Artifact: Feed Your Curiosity Reviews

by OwlHuntr

I like the premise of Artifact. Personalized news is possible and and worth exploring in this day. However, the news that I get comes from just about the same sources I check on anyway like the Guardian and The Independent. There’s not really like local news; Gothamist at best for the NY region.

My biggest issue is that the web viewer this app uses to view the page is configured to not use my ad blocking extensions. This means that each article I try to view is an unimaginable shifting sea of ads. There are sticky banners on the bottom, the top, ads sliding in from the side after each minuscule crumb of text, and some taking over the screen entirely to advertise the latest Saudi construction project.

On the page itself, I have to be very careful where I touch to scroll the page because I might accidentally graze an ad and get dragged through a sea of tracking websites before I realize what’s going on. This is dangerous, not just getting tagged by these networks but also potentially being exposed to malware delivered through ad networks.

This is a great headache and ultimately makes me not want to interact with any notifications this app pushes to me, wasting whatever calibration effort I put in.

by Robotkarateman

The whole experience starts with an amazingly myopic choice of "interests" of which you are forced to choose TEN and only gets more uninteresting from there. Topics you might actually be interested in, such as the performing arts, photography, even music are left out of the interest list entirely to make room for broad, bland topics like "Tech companies" and "Kitchen products" or my favorite, "Apps". And if the available topics leaves a bit to be desired, the lackluster sources on offer is even worse. Articles come exclusively from corporate news organizations. No local news. No special interest topics. Global Politics, Major Stories, Celebrity Gossip - that's pretty all you're going to get. Unless of course like overly broad coverage of sports or Buzzfeed listicles. This things supposed to compete with Google News? Hardly. Why can't anyone do what Zite accomplished 10 years ago - provide articles I'm interested in from a broad range of sources in a decent format? I'll stick to using InoReader for now. I may have to manually add my photography articles there, but at least I can see them.

by Spark Kent

If you start with turds, no amount of polishing–or VC funding paired with mainstream media mythologizing–will create jewels. Artifact is a desperate attempt–by a group of tragically dejected culture terrorists–to contort technology into a force that shapes humans into ideal consumers. And for what? Garbage media organizations that are floundering to find a way to monetize their garbage content? Log on, select your "interests" from a reductive set of categories for careless consumers, and start generating revenue for a cadre of abusive nerds who believe they are entitled to everything. But what these VC varsity stars don't realize: people who are rooted in human culture–and not capitalism–are just gonna see this scam for what it is. This is some naked fools trying to scam everyone into telling them how good their outfits look.

by Nerdy Pete

Why is there a streak tracking feature? Is staying connected to the news something people have trouble with? I mean, beyond being too connected to it? I like the idea of comments for each news article a LOT but why do you need my phone number to create a profile? Or even just to up or down vote a comment? And what’s with up and downvoting anyway? Why are you mimicking Reddit? Why not just hearts or come up with something else or maybe don’t make it “about the likes” at all? But the request for my phone number is justified as a 2FA measure but why not allow my email address to be an option? I’m deleting Artifact because seeing the comments and not being able to partake is too FOMO for me and I’d probably give in and give you my phone number. Not going to do that. I was excited about Artifact until I discovered it required so much of me. If this is supposed to be an alternative to Google News then maybe don’t ask me to hand over my private info to you? Heading back to Google News now.

by Gaspatchosoup

I’m looking for something to replace the reader I use now. I will not name it as I don’t want to have more people check it out. Came to this thinking I could replace it but this is not going to work. First thing they want you to add 10 things your interested in. There were not 10 I was but I still had to select stuff that I did not want to. Second unlike the reader I use this just grabs a bunch of random crap from all these different places some I don’t like and the reason I don’t follow them in my other reader. Third I use an adblocker as sites have become too much with all the pop ups and ads at the bottom of the screens or the video that plays at the top that follows you when you scroll down. The other reader I use when I go to that sites story to read it the adblocker works so I am able to read the story I want to read. Artifact does not so I’m fighting all these ads trying to read the story i want to read.

by AlienBlueHoe

You ruined a great concept with the comments feature. Not every app needs to have social networking aspects. If I wanted Twitter, I'd get Twitter. I'm sure the reason many people got excited for this app was being able to browse the news they like, distraction-free. You just took that away. Maybe work on making Artifact stable and usable first, rather than adding unnecessary features without asking your users (that you gather data from) first? At the very least, you should add the option to turn the comments off.

