Apple Podcasts launches an updated News category to help listeners stay up-to-date

Apple Podcasts Covid 19 Hero (Image credit: Christine Romero-Chan / iMore)

What you need to know

Apple updated the "News" category in the Podcasts app.
This helps users find free, high-quality podcasts about important news topics happening right now.
Earlier in the month, Apple added a "COVID-19: Essential Listening" collection, and you can ask Siri to play COVID-19 podcasts from trusted sources.

Apple's Podcasts team has launched an updated "News" category that users in the U.S., Canada, U.K., and Australia are able to access. This is aimed to help Podcasts users, who often use "Browse" for recommendations, find free, high-quality podcasts about important news topics, including COVID-19, the U.S. presidential election, and more.

This isn't the first big update that Apple has done to the Podcasts' categories. Earlier in the month, Apple also launched "COVID-19: Essential Listening", which is a frequently updated collection of the best news, science, health, and culture podcasts to help people get through the current pandemic situation. Apple also made it possible to easily access podcasts about COVID-19 from trusted and reliable sources like NPR, CNN, and BBC just by asking Siri to play the latest, "COVID-19," "coronavirus," "health," news or headlines.

Apple Podcasts is currently available in 175 countries with over 1 million shows in more than 100 languages. You can get Apple Podcasts on your iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple Watch, CarPlay, Mac, Apple TV, HomePod, iTunes for Windows, and even Amazon Alexa.

For more about Apple Podcasts, don't miss our Podcasts App: The Ultimate Guide.

Christine Romero-Chan was formerly a Senior Editor for iMore. She has been writing about technology, specifically Apple, for over a decade at a variety of websites. She is currently part of the Digital Trends team, and has been using Apple’s smartphone since the original iPhone back in 2007. While her main speciality is the iPhone, she also covers Apple Watch, iPad, and Mac when needed. When she isn’t writing about Apple, Christine can often be found at Disneyland in Anaheim, California, as she is a passholder and obsessed with all things Disney, especially Star Wars. Christine also enjoys coffee, food, photography, mechanical keyboards, and spending as much time with her new daughter as possible.