rbb24: The news app for Berlin and Brandenburg
rbb24 is the high-reach news app of Rundfunk Berlin-Brandenburg. Our team has been looking after the app since 2017 and most recently undertook a fully comprehensive relaunch. After an intensive consulting and conception phase, a new UX and UI design was developed and implemented with React Native as the development framework. With an App Store rating of 4.6, rbb24 is now one of the leading German news apps.
The task
rbb24 is the leading news brand of the public broadcaster Berlin Brandenburg (RBB), which operates a large number of radio and TV stations. In order to unite all news formats under the umbrella brand rbb24, the app was to be extensively revised. Although it was not originally developed by our team, we have been maintaining the app for several years. However, the existing app was at the end of its life cycle, as it was based on outdated technologies and frameworks, which made maintenance and updating difficult.
For this reason, a comprehensive relaunch was to be carried out, which would raise the app to a new level both in terms of user experience and technology.
The functions at a glance
Newsfeed
Once users have opened rbb24 on their mobile devices, they can scroll through the latest news. Tapping on an article opens the full view of the content. A progress bar shows the reading progress.
Extensive audio and video functions
An important core feature of the app is the retrieval of multimedia reports. rbb24 allows the playback of audio and video reports in teaser elements as well as full screen and in picture-in-picture format.
Accessibility
As a public organisation, the rbb24 app must meet high accessibility requirements. This includes size-adjustable fonts, tested text contrasts and voice over functionalities.
Tablet Layout
In view of the increasing use of tablets by rbb24 users, a dedicated tablet design was developed for the new rbb24 app, which was not available in the previous version.
Push Notifications
News apps would be unthinkable without it. In order to stay up to date on the events of the region, users can receive push notifications. Different formats and topics can be selected in the settings.
Dark Mode
When creating the design, a dark mode was taken into account, which reduces eye strain in apps and is also perceived by many users as aesthetically pleasing and modern.
Home Screen Widget
The latest news can be read directly on the smartphone's home screen via a home screen widget.
Radio Player
All RBB radio stations can be played via the app. Of course, this is also possible when the app is in the background.
Our solution
Taking into account the client's corporate identity, we have a design system that takes into account the different device features and ensures a modern look and feel. Parts of the system could already be used in other RBB products.
Compared to web platforms, the two most important mobile operating systems, iOS and Android, are rapidly developed further by their operators. Mobile apps therefore usually have shorter life cycles than classic websites and therefore require somewhat more maintenance.
As a development framework, our decision fell on React Native.
With this in mind, we decided to realise the mobile app as a cross-platform application. The advantage of this approach is that the complexity of the development is reduced and one can react faster to bug fixes and changes, especially afterwards. As a news app for a public broadcaster, future viability was a decisive criterion.
Since React Native has a high degree of flexibility and a low barrier to native development, there was very little risk in terms of the feasibility of new requirements.
rbb24 app in the stores
Get an impression yourself and download the app from the respective store.
The result
With a rating of 4.6 stars and over 10,000 reviews, rbb24 has become one of the most important news apps in Germany and is regularly in the top 20 of the news category in the app stores.
Even after the launch, we work closely with the online coordination of the RBB to deal with user requests and to constantly improve the app.
We are looking forward to your project!
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