I finally made Google News useful by ignoring half of it

Of all the preinstalled apps on a new Google Pixel phone, Google News is probably the least exciting and directly useful.

Google tucks it away in the app drawer, and unless you search for it, it will likely stay unused for as long as you keep your phone.

But Google News can be an effective way to keep up to date on current events.

While I prefer to build a dedicated news feed, a general news app is still a useful companion. However, Google News requires customization to become effective.

Here's how I tuned my Google News app to be an essential companion.

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The more I use the For You page, the more accurate it becomes

Google News needs guidance to be effective

The first page you see in the Google News app is the For You page. Just like on social media apps, this is a curated feed of stories that Google thinks you're interested in.

However, this page is divided into two distinct parts. The first part, Top Stories, is the biggest news stories in my area. If I want to see the breaking news at the moment, I tap the Headlines tab to see more.

I tend not to spend much time here. Instead, whenever I open Google News, I immediately scroll down and browse the Picks for You section.

This section is a collection of features and news articles that Google thinks I'll be interested in. At the time of writing this article, it's done a good job, but this isn't always the case.

The best advice I can give you for curating your Google News feed is to tell it what you're not interested in.

I regularly tap the three-dot button and select Fewer stories about a topic from the pop-up window when I see an article I don't want to read.

I rarely tap this button anymore, but when I started using Google News, I tapped it every day.

Over time, Google has learned what I'm not interested in, but it still provides me with new and interesting articles.

I built a dedicated newspaper in the Following tab

Multiple sources give me the best news

I always give the For You tab a quick scan, but it's the Following tab where I spend the most time.

Here, Google News will only show articles from sources and topics I follow. However, I've learned only to use it with sources.

A unique strength of the Following tab is that I can add search terms as topics. For example, let's say I want to keep up to date on the local music scene.

To do this, I search for "Nottingham music" and save that search. Now, Google News will show me every news article it can find that relates to this search. Sounds great, right?

Unfortunately, it doesn't work. Plenty is happening here, but Google News pushes articles about events that happened months ago. It's impossible to get it to show me only breaking news on relevant topics.

One of the biggest festivals in the UK happens right outside the city, and yet Google News somehow missed it.

Instead of using it to show me stories based on topics or locations, I use the Following tab to collate articles from my favorite publications. These publications publish stories I usually want to read, even if the topic isn't directly relevant.

Google News is an essential companion, but it can't do everything

For specific topics, use RSS feeds

I like Google News. It gives me a broad overview of current events that relate to topics I'm interested in. It sprinkles in plenty of fresh articles, and now that I've curated it, I rarely see irrelevant content.

However, I don't use it to stay up to date on single topics. For a topic like Android news, for example, I built a dedicated RSS feed from specialized publications.

Google News doesn't do specialized topics well. Its approach is too broad. Nevertheless, I've built the app into a news app better than anything else.

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Skip Google Discover, use Google News instead

A simpler way to browse current events is to use Google Discover. This feed is more accessible and can be curated like Google News.

However, Google Discover takes an even broader approach to recommendations. While it does a decent job of suggesting interesting articles, I can't tune it in the same way as Google News.

For that reason, I recommend disabling Google Discover and pairing Google News with an RSS reader as I have.