Flipboard: The Social Magazine

Category
News

Description of App

Flipboard is your personal magazine. Used by millions of people everyday, it’s a single place to keep up on the news, follow topics you care about and
share stories, videos and photos that influence you.

To start, follow a few topics, and Flipboard creates your personal magazine. You can always add more as you find new topics, magazines or interesting people
to follow.

Read world class publications like The New York Times, PEOPLE magazine, Fast Company, and Vanity Fair on Flipboard -- find any source with the search bar.
You can also connect Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn to Flipboard and easily flip through pictures and posts from friends.

Save stories you enjoy or express a point of view. Use the + button on anything you find to collect it into your own magazine. You can see all your magazines
in your Flipboard Profile. For more on how to make your own magazine, visit www.flipboard.com.

Download Flipboard and get started today—it’s free!

KEEP UP ON FLIPBOARD:

For tips and other helpful information visit our website http://www.flipboard.com and follow us via @flipboard on Twitter or on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/flipboard.


To learn more about how to use Flipboard, visit our Support Page. http://flipboard.com/support

If you are having technical issues or have any questions, contact us at http://flip.it/support.

Plus more great features:
• Collect stories you love into your own magazine. Tap the “+” button on any story, select ‘create a magazine’ and collect favorite stories, images or
videos.
• Manage all your magazines in a convenient dashboard at https://editor.flipboard.com/
• Read The Daily Edition to quickly check the news you need for your day, with stories hand-picked by our editorial staff.
• Go to your Flipboard to check what’s happening now. Use the home button on iPhone (or Cover Stories on iPad) to see highlights across everything you’re
following.
• Enjoy Flipboard in 24 localized editions—for Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Latin America,
Malaysia, Netherlands, Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Africa, Spain, Taiwan, Turkey, U.S., U.K., U.S. Latino.
• On iPad, explore hundreds of staff picks in the Content Guide (tap the red ribbon at the top), including must-read magazines and blogs, gorgeous photography
and special curated sections devoted to the news of the day and other interests.
• Add content from the web to your Flipboard magazines through the bookmarklet at share.flipboard.com.

 

 

Version

3.0

Free or Paid

Free

Apple Watch Support

Not Known

Device(s) App Was Tested On

iPhone

iOS Version

8.1

Accessibility Comments

Mostly accessible but a bit awkward to use and learn.

VoiceOver Performance

VoiceOver reads all page elements.

Button Labeling

Most buttons are clearly labeled.

Usability

There are some minor accessibility issues with this app, but they are easy to deal with.

App Store Link

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/flipboard/id358801284?mt=8&ign-mpt=uo%3D4

Developer's Website

http://www.getsatisfaction.com/flipboard

Developer's Twitter Username

@Flipboard

Options

Comments

By Michael Doise on Monday, March 21, 2011 - 18:43

I use Flipboard with Zoom, and I love this app. I was very disappointed when I tried to use VoiceOver with it. I really hope they fix this in a lter update.

By Jennifer Sutton on Wednesday, December 21, 2011 - 18:43

For those who are interested in raising further awareness about Flipboard accessibility, here are a couple of other posts that may be of interest. See: http://t.co/yx8JZAIc and this, which illustrates that at least Flipboard has the issue under consideration: http://weba.im/3gx

By Victor Tsaran on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 18:43

As of today, March 16, 2012 Flipboard for both iPhone and iPad is now accessible! A couple of issues to be aware of: 1. When viewing cover stories on the iPhone, you need to 3-finger swipe up and down in order to move between them. 2. The "initial screen" animation that is displayed for the first time is very difficult to dismiss with VoiceOver on. I will work with developers to eliminate any remaining issues. Otherwise, you should see the new Flipboard for yourself. The content is absolutely amazing and the accessibility work is not far behind! Best, Victor

I remember using this app way back when it was not accessible at all. However, as of 1.8.2 I must concur with you that this has made some significant improvements in being accessible. There are some things that make things difficult but still able to use if you want to tolerate it. My overall thought of this apps is that I don't like how you must triple flick up for each article. That is a lot of gestures just to quickly read through all of the news. Time consuming but perhaps that is because I like to read things quickly like I can on EZFeeds for example. Just flick quickly through to what you want to read and you have that. However, I am certainly grateful that this developer has made great stride in making this accessible. We will have more things to fit different people's taste in reading and getting their news!