A month later, I gave this app another try. It's safe to say it has turned into an echo-chamber like Twitter and Reddit. I hope the team considers making comments an option. Just let us disable it and only read the news. It doesn't help that at every turn, Artifact wants to shove the user comments (who are always the same people striving for attention) down our throats.

by Mkv007

I was a big advocate of this app after I first started using it, I felt the content was very relevant to me, maybe because early users skewed tech/startup? Anyway as more news sources are added this just gets worse & becomes every other news app that promises a curated feed. I have only a few categories of things I want to see for news but yet I see tons of sports & pop culture content I never asked for. I have every sports word blocked but unfortunately it only blocks things if the article title contains that word. I go through & block 10 sports sources & then 10 more new ones for different sports teams are in my feed when refreshing.

I realize as much time as I spend blocking news sources attempting to have a feed I actually want like when I first started using Artifact , it’s easier to just go back to using an rss reader app with all the sources curated by me.

Please don’t allow Artifact to just become every other terrible news app feeding irrelevant content to everyone.

by Solistica

AI filtered news feed with presumably no bias sure does keep cramming left wing garbage down my feed even after attempting to continue to keep it as neutral as possible.

Even worse than the news articles that I see are the atrocious takes from left wing standing comments. So much just blatant hate coming from people complaining about how people on the right hate more than they do it’s just nauseating. Hard to believe these people actually exist and manage actual lives and integrate with real society. Artifact provides them a breeding ground like truth social does for the hate from the right.

Nothing will ever change in our country until the hate subsides and love and respect prevails. Simple as that.

by Benjamin Rosati

Despite the marketing, this isn’t a community discussion forum or social platform, it’s just an aggregation site/app that pulls posts from boomer media outlets. Avoid the noise, or don’t, you can spend your time however you wish.

by I Igbfbapwbt

this app has been my go to news app for months - it has good relevance, good recommendations, good topic coverage, and several actually unique news reader features (AI clickbait replacement for titles, dark mode in article content).

Unfortunately the company behind this app doesn't seem interested in making a good news reader app anymore, which is a huge disappointment. Artifact gets worse with every update, adding new social media type junk. It's made very apparent because they push everything in your face whether or not you are interested.

If you download Artifact today, you won't find the impressive news reader I found a few months back -- you will find a sad wannabe social media app with polls, text posts, and various other user generated (read: chatgpt generated) garbage that they attempt to shove in your face all over Artifact , inconveniencing every news browsing session further. The experience is profoundly cheapened by these changes and there is no way to hide or disable any of it.

For now I continue to bash my head against the wall while using Artifact for news, because it's still the best way to mitigate clickbait and it's still the only app that consistently applies dark mode to articles. But every new "feature" they add has me spending more time looking for an alternative.

by Ttd817

I’m going to delete Artifact. I used to like it. However, once they introduced comments, I was a bit skeptical. Now, I’m see 2-3 comments highlighted under some articles. I don’t give a crap about these useless comments. Even Reddit doesn’t do something as dumb as this. Going back to Flipboard. Stop trying to make newsfeed sociable. Just stop it.

Also, they have like 20 publishers. I’m seeing multiple articles from the same publishers constantly. I read one Vogue article and now I see like 5-6 of them on my feed constantly. How about get better at suggesting other publishers similar to Vogue?!?

The new summarize feature is kinda pointless. Most articles already do their own summary at the beginning of them.

by Eastindyguy

I really want to like Artifact, it has helped me mostly leave Twitter and all the drama on that platform. The list of sources is moderate, and will hopefully continue to expand in the future, but there is a good variety as is.

