Apple News widget gone (Germany, maybe whole EU?)

[Cobold]

Yep, disappeared in NZ from all devices (iOS, iPadOS, macOS). For anyone running iOS 17.5 beta, do you still see the widget in those counties affected?

I first noticed it on my 14 Pro Max running the latest beta of 17.5. So I thought at first it was a beta related issue.
Afterwards, I realized, that it also disapeared from my devices running 17.4.1 and even my good old iPhone X running iOS 16.7.7. So it is definetely not iOS-Version related!

 

[flowsy]

Since this morning it's gone for me as well. It's been there for years. A Macrumors article about this issue would be nice.

 

[contacos]

Apple really got awful at (non) communication. First the whole "Logging out of your AppleID" fiasco without giving an official statement and now this.

 

[Cobold]

Nothing changed after installing iOS 17.5 RC build. News widget is still missing and cannot be added back.

 

[UliBaer]

I think it will stay missing, until Apple surprises us with the new - incredible, amazing, unbelievable, magical, "insert other dumb superlatives here" - news subscription...

 

[NicHub]

Confirming (again) the sudden disappearance of the widget in Switzerland. The app itself was never proposed here, I was happily surprised the widget worked for a few years.

Note that, unlike the News app which offers a kind of news reading environment, the widget was just proposing links which open the destination on the target news organisation, so there should be no copyright problem. To the contrary: the Apple News widget is increasing the traffic on their sites.

As a former journalist (and news buff), I was disappointed of never having had the News app (which should be included in the Apple One bundle I am paying for!), but I totally understand the media allergy to anyone (=Silicon Valley) deviating their traffic and/or stealing their content (looking at you, AI companies!).

 

[one more]

Confirming (again) the sudden disappearance of the widget in Switzerland. The app itself was never proposed here, I was happily surprised the widget worked for a few years.

Note that, unlike the News app which offers a kind of news reading environment, the widget was just proposing links which open the destination on the target news organisation, so there should be no copyright problem. To the contrary: the Apple News widget is increasing the traffic on their sites.

As a former journalist (and news buff), I was disappointed of never having had the News app (which should be included in the Apple One bundle I am paying for!), but I totally understand the media allergy to anyone (=Silicon Valley) deviating their traffic and/or stealing their content (looking at you, AI companies!).

Apple News widget served as news aggregator, collecting stuff from local news sources. If I am not mistaken, Apple acquired some or all of the code from it from a young developer about 10 years ago.

Still no idea why it has been removed, though. 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[winxmac]

News widget on iOS 15.8.2 and iOS 16.7 and iPadOS 16.7 also gone...

From Reddit: Developers decided to only have the widget where the Apple News app is available. Once it's available in the EU, the widget will return. He added that regulatory hurdles are high in the EU and that you need to submit feedback at apple.com/feedback if that’s something we want back.