Financial Times: Business News

Review by eFreeware

The Financial Times app is the mobile face of a newsroom that has been publishing since 1888, and the thing that sets it apart is how much of that output is bundled together: reporting on business and politics, markets data, podcasts, video, and lifestyle writing from How To Spend It, all inside one app. That combination, rather than any single feature, is what the developer leads with, and it is a fair description of what you get.

It is built for people who follow the forces behind the headlines rather than the headlines alone. The developer describes the audience as economists, stockbrokers, business leaders and curious readers, and the range of coverage from over 50 countries backs that up: finance and economics sit alongside technology, climate policy, the arts, books and food.

The app is free to download and carries ads, with in-app purchases available. It has been on Google Play since November 2011 and holds a 4.5 average from roughly 50,000 ratings, which tells you it has settled into a steady, widely used form rather than being a young experiment.

A personal feed built around MyFT

The feature worth understanding first is MyFT, the tool for curating your own feed. Rather than scrolling a single fixed front page, you follow the topics that matter to you and let the app assemble a stream around them. For anyone who reads the FT for a specific beat, whether that is central banking, semiconductor supply chains or climate policy, this is the difference between a newspaper and a briefing.

It also solves a practical problem with general news apps: the sense that you are reading whatever an editor decided was important that morning. A curated feed lets you keep an eye on a narrow subject over months without hunting for it each time. The trade-off is that a feed only reflects the topics you chose, so it rewards readers who know what they want to follow.

Around that core sit the conventional reading tools. You can save articles and editions to read offline, watch video journalism, and take part in comments or share and gift stories to people who do not have access. The developer also says articles can be read aloud by AI, which is useful when your eyes are busy and your hands are not free.

What you get without paying

The free tier is more generous than the subscription pitch might suggest. All podcasts are included, among them The Story of Money, FT News Briefing and FT Weekend, along with markets data, the How To Spend It magazine and a daily crossword challenge. That is a substantial package on its own, and it is the part of the app most people will actually use day to day.

Markets data is the quiet workhorse here. If you want to check how a currency, index or commodity is moving, having it inside the same app as the analysis of why it moved saves a lot of switching. The crossword, meanwhile, gives the app a reason to be opened on a slow afternoon rather than only when something breaks.

The podcast lineup is the strongest argument for installing the app even if you never subscribe. FT News Briefing is a short daily catch-up, while FT Weekend and The Story of Money run longer and suit listeners who want more than a summary. Apple CarPlay support means the audio side can move into the car with you, which is where a lot of podcast listening happens.

Reading, listening and watching in one place

Beyond the free features, the app covers the main ways people consume news. There is text reporting and comment, video journalism for readers who prefer a visual explanation, and audio through podcasts and the read-aloud function. Offline saving means a downloaded edition or a stack of articles is available when a connection is not.

That mix matters because the FT's output is not uniform. A markets story is often best skimmed, a long feature about the fashion industry or a scientific breakthrough is better read in a quiet half hour, and a daily briefing works as audio on the move. Having all three in one app means you can match the format to the moment instead of juggling separate apps for each.

Comments, sharing and gifting round out the social side. Gifting is the more interesting of the three: it lets you pass a story to someone else, which is a neat way to settle an argument or share something genuinely useful without asking the other person to sign up.

What the app asks of you

Two things sit on the cost side. The app contains ads, so the free experience is supported by advertising, and it offers in-app purchases. The developer also points to discounts and offers inside the app for subscribers, and describes access levels chosen according to how much content you need.

If you already subscribe, the app is straightforward: you log in and your access carries over. If you do not, the free tier is the place to start, because it covers podcasts, markets data, the magazine and the crossword without any commitment. That gives you a genuine sense of the FT's voice before you decide whether to pay for the rest.

The other requirement is attention rather than money. An FT feed rewards regular reading; a curated MyFT page works best when you check it often enough to keep up with the topics you chose. Readers who dip in once a month will get less from it than those who make it a daily habit.

Getting the most from a daily read

The sensible way to start is with MyFT. Pick a handful of topics you genuinely follow, not everything that sounds interesting, and let the feed settle. A short list you actually read beats a long one you skip. From there, the daily rhythm most readers fall into is a briefing podcast in the morning, a skim of markets data during the day, and longer features or the crossword when there is time.

Offline saving is worth setting up before you need it. If you have a flight, a long drive or a stretch without reliable signal, downloading articles and editions in advance means the app keeps working when the connection does not. The same applies to podcasts if you listen away from home.

For subscribers, logging in early is the obvious step. For everyone else, the free features are not a teaser so much as a complete package for a certain kind of reader: someone who wants markets numbers, a daily audio briefing and a crossword without paying for opinion and long-form analysis.

A considered pick for globally minded readers

The Financial Times app does one thing well: it puts a large, serious newsroom into a single Android app and gives you several ways to consume it.

It suits people who follow business, politics and economics closely and want analysis rather than alerts, and who will use a curated feed rather than skim a homepage. It also suits podcast listeners who want a daily briefing and a weekend long read in the same place as the markets data.

The caveats are ads on the free tier, in-app purchases, and a subscription if you want everything. Weigh those against a 4.5 average from around 50,000 ratings and more than a million installs, and this looks like a dependable choice for readers who take global affairs seriously.

What's new in version 2.300.0-snapshot.0.24777896888101.13015+8fb9049

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