Umano News Reader App Launches For Google Android

The Umano news app offers readers a curated selection of articles which are read by voice actors. The app, which launched a few months ago for iPhone users, is available for Google Android smartphones.

The app showed up fairly late in the release process considering it was designed by former Googler Ian Mendiola and his team at SoThree. The developers rushed to complete their Google Android build after they realized that many people at their release event were using Android-based smartphones.

Just like its iPhone counterpart, approximately 20 articles are chosen each day by the Umano team and then read by real voice actors to give each article a natural feel that surpasses robotic counterparts.

The Umano Android app is divided into six categories: Entertaining, Must Know, Geeky, Entrepreneurial, Inspirational, and Scientific

Umano does not have partnership deals with any publishers, but Mendiola says that, “if content owners would like their content taken down, we’re happy to work with them.”

Umano also comes equipped with several platform-specific features including Google+ integration and rich notifications. The app also features easy playback controls that are included in app notification popups.

The Android app does not yet include the playlist and offline download features found on the iPhone version of the news reader.

Eventually, the Umano team hopes to add personalization features to the Umano app, which will allow developers to choose user specific playlists for later use.

Will you take advantage of the Umano news reader app when you’re driving to work or just driving around town?