How We Built a Multi-Source News App to Simplify COVID Updates

Back in 2020, when COVID first hit, it felt almost impossible to keep up with all the news. Like many people, we were desperate for updates about the virus, the vaccines, everything. But the problem was, we had to jump between five or six different apps just to stay informed. It honestly felt like a full-time job.

That’s when my friend Mustapha Gadrouz and I had an idea: what if we could bring all the news sources together in one app?

At first, we focused on Arabic outlets. Then the idea grew, we added French sources, sports sections, and women’s magazines. It quickly became more than just a simple aggregator.

The tech side came naturally. I had already been working on a different project called “E-reputation”, basically an advanced version of Google Alerts. It would notify you whenever your brand was mentioned online. I used the same core technology to build this news app, and it worked really well.

Eventually, I designed a cleaner, more refined iOS version with a slightly different approach than the Android one. But both do the same thing: make it easy to access news from multiple sources in one place.

For me, that’s the beauty of programming, solving real problems with simple, useful tools.