iOS 12 Apple news app hide sidebar landscape mode

There is no way, currently, to hide the News feed channel side panel/column, in the new Apple News app, in the new iOS 12.

Also, the News channel side panel/column feature of the Apple News app may not be a bug, but works similarly to how the Apple iOS Mail app panels work with two panels always visible when using iOS/Apple Mail app in iPad landscape orientation.

So, this may not be an Apple News design flaw, per se, but an Apple News feature design change/enhancement.

The News channels used to be a second option in the lower screen menu that you had to tap and then tap to choose your news feeds, then return to the main page in the older version of the Apple News app.

Apple made the news channel panel/column always on and available in landscape viewing mode to more easily access and update those news feed channels on the fly, now.

So, once again, this may not be a bug in the Apple News app, at all, but a feature enhancement.

If you do not like this new feature the way it is, you can complain/send feedback to Apple.

The only way to get Apple to really listen to you, DIRECTLY, is to use their feedback portion of their website.

iPad Feedback

http://www.apple.com/feedback/ipad.html

Currently, there are ONLY a few hundred users complaining about this Apple News feature/issue.

In order for Apple to affect a change to their News app, there needs to be a WHOLE LOT MORE users making a complaint and sending feedback to Apple about this, like in the thousands, and more.

So, if you want Apple to fix this, perceived, error/oversight/omission/bug, you must tap and post your feedback to Apple per the supplied link.

Good Luck!

This sidebar is stupid and makes it hard to read. The only reason I can see that Apple would engineer something like this is to force people to upgrade to larger iPads.

Write to Apple directly (since they don’t seem to pay attention to the Community discussions).

Arrgghhh - this is FRUSTRATING!

Bob

See my post above.

Apple isn't here.

These are user to user Apple product support communities.

Your pleas aren’t being heard by Apple here.

Read my post above and if you want to be heard by Apple, post feedback per the feedback link provided in my above post.

Apple support told me this isn’t a bug, but a design choice. Rather than waste time complaining here to others, everyone needs to complain to Apple developers. Go to www.apple.co/feedback. Everyone please go there, fill out the form. Stop posting here where it does no good.

I suppose one option is simply delete the News App and download one of the many others that offer very similar or even superior content with the user in mind.

Mayhap it’s simply Apple’s way of slowly encouraging a all portrait mode..or perhaps a simple bone headed move for which the company is more than occasionally guilty.

For whatever reason I tend to agree with a recent user who suggested that complaining on these community forums is akin to using Steven Colbert’s ‘Screaming into the Void’ app...in that nobody from Apple actually reads any of these comments..or cares.

Might I suggest the AP app, Flipboard, News 360, USA Today, Google News...all of which are free...all of which offer similar content..and all of which allow you to use the entire..not just two thirds..of your IPad landscape screen.

To All.

A fix is in the works.

iOS 12.1.1 developer beta 2 has a fix for this issue.

Once iOS 12.1.1 is released in its final form, the push/pull of the horizontal side bar in the Apple News app will be fixed/restored.

No way to know when Apple will release 12.1.1, but it shouldn't be long.

Submitting feedback on this back to Apple worked, folks.

Close to 1000 users submitted feedback. Apple listened.

No one who posted here should not have too wait too much longer for the fix.

Good Work everyone!

Fantastic news Whoo hoo, thanks for letting us know MichelPM, lol I love the irony that I'm reading this news an hour after receiving an email from Apple Communities that my post asking people to submit feedback to Apple for this problem was removed because it constitutes as a poll.

I did try several other news reader apps out there but I suppose you get used to an App, Apple news works so well, it was bordering on insanity to loose nearly a third of the news reading screen to a static menu you don't use often.

Interestingly, in a recent interview with Jonny Ive, Apple’s design guru, Mr Ive commented that a key design objective of the new iPad Pro was to completely remove any concept of “right way up” - such that the screen could be used in any orientation.

This design concept would suggest, therefore, that the screen/software and UI would behave the same whether the iPad is being used in Landscape or Portrait modes. The current iOS 12/12.1 News App would seem to be totally contrary to this design intention.

Yes, you can hide the channels list. I'm a lefty and have this nifty workaround. After opening News in landscape, slide up the Dock and drag a second app to the right third of the screen. This will switch to Split View with News using the left two-thirds of the screen, showing only news items (no channel list). The result is you can scroll the news with your left thumb.

As a bonus, I put the App Store on the right side, so it appears as a single-column list (which I like much better than the messy two-column scheme).

Many Apple News readers want to read their news on iPad full screen.

I don't get this either, as the news column never takes up the entire screen of the iPad, anyways.

Your method of reading Apple News is good, but doesn’t solve the full screen read issue with the news channels side bar being currently fixed and in the way for some Apple News readers/users, in iPad’s horizontal orientation.

No matter.

This fixed position, news channel sidebar issue is going to be fixed in the up and coming iOS 12.1.1 update.

Hopefully, coming very soon.

@MichelPM: News was indeed full-screen in landscape when it used a tabbed layout (iOS 10, and maybe 11), so that's the source of the desire. My Split View solution solved a problem for lefties like me who want to use our left thumb to scroll the news. I'm happy to know iOS 12.1.1 will fix this, although I'm disappointed because I thought my workaround was worthy of a Nobel Prize. :-)

Yes - it is an interesting workaround - however, it simply emulates the iOS12 Portrait display within the left-hand 70% of a Landscape layout - by hiding the the News left-hand pane. The “recovered“ screen real estate is simply substituted by 30% of “something else” - it doesn’t restore the wide-screen content layout that many people previously enjoyed. Further, your workaround requires multitasking features that are resource-hungry are are only fully available with newer generation devices.

The reality, for customers seeking return of the pre-iOS12 layout, is that many people want to see more readable-content within the available full-screen. You only have to compare an iOS12 and iOS11 device side-by-side, in Lanscape and Portrait modes, to see and appreciate the significantly greater amount of screen content displayed within the old Landscape layout of the News App. The old layout (that utilised a tab-bar for selection of content channels) didn’t simply reformat the same screen content between modes.

You propose a potential workaround solution that may be useful for some - and if it works for you that’s great. For those that enjoyed the Apple News App in its old format, the potential return of the previous App layout (as suggested by the iOS 12.1.1 Beta) is eagerly awaited.

We must also be mindfull that many people actually enjoy Apple’s curated News content - these are people who don’t necessarily want to seek an alternative news source. Their gripe is simply that an App that they previously loved, with content they enjoy, has been (in their eyes) changed to its significant detriment.

Nice workaround Jeffrey, no Nobel prize but anything that gets rid of the silly Channel list is at least way more useful:)

Your point of What was Apple thinking hits the nail right on the head, was this a decision choice? if so why or how on earth could anyone see this as a good idea. Still positive thing at least they listened and reverting back to what it was. I use the Apple News Daily and upgrading my iPad Pro to IOS 12 was the worst thing to do to it.

Not at this time.

Feedback - iPad - Apple

I agree 100%. Driving me nuts.