FT redesigns web app offering 'live' version and 'morning edition'

The Financial Times now offers two options to subscribers who use the news site's web app for iPad: a live version that updates throughout the day and a 'morning edition' with content from the printed newspaper.

Readers can switch between the live and finishable editions of the app.

The morning edition is designed "for those readers who said they wanted to know what was in the newspaper that day", Robert Shrimsley, editor of FT.com explains in an announcement post on the FT. Some readers said they "wanted the newspaper experience but on their tablets", he adds in a video.


The morning edition

This is the "first major redesign" of the web app since it was launched two years ago. The FT created a web app in June 2011 and pulled its apps from Apple's App Store giving the news outlet access to subscriber data and bypassing the 30 per cent levy charged by Apple.

In the post Shrimsley adds that the redesigned app is "much closer to our vision of a dynamic but complete read comprising all the best journalism you expect from the FT".

In the video he says that "the aim in our new look was to make it a more immersive experience for readers, something that pulls them in more, makes you want to read more, and explore the app a lot more".

The new version offers easier swipe functionality and articles now include slideshows and videos.


The live version

The FT has also launched a feature in the app called the MyFT hub. "This is a personalised hub containing all the information relevant to you; your saved articles, your portfolio; a list of what you have most recently read and recommendations based on what you have been reading," the post explains.  "You can get to it wherever you are in the app, it is always present at the bottom of the screen."

The iPad version is now live and Shrimsley adds that there are plans to upgrade the app experience for Android and other devices.

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