“Skimmin” app provides quick and reliable news

I do my best to stay informed. I really try. Sometimes, though, those foreignpolicy.com emails get deleted, the glut of Jewell Political Science Facebook posts go ignored and websites that are not Buzzfeed are left unchecked (I’m sorry to everyone who thought I was better than Buzzfeed and are now disappointed in me).

So when I heard about the app Skimmin, I was intrigued. The app advertises itself as “the simplest way to keep up with current events” and brags that “it’s perfect for busy people.” Well that sounds great; if there is a way I can get informed in the time it takes to wait for coffee at the Perch, of course I will take it.

When you open Skimmin for the first time, a message will inform you that the app is meant to be checked only once a day. It will provide a fresh feed every morning, and the number of stories it runs will vary depending on how slow the news day was. Rather than providing only links to outside sources as Google news does, Skimmin offers a 325-character summary of major headline stories.

Because of its succinct style, the app is actually factual and rather impartial, as a good news source should be. Readers are able to access the previous six days’ stories should a person miss a day. Unfortunately, you cannot personalize your location; that is, there is no way to mark the fact that Kansas City-specific stories are of special interest to you. Rather, important national and global news stories were summarized.

I like Skimmin. I do not recommend it as a primary news source, as no one can form an informed opinion solely with something so short. However, the app serves its purpose. It provides readers with a quick, digestible summary so that they may go about their days somewhat informed. If you have one of those teachers who likes to start class with, “So what’s going on in the world?” then watch you squirm in your seat and try to remember current events that do not involve Taylor Swift, then Skimmin would be a handy app to download. I have heard that the app crashes a lot on some phones, but I have not had that problem so far. Overall, I give Skimmin four out of five stars.