A few years ago, Digg seemed to have limitless potential. Then the users, fickle as always, migrated elsewhere and Digg's importance to the web waned. The site was eventually sold to Betaworks in 2012 for a paltry sum, but it wasn't over. The site was quickly relaunched as a different kind of news site. It's not socially driven, but might still be a little socially inspired. Now it's back on Android with a new app.
Digg brings you a collection of the best articles filtered from all the social corners of the web by its team of editors. Users can still Digg stories to increase their ranking, though. The app lets you log in with Google, Twitter, or Facebook but you can use the basic features without logging in. There is also integration with bookmarking services like Pocket and Instapaper.
This app is actually two services in one. Digg proper is the top stories section where editors find the best content, and everyone gets to vote. The Digg app is also a conduit for Digg Reader, a replacement for Google Reader. You can build specific feeds and organize them into folders with the app, or import your Google Takeout data with the Digg website, and view those feeds in the app. Of course, no feature set would be complete without sharing, and Digg does it right by plugging into Android's sharing API. Any app that supports that feature, can share the link to any story you read in Digg.
The new Digg app is very clean and mature-looking. It makes use of the Holo design guidelines, sticking pretty close to the baseline rules. It has the "hamburger" navigation panel on the left, an action bar, and the iconography is right. The app uses big, high-resolution images, and scrolling performance is excellent. The only UI gripe worth mentioning is that the main feed UI doesn't rotate to landscape.
Digg is working hard to move beyond past failures, and a good mobile experience is a big step in the right direction. The spiffy new Android app joins the iOS app, which was updated for the new Digg shortly after it was relaunched in 2012.
source pcmag
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