The first issue I have with it are it is a serious battery hog. Even on a good Wi-Fi signal, just scrolling through the new stories eats up battery. Actually going in and reading the articles probably doubles the battery drain.

The second issue pertains to reading articles (on top of the battery drain). When going into an article it can sometimes take well over 30-seconds or longer for the content to appear, if it ever does.

by Tlcastle1

So. Many. Ads. Then some more ads. With an advertisement thrown in for variety. Frequently ruins the reading experience. No hope of improvement as Systrom (creator, if instagram creation fame) has publicly professed his love of the ad based revenue model. If it weren’t for the absolutely aesthetically hideous and functionally frustrating ads it would be a home run 5 star app.

Update: installed a system wide ad blocker that made the experience MUCH BETTER (but sadly meant I was stealing the service since they offer no other way to support them. Just deleted Artifact as it is quickly morphing into yet another junk filled social app with posts and surveys and comments and whatever they dilute the newsfeed experience with next…

by Jenderle7

Nothing new here. It’s a slightly better Apple News with the same problems (content and algorithms) My main issue, like Apple News, is old news. I have no desire to see week or month old stories. Would love to see an option to choose. Though Artifact already struggles to add content so I imagine limiting this would make Artifact almost useless. And please get rid of the completely unnecessary ‘Add Contacts’ card. Stop trying to force users into this. Bugs/issues I’ve come across: - when loading specific categories that are not ‘For You’, Artifact struggles to find/load content (infinite spinning wheel) - feeds (‘For You’ tab excluded) constantly push me back to the top in the middle of scrolling through content. - lengthy load times

by Adamzv

I was so excited when Artifact first came out, it was a new aggregator that would learn off my habits and what I liked. Something that has become increasingly infuriating with Artifact is that anytime you open it and you have audio in the background, it will pause that audio it will stop that audio, this happens over and over even if you go back and start the audio again you’re guaranteed to have to pick between listening to something in the background while reading, or just finding a totally different app because this app won’t let you do it. I’ve submitted so much feedback to the developers and nothing comes from it. I don’t think they actually listen to their users, but rather just want to use our data to market their ads.

by AppUser2500

For reading news and articles, it’s solid. Only problem being dark mode takes awhile to kick after tapping on a headline and it seems to come from the ads being loaded on the articles website. It’s annoying. I shouldn’t have to tap an article link, close my eyes from the blinding white background of most sites use, wait for their ads to load, then open them back up when this app’s dark mode kicks in.
Also, the “challenges” or “badges” or whatever they’re called are childish.
I’m a grown adult, I don’t need article giving me what amounts to a gold star for reading the news.
And the this app devs need to allow for comments of readers within their app (under the link) to be turned off. I know this app is trying to make news social, but there’s a bunch of people who could care less what other this app users think of a link (this is especially true of political links to articles). If people don’t want to use a function of your app, allow ‘ em to turn it off.

by Helmsmith

The problem with a social media center around news contact is that most news content is complete garbage. I love the addition of comments and voting them up or down. But we need this kind of control on the actual articles too. We need ways to reward actually great writing and downvote or flag clickbait. Right now it’s just like any other news app in that once the article gets your click, they win (get paid). Let’s have a way to let others know that “hey! this article is junk.“ or “Worthy read!” Also, I would love to default to reader mode, since most article pages are almost impossible to read based on their poor user experience.

Love the idea but needs more to reinvent the news space!

by Adiamonte

Most of the decent articles are behind publisher paywalls. You can allegedly “import” your current subscriptions but I’ve had little luck with my WaPo sub. My feed does not really feel curated. In spite of identifying my interests when prompted to, a big chunk of me feed is made up of clickbait entertainment and life-hack articles which link directly to their websites complete with invasive and obnoxious ads.

