Black vs Smashviews
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Black
Discover news and stories from influential voices in Black culture. Curate your personal feed, share content with friends, and receive timely updates. Explore content tailored to your interests from top publications.
- Personalized news feed
- Story recommendations
- Share stories with friends
- Push notifications
- Explore by interest
- Curated publications
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Black® collects the news & stories from the world’s greatest influencers of black culture. With all of your black news in one place, it has never been easier to discover the stories that keep you informed, engaged, and inspired. JOIN US ON OUR MISSION TO CHANGE THE GAME. - Create your own feed of stories from the publications you know and trust. - Read, recommend, and share stories with your friends using Facebook, Twitter, iMessage, and Email. - Explore stories that are just for you and based on your interests. - Receive timely push notifications that will keep you in the know. Featured Publications: - The Root - Atlanta Black Star - OkayAfrica - News One - Blavity - BET - Black Enterprise - Ebony - Essence - HuffPost Black Voices - Hello Beautiful - and more! We'd love to hear any feedback you have about Black®. Reach out to our team at team@black.news. Oh, did we mention that we're 100% Black Owned?
Smashviews
Get unbiased news delivered instantly from sources you choose. This app prioritizes user control over content, avoiding algorithmic filtering and data exploitation. Stay informed with real-time updates and easily search or save articles for later.
- User-selected news sources
- No algorithmic content filtering
- Real-time news delivery
- Article search functionality
- Save articles for later
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A simple app with a simple purpose: deliver you news without any external or unwanted oversight. We built smashviews because it is painfully difficult to find a news app that operates as smooth as the big guys, but doesn't use you for your data every time you click--all the while running algorithms in the background that decide which articles you see and don't see. Simply put, we don't believe that an algorithm should be deciding this for you, which is why we deliver the news to you unadulterated. You chose the sources and you chose what's important to read or not read. News gets delivered by the minute, as soon as it gets published. Review the feed at the end of the day, or keep track of breaking news as it happens. Missed an article or want to check other sources? Use our search page. See an event break in real time but can't read it in the moment? Save it to your profile and come back later. Download smashviews today! You won't be disappointed. P.S. smashviews is brand new and we will be continuously adding functionality. Features soon to come include more sources, more categories, local sources, custom categories, and a widget. If you have any suggestions or requests, for app functionality or specific local sources, please do not hesitate to reach out to us at support@smashnews.org
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is review sentiment: Smashviews at 100% against Black's 67%. Smashviews also leads on rating (5.0 vs 4.7) and update cadence (every 4 days vs fortnightly). Black's advantage is ratings volume (675 vs 5). On price, ads, in-app purchases and monetization model there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.
Smashviews holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.7. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Black has 675 ratings behind it against 5, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews point the same way: 67% of Black's written reviews are positive against 100% of Smashviews's.
Black ships an update fortnightly, Smashviews every 4 days. The most recent releases landed on September 22, 2026 and June 11, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Black | Smashviews |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.7 (675 ratings) | 5.0 (5 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 67.3% of reviews | 100.0% of reviews — better |
| Number of ratings | 675 — better | 5 |
| Update frequency | Fortnightly | Every 4 days — better |
| Ads | No | No |
| In-app purchases | No | No |
| Monetization | Free | Free |
| Devices | iPhone, iPod | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 14.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 94 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 4+ | 17+ |
| Developer | Langston, LLC | Evan Hedding |
Customer experience
Black
Smashviews
Bugs and requests
Black
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login screen not functioning properly
- Inconsistent article loading and display
- Notifications not always triggering as expected
Requested features
4 requests- Customizable notification settings
- Reader mode for easier article reading
- Social sharing and discussion features
- Dedicated sections for specific topics (e.g., finance, entertainment)
Smashviews
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Black
No in-app purchases
Smashviews
No in-app purchases
