How to Customize Your Apple News Feed in iOS 18

Apple News in iOS 18 offers a comprehensive suite of personalization tools designed to put users in total control of their daily briefing. By managing followed channels, training the recommendation algorithm, leveraging the dedicated Sports hub, and adjusting system-level feed restrictions, you can curate the Today feed to display only the stories, topics, and publications that matter most to you.

Following and Unfollowing Channels and Topics

The foundation of a personalized feed begins in the Following tab. Users can search for specific outlets, magazines, and broad topics (such as Technology, Politics, or Cooking) and tap the heart icon to add them to their favorites. Content from followed sources receives priority placement across your Today feed. To unfollow or remove a topic, simply navigate back to the Following tab, tap "Edit" at the top right, and remove the unwanted channels.

Fine-Tuning Recommendations with Suggest More or Suggest Less

Every story in the feed allows for immediate feedback to train Apple's on-device machine learning:

  • Suggest More: Tapping the ellipsis (...) or action menu on a story and selecting "Suggest More" tells Apple News to display similar topics and content from that specific publisher more frequently.
  • Suggest Less: Selecting "Suggest Less" immediately demotes the topic and publisher, reducing their visibility across your feed.
  • Block Channel: If you want to eliminate a specific publisher entirely, choose "Block Channel" from the story options. Blocked channels will no longer appear in your Today feed or topic groups.

Managing the "My Sports" Hub

iOS 18 continues deep integration with Apple's "My Sports" feature. Users can follow specific leagues, teams, and athletes directly from the Sports tab or Following menu. Customizing this area alters your main feed by delivering real-time scores, team-specific highlights, upcoming schedules, and curated articles directly into a dedicated Today feed module.

Restricting Stories to Followed Channels Only

For users who want zero algorithmic recommendations from unfamiliar publishers, iOS 18 includes a strict privacy and curation toggle:

  1. Open the device Settings app.
  2. Scroll down and tap News.
  3. Toggle on Restrict Stories in Today.

Enabling this setting removes general recommendations, forcing the Today feed to only display stories published by channels you explicitly follow.

Customizing Newsletters and Breaking News Notifications

Feed customization extends to alerts and email digests. Inside the Following tab, scrolling down to the "Manage" section reveals notification preferences. Users can toggle breaking news alerts per publication, disable marketing emails, and subscribe to tailored daily or weekly email digests curated based on their active interests.