In today’s day and age, it’s very difficult to keep up with the news. There’s always so much happening around you and thanks to all the smartphones, comparatively cheap internet and apps like Twitter or Periscope, news travels blazing fast from one corner to the other. All this means there’s a lot of daily clutter that’s generated, not all of which may be relevant to you. Many a times, I come across a news story that leaves me confused, as I may have missed it in the past and often can’t relate to the update. Timeline is a brilliant app that can help you in cases like this.

Timeline is an iPhone app that aims to put your news in context. It not only presents you today’s news, but also helps you understand its history. The app takes all the clutter around you and instead, presents you with short, relevant, media-rich news content that you can quickly sift through. Timeline’s editorial team crafts the stories you see in the app and they are presented to you beautifully, as a running timeline of events that happened.

The app’s main screen displays “Today’s Edition”, a list of photos and headlines for different news stories. You can bookmark these with a single tap or use the iOS 8 native share sheet to share them anywhere. Each story is presented as a timeline, with a summary of \<year>-Now at the top and then notable events and dates below it. As you scroll, a blue indicator on the timeline on the left shows you where your position is on the timeline. As you scroll further down, there’s a nifty blue button that shows up at the bottom right, tapping which condenses the entire timeline view into a ‘headlines-only’ view. So if you’d rather just read the headlines, Timeline has you covered.

You can also browse the news by categories such as World, US, Pop & Culture, Technology, Editor’s Picks, Deep Dives, Quick Reads, Timeline Today, Sciend and Environment, Music, Entertainment, Business, Health, and Sports. There’s a search bar at the top, which lets you search a keyword and view either Timelines or Cards.

You can use Timeline without an account, but signing in with your Twitter, Facebook or Email account lets you bookmark stories that you can go through later. The app also supports Notifications, so you are notified when there’s new content available.

Timeline is a super handy app to have on your iPhone. It lets you keep with with what’s happening around you without spending too much time. I’ve started browsing it during my daily commute to work and I’m sure you’ll love the app too. Timeline is available Free on the App Store.