By Jonathan Easton

Doha-based news broadcaster Al Jazeera has announced the launch of a new mobile app for iOS and Android.

Utilising the Unified Mobile Platform (uMP) for the Network’s website content, the app leans on Al Jazeera’s new unified Content Management System (uCMS) architecture using GraphQL to simultaneously converge its newsrooms’ content in a single application.

The app aggregates content from Al Jazeera’s various websites, Arabic, English, Mubasher, Balkans, and Chinese platforms as well as providing the broadcast live streams in a single place.

Main features of the app include searching for topics and stories across all channels, infinite scrolling, and access to cached content when there is weak or no internet/cellular connection.

Digital’s Chief Technical Officer David ‘Hos’ Hostetter said: “Al Jazeera is committed to putting people at the centre of its editorial priorities by empowering its journalists to focus on the human story. I am excited to see this groundbreaking new mobile app come to light and provide the innovative experience and enable audiences to get the unique perspectives from across our digital newsrooms.”     

Vice President of Engineering Paul Ingalls said: “This application employs an elegantly simple and novel approach, providing Al Jazeera with a world-class application that we can build on in the future. Leveraging our experience working with some of the best companies in the world around design like Apple and Google – the design paradigms really embrace this concept of ‘Less is More,’ influencing our approach to this application. The technical architecture also means we only support one app leveraging React Native across all platforms improving our overall efficiency, performance, and quality.”