NEW YORK—The NBC and Telemundo owned stations have launched revamped and redesigned mobile apps with a sleek new design, faster response times and many new features, including precipitation alerts in English and Spanish.
The app redesign follows NBCUniversal Local’s complete overhaul of its CMS and the unveiling of new online and desktop sites for users.
“Our new apps are faster, sleeker and give local news audiences the information they want, quickly,” said Lora Dennis, senior vice president of digital media, NBCUniversal Local. “I’m very proud of our team for all of their hard work to give local news watchers the mobile news experience they deserve.”
As part of the redesign, the apps have a sleek new look that makes it easier for users to get their daily dose of top or latest local news and weather forecasts and the app experience is 2x faster due to the re-architected backend system, the station group reported.
The new apps are also dark-mode compatible and include a number of customization options for alerts regarding breaking news, commuter, weather, sports and ‘watch live’ events, among others.
As part of the redesign, the news feed now lists the most important news stories on every visit and offers an improved reading experience that allows users to easily swipe left and right through articles and manage alerts.
In terms of weather, the apps have new weather forecast graphs that give users ‘at a glance’ view of their local weather in their area when they visit the app’s weather section. They also allow users to expand the radar and zoom in to see street-level weather detail.
The apps also provide more forecast information, with such details as UV index, humidity and dew point levels, amount of precipitation, snow accumulations, wind speed and direction, gusts speed, visibility and cloud coverage, water temperature, moon phases as well as sunrise/sunset times, etc.
The new apps were designed in-house by NBCUniversal Local’s product and development team.
They are available for free through iTunes and Google Play Stores for the following stations: NBC 4 New York / WNBC, Telemundo 47 / WNJU, NBC4 Southern California / KNBC, Telemundo 52 / KVEA Los Angeles, NBC 5 Chicago / WMAQ, Telemundo Chicago / WSNS, NBC 10 Philadelphia / WCAU, Telemundo 62 / WWSI, NBC 5 / KXAS, Telemundo 39 / KXTX in Dallas-Fort Worth, NBC Bay Area / KNTV, Telemundo 48 / KSTS, Telemundo Houston / KTMD, NBC4 Washington / WRC-TV, Telemundo 44 / WZDC, NBC 10 Boston / WBTS, Telemundo Nueva Inglaterra / WNEU, Telemundo Phoenix / KTAZ & Telemundo Tucson / KHRR (via the ‘Telemundo Arizona’ app), Telemundo 49 Tampa / WRMD, Telemundo Denver / KDEN, Telemundo 31 Orlando / WTMO, NBC 6 / WTVJ, Telemundo 51 Miami / WSCV, Telemundo 33 / KCSO, NBC 7 San Diego / KNSD, Telemundo 20 / KUAN, Telemundo Utah / KULX, Telemundo 60 / KVDA in San Antonio, NBC CT / WVIT, Telemundo Las Vegas / KBLR, Telemundo Fresno / KSNO, Telemundo El Paso / KTDO, Telemundo 40/ KTLM in the Rio Grande Valley, Telemundo Puerto Rico / WKAQ and NECN, New England Cable News.
