Why Quartz's news app is so much bigger than news

Tom Popomaronis is the founder and CEO of OpiaTalk. Have you tried the Quartz News app, yet? Imagine a text conversation with a bot that sends you a news topic. You're then presented with two choices: Either tap a string of relevant (and surprisingly entertaining) emojis, which is like pressing "learn more," or tap an "anything else?" button to have another topic served: If you opt for the emojis, the app sends 1-3 follow-on texts that provide a high-level summary of the story and link to the article. If you're lucky, you'll even see a pertinent and entertaining gif in the mix for added value. When it comes to news apps in general, I like to scroll through a daily aggregator feed I've personalized to my liking; I usually don't want someone else telling me which news stories to pay attention to -- especially not one at a time.