Summly: A concise, colourful and cute news app for your iPhone

Summly first made waves in the tech world way back in 2011, but when ranting comedian and all round cool guy Stephen Fry tweeted about it last month the quirky news app became a firm favourite on many iPhones across the nation. But now the initial hype has died down is Summly really going to change the way we consume news on our mobiles? Well, maybe.

Summly is a clever little app that uses an algorithm to sift through top news stories and deliver users concise summaries. It isn’t just any old news that you’re served up, but you choose which titles and topics you’re most interested in based on specific keywords.

Granted other apps won’t use the same algorithm as Summly, but many use their own technology to deliver summaries of the news too, like Flipboard and Pulse. However, it’s the way Summly packages the snippets of content and allows you to consume them that makes it stand out from the rest. Like our favourite to-do list app, Clear, Summly utilises a range of unique gestures that make for an intuitive user experience, like swiping titles to the right to refresh content and holding your fingertip down on a story to share it across your social networks.

Like most apps that use slightly unconventional gestures, Summly is bound to be a hit among some users and a bit irritating for others. But its unique interface, genuinely useful summaries of top content and colourful design has certainly made it a big hit in the Shiny Shiny office over the past month.

Summly is available from iTunes for free.

Related: Will Clear be our new favourite to-do list app?