If like me, you find the idea of grown adults playing Candy Crush on the metro abhorrent, then Newsmeister has the “edutainment” app for you.
Trends show us that Millennials prefer more “bitesize” media options, which they can consume in snippets while on the metro, or waiting in the queue for a soy-milk Frappuccino in Starbucks.
Newsmeister is a daily challenge mobile app based on current news which refreshes content daily to continuously reflect what’s going on in the world around us, offering a fun but informative alternative to the brain-draining mobile games, which are dominating the market now.
According to Forbes contributor Meghan Casserly, Millennials have less free time than ever, as increased productivity demands and constant tethering to the workplace by mobile technology have blown the traditional “9-5” workday out of the water. This poor work/life balance matched with increasingly short attention spans has led experts to state that Millennials now have shorter attention spans than goldfish — meaning that Millennials are now spending much less time perusing the news, reading books, or watching movies.
In the Newsmeister app, players battle against the clock to answer questions based on trending news stories from around the world. The quizzes are updated daily, so even the most avid newsreader remains challenged. Newsmeister tests users’ knowledge of the world around them in real time, with the added fun of friendly competition.
For competitive “know it all” users, they can invite their peers, family, and friends to compete via Facebook or email, or play with other members of the Newsmeister community. To promote friendly competition, the app shows a percentage of how many players worldwide answered the question correctly.
An Associated Press survey found that Millennials like to keep up with world events but choose to engage in different ways than previous generations, by using smart devices and social networks. According to the AP survey, only 39% of millennials actively search out news, while 60% stated that they “bump into” news on social media, and then delve into the story via a link to the news site.
With Millennials in mind, Newsmeister provides brief contextual information about each question topic, as well as a link to a related article once an answer is submitted. This enables users to dive deeper into the stories that interest them, at their convenience.
The app is available for free download on iOS and Android. The Apple App Store rated the Newsmeister app with 4.5/5.
