Xinhua upgrades news app to appeal to foreign audience

China's sole bilingual news app rolled out its latest version on Monday to make it more appealing to foreign eyes.

The New China app, designed and maintained by Xinhua, China's state news agency, provides around-the-clock global news coverage both in Chinese and in English.

It is particularly aimed at helping English-speaking users better understand China and see the world from Chinese perspectives.

As regards the user interface, the new version now features a trendy home page with larger and rotating pictures on the top and better text layout.

It sorts its stories into 12 sections -- Top News, China, Photo, Video, Politics, Opinion, Business, Tech, Lifestyle, Military, Special Report and Sports, making navigation easier.

The new version allows users to swipe the screen to shift between sections and personalize them to their liking.

While the previous versions offered only title search, the new version allows full-text search.

In addition, the news-streaming app, named after and synchronized with Xinhua's uniformed account on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, now can send notifications to users so that they will be alerted with breaking news.

Thanks to the latest upgrade, the app can take even more advantages of Xinhua's global news-gathering network with the participation of over 3,000 correspondents around the world. More than 100 stories will be released every day.

The New China app is part of Xinhua's ambitious plan to expand its presence in new media while consolidating its leadership in traditional media as the flagship news provider in China forges ahead in the era of earth-shaking changes in the media industry.

The latest version is available at http://xhgj.api.zhongguowangshi.com. Endi