By Randi on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 18:43

I like the fact that this is an all-in-one app as far as getting your news and using social networking sites like facebook and twitter. However, it seems very cumbersome in that getting your friend's posts on FB is more difficult and reading articles is not as straightforward as it is say with EXFeeds or even the USAtoday app. I'm not sure if I will continue using it or not...

By Marcos Rodrigues on Wednesday, March 21, 2012 - 18:43

Is it possible to post on twitter and on FB using this app or just to read the status?

By Amir on Monday, May 21, 2012 - 18:43

I don't have this on my iDevice, but its latest release, V1.9, explicitly mentions VoiceOver support:

Accessibility for visually impaired people. Apple's VoiceOver helps users navigate Flipboard and listen to articles.

So, if interested, you may want to take a look at it.

Now this is a nice feature. Have never seen an Google+ alternative other than the inaccessible Google+ native app! I must admit that it does offer a huge array of things you can access in one single app. It is also getting more accessible as well. However, I must admit I am still having a hard time with the fact that every bit of news, status, posting, podcasts are on their own invidual page. So you will find yourself swiping a lot to flick through things like the news and etc. I'm afriad if I use this to much that I will develop some sort of repetitive motion syndrome! ;) What's New in Version 1.9.3 ★ Connect Flipboard to Google+ to enjoy the activity in your stream and circles in the form of a beautiful magazine. ★ Log in to YouTube to flip through videos being uploaded and shared by the channels you follow. ★ Fully localized editions for Germany, Italy, Korea, Netherlands and Spain—including hundreds of regional recommendations in the Content Guide.

By Andrew on Thursday, June 21, 2012 - 18:43

Just wondering, do you still need to swipe up and down in this application rather then the traditional left and right, which is done in so many other applications, in order to view your next feed or page? This is what keeps me from using this application more often. I'm interested if this has changed. Please let me know. Thank you. -Andrew-

By AnonyMouse on Thursday, March 21, 2013 - 18:43

Member of the AppleVis Editorial Team

Appears to have add a big feature in this update. Be curious in what others think of it and if it is as accessible or more accessible?

 

What's New in Version 2.0

★ You can now collect and save content into your own magazines, tap the new “+” button to get started. If you prefer to remove the "+" button, you can turn it Off in Settings.
★ Your magazines are public, but can be made private (viewable only to you) at any time.
★ Use the new bookmarklet to add items to your magazines from your browser. Get it at https://share.flipboard.com.
★ Get Flipboard notifications when people like, comment or subscribe to your magazines.
★ Email whole magazines or share them to your social network. Of course, you can still share or email any single article, photo or video.
★ Personalized recommendations for more to add to your Flipboard.
★ Search is now front and center on your Flipboard, with new improved results.
★ Faster page-loading and faster flipping performance.

By Victor Tsaran on Thursday, March 21, 2013 - 18:43

There are no major regressions as far as VoiceOver support goes. The new feature that allows you to collect the things you read into your personal magazines works just fine.

Since this is a magazine, pictures are a big part of the layout. These images often take up the whole screen along with the article title and some other related information. If there are no pictures on the screen, such as when information displayed is a series of tweets, Flipboard attempts to fill in as many of those as possible on a single page. If you want to be efficient with Flipboard, I seriously recommend using touch exploration instead of the flicking mode. Hope this helps.

By Victor Tsaran on Thursday, March 21, 2013 - 18:43

Hey guys, In case you didn't know, I've put together two podcasts on the use of Flipboard for both iPhone and iPad. You can find them here: http://victortsaran.net/content/podcasts. Enjoy.

I have played around with the latest update a little. I think like anything worth using you need to put some time into exploring this app. I tried to create a magazine on the fly, and while I was able to create one, it wasn't what I expected. I thought it would be nice to create a magazine with AppleVis, and people like David Woodbridge's, SeroTalk, Triple Click Home, and all the others bring us fantastic news about Apple Accessibility, but when creating a magazine, it seems like you can't just go to AppleVis and add the entire site. It seems more like a thread by thread that you would have to add. So instead of creating a magazine about AppleVis, it looks like it would make more sense to create a magazine about a specific app. Needless to say this wasn't of much interest to me. Maybe I am mistaken about this as I have not spent a great deal of time with the update. I also noticed that the layout screen seems to be a little different or maybe I never really paid attention to the previous layout, as I thought the previous layout was just text for your magazines, now it seems like they are incons, as it took me a little while to figure out how to delete content. You seem to have a row of three delete icons and then three content sources under all the delte buttons so you have a left middle and right, and you have to just delete the one you want. Would love to hear others feedback, as it does seem like Flipboard has continued to make sure that their content is accessible, and we do have to be thankful for it.

