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Cupertino desk5 min

How Apple News Recommendations Work—and How to Shape Your Feed

Apple News Today combines shared Top Stories with followed sources, Siri suggestions, and trending items. Here’s what can shape recommendations and which settings can change them.
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Apple News does not fill Today with one personalized ranking. The feed mixes editor-selected Top Stories—which Apple says appear the same for everyone—with followed channels and topics, Siri suggestions, stories trending among News readers, and, depending on location, features such as local news, My Sports, audio briefings, and puzzles. Your activity and preferences can influence parts of that mix, but Apple does not publish a ranking formula or the weight given to any signal.

Why does Apple News show you these stories?

Today brings together several kinds of content. Apple’s iPhone guide says it can include Top Stories selected by Apple News editors, stories from channels and topics you follow, Siri suggestions, and Trending Stories popular with other News readers. Depending on your location, Today may also include local news, My Sports, audio briefings, or puzzles.

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These components do not all work the same way. Apple says Top Stories appear the same for everyone; followed items and recommendations can reflect your interests. Trending Stories reflect what is popular with other News readers rather than just your personal reading.

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What information shapes recommendations?

Apple says News uses information about how you interact with the app to tailor features to your interests. Its examples include stories you read, save, or share, as well as channels and topics you follow. Following or blocking sources, and asking for more or fewer stories like a particular one, also helps shape what you see. Apple’s Mac support documentation says these actions help Siri better understand your interests.

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Apple does not disclose a complete ordering algorithm, feature weights, or a numeric effect for any individual action. It is reasonable to say that these signals and controls can influence the experience; it is not established that a particular tap, read, or amount of time spent on a story will move a story by a specific amount.

Siri suggestions and Safari

Siri suggestions can use on-device information derived from apps you use and websites you visit with Safari. Apple says this information is not sent to Apple for these suggestions. On iPhone, Apple documents a News setting for recommendations based on News reading only: go to Settings > Apps > News > Siri. Turning off Siri & Search for News excludes Safari and other apps from the recommendation basis, according to Apple’s Apple News & Privacy page. Menu names and placement can vary by operating-system version.

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How do you change your Apple News feed?

Choose a control based on how much of the feed you want to affect. The options range from feedback on a single story to restricting most of Today.

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Control What it changes Trade-off or limit
Follow or unfollow a channel or topic Which followed sources appear and the interests News can use to tailor features. Changes are focused on the source or topic.
Suggest More or Suggest Less Feedback about stories similar to one headline. Story-level feedback; it does not guarantee a particular ranking.
Stop a suggested group A suggested channel or topic group in Today. Stops that suggestion without blocking the source itself.
Block a channel or topic The rest of your feed. A blocked source’s headline may still appear in shared Top Stories, identified as blocked.
Restrict Stories in Today Limits Today to channels you follow. Significantly reduces variety and removes Top Stories and Trending Stories.
Clear history or recommendations Stored reading history, recommendation information, or both, depending on your choice. Clearing recommendations can change suggestions across your Apple devices.

Give feedback on an individual story

  1. In Today, find the story and tap its More control beneath the headline.
  2. Choose Suggest More or Suggest Less to indicate whether you want more similar stories.

Follow, block, or stop a suggestion

Use the controls on a channel or topic to follow or unfollow it, or to block it. If Today shows a suggested channel or topic group you do not want to see, Apple’s guide also lets you stop that suggestion without blocking the channel or topic. Blocking and stopping a suggestion are different: blocking affects the rest of your feed, while stopping a suggestion removes that suggested group.

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Limit Today to followed sources

On iPhone, go to Settings > Apps > News > Restrict Stories in Today and turn on the option. This is the broadest feed restriction described in Apple’s guide: it keeps Today to followed channels, but removes Top Stories and Trending Stories and substantially narrows the range of content.

Reset recommendation information

  1. In News, open Following > History.
  2. Tap Clear, then choose Clear History, Clear Recommendations, or Clear All.

These choices are distinct. Clearing history removes the relevant history; clearing recommendations resets information used for recommendations and may change the channels, topics, and stories shown on your other Apple devices. Apple documents this control on its Apple News & Privacy page.

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Does Apple News use your Safari browsing?

It can, through Siri suggestions: Apple says those suggestions may draw on on-device information derived from Safari browsing and apps, and that this information is not sent to Apple. On iPhone, the News Siri controls let you limit recommendations to News reading or disable Siri & Search for News to exclude information from Safari and other apps. Those controls concern Siri’s recommendation basis; they should not be confused with every data flow connected to News.

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What Apple says about privacy

Apple’s Apple News & Privacy document states: “Recommendations in Apple News are made based on the information stored on your device.” That is Apple’s description of recommendations, not a claim that every News-related feature or piece of information stays only on one device.

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Apple separately says that reading and listening activity is associated with an identifier specific to News and Stocks, not associated with your Apple Account or linked to other Apple services. It also says iCloud can sync followed channels, reading and listening history, and preferences across devices; reading and listening history is stored for up to three months. Turning on notifications for a channel can associate that channel with your Apple Account. These descriptions concern different functions.

Location and advertising are separate settings

If News has location access, approximate location may be used for local information and suggestions, as well as weather, search results, and advertising. Personalized ads are a separate use of information: turning off Personalized Ads prevents Apple from using the listed account and reading/following information for ad targeting, but may not reduce how many ads you see.

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  • On iPhone, iPad, or Vision Pro, find the advertising control under Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising.
  • On Mac, use System Settings > Privacy & Security > Apple Advertising.

Product prices and availability are accurate as of the date/time indicated and are subject to change. Any price and availability information displayed on Amazon at the time of purchase will apply.

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