The relaunched app remains free to download and use, but with a completely new interface and user experience, says Trinity Mirror.
Users can customise the app to select which categories they are interested in as well as selecting their Premier League football team and opting into notifications for important news. It features a much greater number of these stories than previously, all available for offline reading.
The new interface has a new intuitive menu layout for easier navigation and allows users to move through the app however they wish – be it swiping, tapping or scrolling. Behind the scenes, the app runs on a different system which means it will load faster and enables greater functionality, meaning photo galleries and videos can be included in the app as well as interactive features such as quizzes and polls.
Commercially, the new infrastructure allows more opportunities for advertisers, including new ad formats, more placements, including enabling geolocating and push notifications for local deals and offers.
Chris Russell, Product Director for Trinity Mirror, said: “Our app users typically access around 40 more pages than our website users per month so they are a hugely important audience to us. We've completely rebuilt the new app from the bottom up, focusing at every stage on how these users will want to interact with it. As a result, we think we've developed something unique in the way it adapts to users’ browsing habits, helping them access more news, more quickly and personalised to their individual interests.”
The Mirror is the first of Trinity Mirror’s titles to launch a new app but will be followed by stable mates the Manchester Evening News and Liverpool Echo in the coming weeks and then other core regional titles including the Daily Record, Irish Mirror, Wales Online and Birmingham Mail in the coming months. Additional features coming to regional versions include the option for users to localise news to their specific area. All of the apps will be continually updated with improvements and new features.
The app is currently available on iOS8 and will be added to Android later this year.
