Easy and Vegetarian. Plus, you can save your favorite recipes to a catalog so you know where to find them in the future.
All recipes are nicely formatted, with easy-to-read instructions. And you don’t have to wade through an ingredient essay (or the author’s life story) to start cooking. The Apple News+ Food section provides a tab where you can see all the ingredients and a tab that shows the way.
There’s even a special Cook mode that prevents the screen from going dark and shows you what to do step by step. You can quickly start timers and convert units with just a tap. It’s a great way to cook.
To find this great cooking resource, open the Apple News+ app and tap Search and then tap on Food. Read more about it in our step-by-step guide: Find great new recipes with Apple News+ Food.
Free access to stacks of magazines
Screenshot: D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Apple News+ also has a lot of great magazines for longer reads. You can read top magazines like atlantic, Car and driver, National Geographic, The New Yorker, Popular mechanics, Wired and dozens of others in the same environment without distraction.
I personally enjoyed learning Doctor Who magazine was on duty because I’m a super fan of the show. I heard firsthand about all the interesting interviews and stories in each issue; now i can read it all for free.
Audio stories you can listen to
Another benefit of Apple News+ is all the audio stories. If you want to catch up on the latest happenings while you’re walking the dog or commuting to work, audio stories are a great way to catch up. I have much more time for podcasts than I do for reading because I can multitask while listening – washing dishes, cleaning, folding laundry.
You can browse Sound in the Messages app or follow News+ Narrated on Apple Podcasts. (If you like podcasts and (Apple Rumors and News, Boy, I’ve got another recommendation for you.)
Follow Cult of Mac on Apple News
If you’ve been prompted to use Apple News+ more and try these hidden features, don’t forget this last step. Follow Cult of Mac for more great tutorials, breaking news, custom tweaks and thoughtful reviews. (And between you and me, the Apple News+ app is a nicer way to read the site!)
More on Apple News+
Now that you know about these five hidden features, check out our other deep dives on Apple News+:
D. Griffin Jones is a writer, podcaster and video producer for Cult of Mac. Griffin has been an avid computer enthusiast since he got his first PC in 2002 – but hasn’t turned back since he got a Mac in 2008. His graphic and web design skills, along with video and podcast editing, have been self-taught for over 20 years. Griffin has a bachelor’s degree in computer science and has written several (unpublished) apps for Mac and iOS. His vintage computer collection consists of more than 40 desktops, laptops, PDAs and devices dating back to the early 1980s. All of these creative and technical skills, along with a deep knowledge of Apple history, he brings to his work for Cult of Mac.