By Zivan Krisher on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 18:43

The latest update introduced a new: Share To section in the actions menu. This section consists of a row of buttons with different options such as facebook and twitter. I use Flipboard with the VoiceOver screen reader. None of these new icons is properly labeled. They all just say "Button", it is impossible to distinguish between then when using VoiceOver. Th;is is what I tried to send to the developer, but they have some kind of social network based help section and I'm not sure who will see it.

By Ankit Rajiv Jindal on Tuesday, May 21, 2013 - 18:43

hi friends, May anyone please advise as to how to install the Flip it booklet for Safari without sighted assistance. It is a very useful tool in creating our own flipboard magzines from web-browsers. I tried installing a couple of times basis the instruction on the website and user manual but could not go through. Any help will be of great value.

By Tristan on Monday, October 21, 2013 - 18:43

What's New in Version 2.10 -Bug fixes and performance improvements.

By Blind I Am on Monday, July 21, 2014 - 18:43

I’m really pleased to see that the developers have finally added support for the scrub gesture to this app. It makes things a whole lot quicker and easier!

By Tiffany J. Kim on Friday, November 21, 2014 - 18:43

The third generation of Flipboard offers topic tags that create a highly personalized experience filled with precisely what you like. There's also a new morning news magazine called The Daily Edition, and a fresh new phone design that quickly brings the stories that matter most to you front and center.

• Choose from over 30,000 topics to follow. Each topic is powered by the best stories across publishers, websites and the 10+ million magazines made on Flipboard.
• Explore topics through search or by tapping on topic tags at the bottom left of articles.
• Start your day with The Daily Edition, featuring articles selected by our team, ready at 7 a.m. every day.
• Follow people to stay up-to-date on everything they're collecting into their magazines.
• Enjoy an overall design refresh, including full-bleed magazine covers, new typography, and more prominent comment displays and attribution.

On the phone only:
• A brand-new look and feel: use the new tab bar to quickly navigate between your Flipboard, everything you're following, search, notifications and your profile.
• Share, like or flip your favorite stories into magazines more quickly from easier-to-access buttons.

Feedback is always welcome. Please contact us with any issues or suggestions by going into Settings on Flipboard > Help & Feedback. Thank you for using Flipboard.

By Tiffany J. Kim on Friday, November 21, 2014 - 18:43

The design has definitely been altered. When I first downloaded the update, I had a lot of trouble, so much so that I mistakenly believed the update to be completely broken. However, deleting the app and re-installing it seems to have remedied my problems.
I'm using an IPhone 5S so the description of the layout will be using this device's screen layout.
The design has changed so that now there is a menu of tabs across the bottom of the screen (going from left to right) labeled Cover Stories, Following, Search, Notifications, and Profile. You need to double tap the tab to select it. VO will let you know that it's been selected. When you are in the Profile tab, there will be three unlabeled buttons.
The one at the far left near the top of the screen should be Find People to Follow. The one on the right, near the top of the screen should be Settings. The third, which is in the center of the screen, just a tad lower down from the others should be labeled Edit Profile.
When you flip through sections with the three finger swipe up or down, you'll now need to make sure that you aren't on the menu bar. Otherwise, you'll encounter the infamous VO thunk and not accomplish your goal.
To switch to different sections (besides Cover Stories), you'll need to enter the Following tab and double tap on the section you want to read.
When in an article, I find it easiest to find the Back button and swiping right with a finger from there to get to the others such as Like, Comments, and so on. All of those are properly labeled.
To follow more topics, you can go to the Search screen and type something in or look at the topics they suggest. Knowing that you're actually subscribed to a topic is much clearer as it will say something like Following Healthy Eating.
The easiest way I have found to unfollow a topic is to go to the Following tab, find the topic, double tap on it, then select the button that states something like Following Healthy Eating. You will then be asked if you really want to Unfollow Healthy Eating. Alternatively, you can double tap and hold on a topic (which makes it draggable but VO doesn't tell you this, nor does it actually tell you where you're moving the topic in relation to everything else on the screen). You will then be able to swipe left to a button labeled Close X Small, which when double tapped, will allow you to Unfollow the topic. There will be a confirmation dialogue box so you won't accidentally Unfollow a topic you're actually interested in.
This became one of my favorite news apps and I was quite disappointed when I thought it had been broken, so I am glad I gave it another look and hope this hastily put-together overview helped.