Specifically, Microsoft News now allows users to select from three different layout types. Available to choose from are Standard, Compact, or Text Only: “You now can pick the layout you like best — standard, compact or text-only. It’s the one feature you have requested the most. Thanks for your feedback, we’re listening!” On iOS, this latest update brings the app up to version 3.2.12. You can download Microsoft News for iPhone and iPad here. Over on Android, the introduction of layout selection brings the app to version 18.324.01 and can be found here. Microsoft launched News last year as a replacement for MSN News. By leveraging its AI and machine learning, Microsoft News gives users more personalization tools. The app can deliver news based on location, preferences, and interests. The app will take this information from other Microsoft services.
Combatting Fake News
Last month, Darren Laybourn, Corporate Vice President of Microsoft News described how the company prevents fake news on its service. The executive confirmed Microsoft uses a team of 800 employees located around the world to curate content. Laybourn says the company uses machine learning and AI solutions to help with finding fake news. According to the executive, Microsoft News has not faced an issue with fake news thanks to this robust system. Part of that system revolves around the closed nature of the service. Microsoft can avoid fake news publishers by simply not selecting them. “Well, we’ve got kind of a multi-tier way that we handle it. It’s kind of, it’s a little bit of an art and a little bit of a science. The first step is the publishers. So we worked with all those publishers. We have contracts with each one of them. We actually chose them. It wasn’t that people could just randomly sign up.”
