Extra! Extra! Read all about it! ABC News comes to Windows Phone 8

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Something, something, official apps. We love them and so do you. Earlier today we saw a host of apps from the Discovery network hit the Store. Not to be left behind, ABC has released an official app for the platform that you’re most likely reading this on. ABC News for Windows Phone. Details, screenshots, and more after the break.

Here in the US we’ve got a handful of major networks fighting for our eyeballs when it comes to news. Fox, CNN, NBC, CBS, ABC and more are the names that will come to mind for most people. So it’s a good day for anybody that likes to get info from ABC News and uses Windows Phone since we now have an official app. What do you get with it?

  • Award-winning coverage in story, video and slideshow formats
  • Live video and blogs for key events
  • Trending stories to see what everyone is talking about
  • Breaking news alerts
  • Pin your favorite shows and sections for easy access: Good Morning America, World News, Nightline, 20/20 and This Week, U.S., International, Politics, Investigative, Health, Entertainment, Money, Technology, Sports and Travel
  • Tap & Share or use SMS, Facebook, Twitter or email

Pardon the cliché when it comes to describing good Windows Phone apps, but ABC News really is fast and fluid. We didn’t notice any stutter or lag when playing videos or navigating through the app. There’s plenty of content as well. Whether you want to stick to political news or the latest in pop culture, this app has it all.

The app is ad-supported and free, but only available on Windows Phone 8. As far as availability, we aren’t sure if this is a US-only app or available to our brothers and sisters around the planet. Let us know below. Either way, you can download ABC News for Windows Phone here, use the QR code below, or swipe to the right in our app.

Thanks for the tip Kurt!