I see what they’re trying to do and I’m all for it, but I think you’ll get a much better experience by just opening the Apple News app… without making ANOTHER account. You won’t get to leave comments, but who really cares?

by Ryok The Vamp

I’ve tried many apps to read news and this one is really interesting compared to the ones I’ve tried. It presents an excellent news reading experience and it keeps the reader really hooked Thanks to the use of AI.
Artifact also hosts a social tab similar to X formally Twitter that enables users to share their own posts as well as follow other users on the platform.
However, Artifact has some accessibility issues that needs to be fixed specially regarding Artifact ’s usability with voiceover users. Many buttons aren’t labeled. And there’s no way for a voiceover user to access images within posts in Artifact .

by QuirkyCarter

I love the way it aggregates overall and also appreciate its summary feature. And I’m glad I can use Artifact without an account because otherwise I would have deleted it right away.

Need to add a way to sort the search results (at very least sort by most recent, ideally giving options like past day, week, and year.) Without this, it’s a pretty useless feature to me.

Additional options for interests would also help… I feel like there’s a lot of missing categories. Examples: US news (not just U.S. politics), women’s health, men’s health (you have both women and men’s style, but I don’t care at all about fashion), and LGBT+ would make sense.

Last, please add some documentation on how to use Artifact . Explaining it once during setup isn’t enough. It might seem simple, minimal, etc to you, but your average user may not be as savvy. Took me a while to try the icon for summarizing an article and that was only after finding no info in Artifact or online. I decided to just try it, but it would have been much easier to just have some basic info about how to use Artifact .

by Aeteriss

I rarely, if ever, leave reviews for apps unless I really hate them, or, in this case, absolutely love them. this app is probably one of the best apps I’ve ever used. The AI generated feed is terrific and recommends really interesting articles that are relevant to me. I also LOVE the AI summary feature. Detailed yet concise summaries are available for every article at the tap of a button and make reading articles really easy and quick if you’re in a pinch. The developers continue to release new features every week or so, all of which are completely bug free (as far as I can tell). Artifact is just a joy to use and if you wish you spent more time reading the news, this app is for you.

by Radioactivesock

This has become my primary news reader, replacing Twitter and Apple News. So far I am really liking this app. The AI feed seems to be working really well, showing me articles that align with my interests as well as things I wouldn’t typically see. While I would like the ability to follow specific publications or websites I don’t mind that limitation as the AI feed works well and it broadens what you would normally read. I still find myself searching for particular websites that I frequent but luckily it’s really easy to do that. I also really like that it just links to the actual website as opposed to a custom format like Apple News. Some other really clever features include being able to tell it witch publications you pay for so it will prioritize those in the feed. Also I really like that once you hit the limit for free articles it will snooze the publication or website so you won’t keep hitting paywalls, really well done! I’m really excited to see what they have in store for future development, I’m definitely hooked.

by Jillian NYC

This is the first news app since Zite that I really like (IYKYK). I have only been using for a couple of days, but so far, very intuitive and lots of articles I wouldn’t have seen elsewhere (even though publishers are similar) I have used the summary a couple of times as well, and it is good for getting a quick synopsis. I don’t like that I have to give a phone # in order to sync with tablet. But I do like that I can get personalized feed (for each mobile device) without having to give any private info.
I also wish I was able to suggest my own topics for it, maybe in the future?

by Meriannna

I love this app so far. I’ve been using it a few weeks. The clean layout and ability to curate your own feed has me hooked. It’s similar to an RSS feed - in that you pick what shows up, but with less hassle and from a preset source list. this app’s algorithm is great at curating an interesting feed to explore - full of your own interests, you’re free to weed anything you dislike right out. Compare to Stumbleupon, but with newly published content being prioritized.

I would love to be able to import custom sources in the future, and add more tailored interest categories for my feed. Currently, it’s mostly mainstream media and broad topics. Hoping that this app will help the explore aspect of Artifact in the future.

by Kp0205

I tried to move away from Twitter and instagram to make a better use of my time and this app filled it perfectly. However, just read that they are shutting down due to lower than expected user bases and the CEO doesn't see it viable with the "lackluster" growth they have seen. Shutting down an app a year into its a existence is quite a bold move and I wish it was more disruptive to the social media/new feeder category than previously thought. Alas, we will never find out when it could have achieved that since the potential was clearly there.

by Kennyatta R.

