Comparison

X vs Google News

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

X

Connect with a global community in real-time for breaking news, live events, and conversations. Share your thoughts, discover trending topics, and engage with diverse perspectives. Features include an AI assistant, live audio/video, and private messaging.

Highlights
  • Real-time breaking news updates
  • Post thoughts, photos, and videos
  • AI assistant for news summaries
  • Live audio and video streaming
  • Direct messaging with connections
  • Community building around interests
Features
Read full description

X (formerly Twitter) is a social media app where you can follow breaking news, live events, and trending topics as they happen. Sports, tech, music, politics: whatever you're into, the conversation starts here, raw and unfiltered. It's also a place to be heard. Post your take on the day's news, go live, and grow an audience for whatever you create. Millions of people come to X every day to find out what's happening and talk about it. WHAT YOU CAN DO ON X - Follow breaking news – Get news from around the world before it hits the headlines, with real-time updates on trending topics and viral conversations. - Post to a global community – Share your thoughts, photos, and videos. Join millions of users shaping public dialogue across social, cultural, and political conversations. - Ask Grok – Grok is the AI assistant powered by X's real-time data. Ask Grok to summarize trending news, explain videos, or give you more context about posts. Grok also powers the photo and video editing tools in the app. - Create original videos – The built-in Video Editor and Recorder lets you shoot, add multi-language captions, apply green screen effects, and post pro-level content directly in the app. - Go live on video – Stream a concert, a live game, or your thoughts on a hot topic, and keep your audience engaged with enhanced livestream tools. - Watch video and podcasts – From live breaking news and sports clips to podcasts and gaming sessions up to 3 hours long. Many of the world's leading voices in comedy, gaming, podcasting, and politics share their content on X. - Host live audio with Spaces – Spaces is X's audio feature for hosting discussions, holding interviews, or starting your next live podcast. - Message privately – Connect and chat with friends, followers, customers, or collaborators through Direct Messages. - Pin Custom Timelines – Custom Timelines are Grok-powered topic feeds you can pin for the topics you follow most. - Turn on Priority Notifications – Priority Notifications surface your key interactions first. - Open your History tab – The History tab is one unified place for your bookmarks, likes, videos, and articles. - Subscribe to X Premium – X Premium unlocks a blue checkmark, boosted visibility, prioritized replies, fewer ads, longer videos, and post editing. It also gives you creator revenue sharing and the ability to offer exclusive content to subscribers. WHO X IS FOR X is for people who follow breaking news and live events in real time, for sports, tech, music, and politics fans, for creators and podcasters who stream and create original video content for an audience, and for anyone building a community around gaming, entertainment, crypto, entrepreneurship, or tech. WHY X? In a world of constant change, X is your real-time source to stay ahead of the curve, connect with people, explore diverse perspectives, and create standout content. From breaking live news and trending memes to top podcasts, live streams, and original videos from your favorite creators, X brings it all together in one powerful social experience. Privacy Policy: https://x.com/privacy Terms and Conditions: https://x.com/tos

About

Google News

This app aggregates and highlights global and local news stories tailored to your interests. It provides personalized briefings, in-depth coverage from multiple sources, and allows you to follow specific topics and news outlets. Stay informed on the go or on your desktop.

Highlights
  • Personalized news briefings
  • Local news from your area
  • Full coverage with multiple perspectives
  • Customizable topics and sources
  • Cross-device access
Currently charting
Read full description

Google News is a personalized news aggregator that organizes and highlights what’s happening in the world so you can quickly catch up and discover more about the stories that matter to you. With Google News, you’ll find: YOUR BRIEFING: It can be nearly impossible to keep up with every story you care about, Your Briefing makes it easy to stay in the know about what’s important and relevant in your world. It updates throughout the day to bring you the top local, national, and world headlines, plus personalized news tailored to your interests. LOCAL NEWS: Explore your community through stories and articles from news outlets in your local area. Customize and choose multiple locations so you can know what’s happening near you or wherever home is. FULL COVERAGE: Dive deeper into a story with multiple perspectives. The Full Coverage feature organizes everything online about a story, surfacing and highlighting coverage from different outlets and mediums. With just a tap, you’ll uncover how the story is unfolding and how everyone is reporting on it. STORIES FOR YOU: The For You section delivers personalized news related to your interests. Take control and customize the articles you see by following the topics and sources you care about. ACCESS FROM ANY DEVICE: Stay up to date on the news no matter where you are. Pair the Google News mobile app with our Desktop website, news.google.com, and enjoy your personalized content across all your devices.

Screenshots

X4 screens
Google News4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: Google News at none against X's 25. X's advantage is update cadence (every 3 days vs monthly) and review sentiment (44% vs 19%). On price, rating, ads 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

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. X sells 25 in-app purchases, starting at $1.00 per month. Google News asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.6 for X against 4.6 for Google News. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: X has 11M ratings behind it against 226K, so its average is the more settled of the two. Written reviews are what separate them: 44% of X's written reviews are positive against 19% of Google News's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

X ships an update every 3 days, Google News monthly. Both last shipped on September 24, 2026.