Via: Kurtsh.com

Sam Sabri
Sam Sabri
64 Comments
  • It is about damn time!
  • What about PBS?
  • That would be good, also.
  • +++++1000000000000
  • I still waiting for the Waap!
  • Daniel, this was one of the two apps that will be released together with 2 phone releases, one in June and other in July??
  • I think the two apps daniel was talking about were snapchat (july) and halo (june), but correct me if I'm wrong
  • Snapchat werent.
  • Look great!!!! I  love the ScreenLock.
  • Nice to see more official apps releasing to a platform other than paindroid and iDrone.
  • Can download in Australia, though not going to.
  • In Malaysia too. Too much America oriented news eh..I have to pass on
  • I'm impressed that its actually Metro (shhh!!! Don't tell Microsoft I called it that)
  • Nice! Keep them coming. Windows Phone will get big and strong! :)
  • Holy cow 4 high profile official apps in ones day!
  • ABC, NBC and FOX....CBS is the only major network holdout!
  • And PBS!!!
  • Fox and USAToday are the two I have.  They're awesome.
  • This app works in germany
  • USA Today is still the most polished one. CNN is a disaster.
  • Looks-wise USA Today is polished. However, a lot of functionality is broken. The live tile doesn't update for me and many articles have content missing.
  • My USA Today live tile updates 2 to 3 times a day. Usually hard reset will fix this.
  • I see, but the missing content in articles (quite a few, actually) is a bigger problem. The app's review page is filled with folks complaining about this issue, so its not like they aren't aware of it.
    Also, I had blocked this app from running in the background via settings, and when I decided I'd try unblocking it for the live tile, I noticed that I had to enable the live tile flip AND the weather flip buttons in the app for it to get unblocked in the phone settings. I don't want the weather on the live tile, I have a dedicated app for that. Why can't I just have news on the tile?
  • Yeah lots of missing content... Pics on tile without corresponding articles, headlines that have no content when clicked (particularly sports), etc
  • Downloads and works in Australia.
  • Really nice
  • Working great in the UK. Neat
  • I'm still hoping that instagram will be announced tomorrow
  • We have good 3rd party app for Instagram. We need business apps wav support to play work VM wells Fargo and Intuit Gopayment so I can swipe and not key in. Its hard for me to recommend to my clients when WP doesn't have the basics.
  • Now where is the Watch ABC app?
  • CNN was once a good app. Now? Not so much. USA Today is the nicest, probably followed by NBC News.
  • USA Today has broken functionality - including live tile not updating, and many articles having content missing.
  • My tile updates regularly, but I concur on the missing content.
  • I didn't realize that CBS is the only no show... Hopefully soon that and the local news attendance gap gets filled.
  • Just to point out that we CAN get this in Europe. (I'll check it out though, when American news are concerned, I prefer Fox). Now see...here's the thing...we DON'T have ABC news here. Yet, we get the App.
    We DO have the Discovery Channel...yet we can't get the App.
    This is the kind of f*cked up logic I was talking about.
  • But didn't you say that the Discovery Channel in Europe was different from the US? So... shouldn't your complaint be that "Euro" Discovery doesn't have an app at all?
    That would make your comparison inaccurate.
  • I believe it is the developer's choice to make an app available in one region or the other. You may want to contact the developers of the Discovery Channel app as it is possible they did not intend to make it unavailable in your region.
  • Works fine in New Zealand too. Must be global?
  • Must be. Installed in Finland.
  • Works fine, welcome aboard abc.
  • If you have any feedback, suggestions or perhaps you'd simply like to let ABC know that it's nice that they support Windows Phone, please post your comments to http://abcnews.go.com/custom/feedback_form_winphone. 
    Thank you!
  • Thanks, sending my feedback right now.
  • Im waiting on epocrates,
  • Glad to see one more news app (with the exception of fox news). But I would love to have AtBat available with all it's features available to WP just like ios and android does. The last response from atbat was that if I have any questions regarding an exciting app on atbat, to contact them. In short, they basically told me not to contact them unless its with an existing app. Assholes at AtBat.
  • Aren't you heart broken that there is no MSNBC app?
  • I rather have AtBat.
  • Agreed!!!
  • There certainly is a NBC News app. Perhaps you haven't heard the news that MSNBC changed its name back to NBC News.
  • Perhaps you haven't actually used the NBC News app, because its not the same thing.
    And last I checked (it has been a while), only the website changed its name, and the TV channel remains MSNBC.
  • I don't see the app avail to download in the US..
  • I just checked after installing the app. Searching the store for "ABC News" did not yield any results. It seems that right now, the only way to get it is by following the link to download in the "more" section of this article. Hope this helps.
  • The live tile is a little weak.
    And where is this live video you wrote about?
    Other than that, it looks impressive. I might add it to my news apps.
  • This App Works in Spain so it's not USA only :D
  • For those of you wishing for a more global pallet of news, you should check out the official AlJazeera English app. Its feature rich content and world view rarely disappoints,and that's hard to say for many news networks these days. http://www.windowsphone.com/s?appid=307bf3d3-d347-41a3-8e78-3bf6c622e77e
  • No thank you.
  • (^ THIS guy)
    Already have it. Really great news app. Kinda want to make you be more.....open minded. Right?
  • Meh...
    Government owned and Al Gore supported (LOL), no thank you.
    Insisting that 9/11 was perpetrated by Jew/US Govt, saying that Jews were warned in advance to stay away from the WTC...
    Siding with Assad in the current Syria crisis...
    ...not my cup of tea.
  • And when was the last time you used Fact check? Yeah
  • downloadable in the philippines. :)
  • I got excited for a moment as I thought this was from the Australian ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation). Although it looks like there's already a free 3rd-party app in the marketplace for that :P
  • Yep, works on the Moon too. Too much earth-oriented news though.
  • Awesome
  • If you want an app,write to the company on their facebook, they do reply.
  • So many American news apps for Windows phone makes me envious. I have written to various Australian news sources before but they just comment back with lack of WP ownership doesn't make it worthwhile. The SMH app that is in the Nokia store isn't even fixed by the publishers even after numerous requests to do so. It appears like they just cannot be bothered.