I love the idea of having a central place to just learn, read, and be informed without having to worry about joining the “conversation” around the topics. The concept is dope, the diversity of publications is dope too. An area to improve however is the experience once the user chooses an article to read. I know that’s a challenge, but with a great UX I’m Artifact , clicking on an article and then being hit with a terrible UX does negatively impact the experience. What could be dope is having a toggle feature to keep read mode on or off so that there can be more consistency in the experience from article to article.

by Moeayyadbtah

I’m young (22) and I grew up with twitter. But the constate rage-bait and inescapable political content was having a serious effect on my mental health. Twitter algo doesn’t care if you tell it not to show you political content- your gonna see it.

Artifact saved me some years of my life twitter was taking away. I don’t tweet anymore and I think critics of Artifact don’t realize the social element of twitter is just a bunch of nobodies trying to get a voice, so they spark “revolutions” in order to get some clicks. Literally every time I opened twitter things like WW3/MAGA/SLEEPYJOE were trending. Drove me crazy.

I really like Artifact. I do think a social element would help keep users on it long term, and the devs know that -they invented the clout revolution. As a marketer and dev myself I love Artifact. I love it so much. Way more than I thought I would. If there was a jobs sections on the site I would’ve applied I love it that much.

by Dtbrouillette

This is my all time favorite news app because they focus on what I like personally and I didn’t have to choose between different categories. The fact they are stopping Artifact makes me sad because like I said in my title this is by far the best news app ever. I don’t know what I will do without it. It makes me excited to read the news when I use it because it makes it so specific to what I am interest in and no other news app can say that. I hope with all of the good reviews they change their mind because I really don’t want to loose Artifact .

by Rlhyde05

Update: thank goodness this was a temporary oversight. The 1.5.1 beta brings this back. The UI is changed a little, but everything works as it should.

Original: I’ve reverted back to the TestFlight version of Artifact because the debut of 1.5 took away the ‘…’ context menu that held the reader view option, as well as other important actions. Bring that back and I’d definitely call this a 5 star app. It offers a great experience, but some websites are so poorly optimized for the small screen that reader view is the only way to read their content.

by Ruhiuk

The recommendations are appropriately and weirdly topical, all the brand stuff is sick. I just wish I could see what my invited friends are reading a la nuzzle

by Melendezab

Love, Love, Love Artifact. I used to use an app that rhymed with quitter for my news scrolling and this is so much better. It removes a lot of the in your face nonsense from the peanut gallery you see on social media sites and just gives you access to the information straight from the source. I just hope the addition of comments doesn’t devolve the experience once more people learn about Artifact, or the comment section gets as restrictive as MSN. It’s gonna be a tough balance as Artifact grows. But where they’re at now is great.

by Theshmob

I saw a few headlines saying that this is the TikTok for news articles and it’s really spot on. I’m literally attracted to every single article that shows up in my for you page. I want to read them all.

One enhancement I think would be necessary would be to make it a lot easier to enable reader mode. Even better, there should be a setting to enable it by default. It’ll be a lot easier to switch from Apple News if this can be improved!

by Eunuch Mastersons

Artifact is slowly replacing Google News as my newsfeed app. There are just a few things that Google News does better right now: adding and blocking topics, local stories, and generally tailoring the feed to the user. I prefer this app’s clean interface, the inclusion of a reader mode (huge!), and the neat AI tools they’ve added. I could do without the social aspects (there are about 12 people who comment on the articles, and usually they have nothing interesting to add), but I understand that it drives up engagement. I think getting rid of the emoji reactions and replacing them with the option to “like” was the right move as it keeps things positive and allows the highest quality articles to rise to the top. Great work overall, it should be interesting to see how Artifact ends up making money.