Scorecard7 real differences · 4 level
X versus Google News: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterXGoogle News
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.6 (11M ratings)4.6 (226K ratings)
Positive reviews44.4% of reviews — better18.8% of reviews
Number of ratings11M — better226K
Update frequencyEvery 3 days — betterMonthly
AdsYesYes
In-app purchasesYesNo — better
MonetizationFree with in-app purchasesFree with in-app purchases
Best chart rank#1 — better#27
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod, Apple TV — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS15.0 — better17.0
Further details — not scored
Size619 MB172 MB
Age rating17+12+
DeveloperX Corp.Google

Customer experience

X

All ratings11,054,517 ratings
Positive89.7%
Neutral3.0%
Negative7.3%
Written reviews15,171 reviews
Positive44.4%
Neutral5.1%
Negative50.5%

Google News

All ratings226,194 ratings
Positive90.2%
Neutral4.8%
Negative5.0%
Written reviews784 reviews
Positive18.8%
Neutral13.0%
Negative68.2%

User reviews

X

From 11M App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast and efficient platform
  • 💡 Diverse range of content and discussions
  • 👍 Useful for news and information sharing
  • 🌐 Global connectivity and exchange of ideas

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Bugs and technical issues
  • 🤖 Proliferation of bots and spam accounts
  • 🔒 Concerns over censorship and lack of free speech
  • 💰 Paywalled features and monetization efforts

Google News

From 226K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Comprehensive news coverage
  • 📰 Wide range of news sources
  • 🔍 Customizable news feed
  • 👍 Sleek and modern interface
  • 🌐 Global news perspective

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Frequent crashes and bugs
  • 🔄 Annoying auto-refresh issues
  • 💤 Slow article loading times
  • 📢 Excessive ads and paywalls
  • 🤖 Unreliable personalization algorithms

Bugs and requests

X

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Account suspension and lockout issues
  • Inconsistent app performance and UI changes
  • Unreliable notification system
  • Inability to view deleted or suspended accounts

Requested features

4 requests
  • Edit tweet option
  • Improved content moderation and enforcement of rules
  • Customizable feed and better user control over content
  • Enhanced privacy and data protection measures

Google News

Reported bugs

5 issues
  • Articles not loading properly
  • Sudden app crashes and freezes
  • Inability to return to previous position in feed
  • Incorrect or outdated news content
  • Compatibility issues with newer iOS versions

Requested features

5 requests
  • Dark mode option
  • Improved article bookmarking/saving
  • Better control over news sources
  • Smoother scrolling and navigation
  • Faster updates and real-time news

In-app purchases

25 purchases

X

Subscriptions23
  • @FatKidDeals Subscription$1.001 Month
  • @Rainmaker1973 Subscription$2.001 Month
  • @pulte Subscription$2.991 Month
Show 20 more
  • @Zirksee Subscription$2.991 Month
  • @TheBabylonBee Subscription$3.001 Month
  • @jacksonhinklle Subscription$3.001 Month
  • @DataRepublican Subscription$3.001 Month
  • @elonmusk Subscription$4.001 Month
  • X Premium Basic (Monthly)$4.001 Month
  • @stevewilldoit Subscription$5.001 Month
  • @robbystarbuck Subscription$5.001 Month
  • @MikeBenzCyber Subscription$5.001 Month
  • @RealAlexJones Subscription$5.001 Month
  • @C__Herridge Subscription$7.001 Month
  • @shellenberger Subscription$9.001 Month
  • @shreyas Subscription$9.991 Month
  • X Premium (Monthly)1 Month trial$11.001 Month
  • @Jake__Wujastyk Subscription$14.001 Month
  • @Banana3Stocks Subscription$40.001 Month
  • X Premium Basic (Annual)$42.001 Year
  • X Premium Plus (Monthly)1 Month trial$50.001 Month
  • X Premium (Annual)$114.991 Year
  • X Premium Plus (Annual)$490.001 Year
One-time2
  • Promote Post for $25$25.00
  • Promote Post for $50$50.00
None

Google News

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is X free?
X is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Is Google News free?
Google News is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Which has better reviews, X or Google News?
X and Google News are both rated 4.6 out of 5 on the App Store, from 11M and 226K ratings respectively.
Do X or Google News have ads?
Both X and Google News show ads.
Which is updated more often, X or Google News?
X ships an update every 3 days, and Google News monthly. Most recently, X was updated on September 24, 2026 and Google News on September 24, 2026.
Which is more popular, X or Google News?
X currently peaks at #1 in the App Store charts, and Google News at #27. Chart position reflects recent download velocity rather than total install base.

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