NRK News

The NRK.no app provides a quick overview of what’s happening in the news and gives you relevant updates on matters that interest you. Schjønhaug contributed to the development of the news app, which makes it easy to follow the news in Norway and internationally.

The way we absorb information and receive news is constantly changing. In today’s society, most of us always have our phones with us, and a lot of us don’t watch the news on TV every night. For younger people in particular, it is becoming more and more common to use your phone to follow what is going on in the news both domestically and abroad - and that’s where the NRK News app comes in.

Easy to keep up to date with the news

With the NRK News app, you can customize the front page to suit your preferences, and save articles you want to read later. Throughout the day, you can receive brief summaries of key news items via notifications directly to your phone. You can also subscribe to certain hashtags that you’re interested in, so you can get alerts of any news in development.

“NRK’s front page is fairly general, and is designed to show a wide range of news that you can quickly scroll through and see the most important things that are going on in the news. The app can make it easier to go more in-depth for news and content that you’re particularly interested in because you can easily choose categories you want to follow. The app is intended to show off the breadth NRK has when it comes to content. I think it is very useful when it comes to bringing attention to relevant news,” says Andreas.

Through the news app, you get an overview of what is going on both in Norway and internationally, and you can also subscribe to news you’re especially interested in. There are many different topics that you can subscribe to, and you can then receive notifications directly to your mobile. Also, you can get a summary of the news day which makes it possible to get a quick overview of what has taken place during the last 24 hours.

Great functionality

With just a few taps on your phone, you can get a quick update on everything that’s happening in the news, and the NRK Nyheter app is user-friendly and easy to navigate. Andreas and NRK wanted the app to work well, and the app is equipped with several good functionalities. The app is written in Swift, and the tasks Schjønhaug AS focused on with regards to the app were mainly maintenance, troubleshooting and updating old code.

“When we designed the app, we focused on the fact that we had to be able to deliver a sharp message. We wanted to bring attention to the relevant content without drowning out the message with too much extra information - it should be easy to take in the news in bite-sized pieces sent directly to the user’s phone,” says Andreas.

The app has the same content you’ll find on NRK's website, but with the extra functionality of being able to subscribe to specific things and receive notifications with updates directly to your mobile during the day. The daily news summary is a very popular feature with users - it made it possible to get a quick overview of current news during the last 24 hours.

Another great aspect of the app is that you can create a profile that works across the website and app. That means that everything you do on one platform will be automatically transferred to the other, so the hashtags you follow will be retained across the different platforms. You can also easily save articles or content you want to read later, for example if you enjoy reading longer news items on a larger screen at home.

Interdisciplinary approach

Andreas in Schjønhaug AS has collaborated with NRK on two different projects - he also worked on the Apple TV app for NRK, and you can read more about this project here.

“I worked with a lot of the same people on both projects, and really enjoyed working with the NRK team. The team consisted of skilled people who I found exciting to work with. It was a large team with many great people who have a lot of different knowledge, and it made it possible to operate with an interdisciplinary approach that was very useful. For me, it was very helpful to have experts on the team who could give great advice and support regarding specific aspects of the app's development,” Andreas says.