The Atlantic Magazine 12+

I was a subscriber through Google to which I could only get the magazine on the google news app which I thought was ridiculous. Switching over to the iPhone XR I downloaded the Atlantic and subscribed again. I don’t know what everyone is complaining about, the new layout is beautiful. I like the today section plus I get to hear the articles through the SoundCloud link that’s been put up on some articles. The dark mode is perfect. I let go of the New York Times because they hadn’t gone to dark mode yet. It’s just too bright. LA Times has and they have a great layout as well. Anyways great job Atlantic. You’re the app is great and you’ve got a subscriber for life.

So happy that the developers added dark mode support!! That was a feature I’ve long wanted so am really looking forward to reading more articles late at night in bed. The new art in the app is also beautiful and I like that the crossword is available to solve in mobile now.

The today tab is a little confusing since it doesn’t clearly show what is an official article and what is just summarizing the latest news, but I’m guessing that will become more refined over time.

The extended abstracts take up unnecessary space, yet I have no real contention with the desires of the editorial staff for greater control over the immediate content.

But removing any sort of search function? If I see a story in a social media feed, or have one recommended in person by a friend (people still talk, editors) it’s effectively impossible to find that story in the app. I am supposed to guess at the section, then scroll and scroll and scroll until I find it? What if I’d like to read a last article? Bookmarks shouldn’t be the only option.

This needed field testing before the full release. I understand the challenge of Peter and Oliver’s call to “rethink everything about the way we present ourselves” but this was a poor showing. Rethink it again.