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. 🤷🏻‍♂️