The IsraelAM Iphone App [Why we did it]
We just released the first version of the IsraelAM iphone app in the Apple app store. Since 2015 (hard to believe it’s been almost 9 years) we’ve been publishing our email newsletter to a growing list of over 13,000 subscribers that we slowly earned over the years, mostly through word of mouth and a Google ads grant for non-profits.
We always planned to keep IsraelAM as an email newsletter. As they say, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”. So why did we decide to launch an app now?
Here are a few reasons:
Younger Readers
Many younger readers are simply not using email, unless they absolutely have to. Instead, they’re texting, messaging, posting and using their phone apps to communicate and get their news and information. In the wake of Oct. 7, the ongoing war against Hamas and the spike in antisemitic rhetoric emanating from our university populations, we saw a pressing need to reach the younger generation — on their iphones.
Email Delivery
Over the years, the email hosts we all use to get our email (like gmail) have gotten much more vigilant in fighting spam. Unfortunately, non-spam emails often get caught in those filters. Once an email gets flagged as spam and thrown into your junk folder, it’s almost impossible to get it out of there unless you manually retrieve it and mark it as non spam. We get emails from readers who ask us why they haven’t received our newsletter in a while, and the answer is usually that they are receiving it — but it’s ending up in their spam or junk folder. Most people will just give up and forget about us if they don’t seem the email for a few days. And so ends our relationship :(
With the new iphone app, you’ll never have to worry about missing a newsletter issue!
Greater Reach
Being in the Apple app store gives us the opportunity to be found by some of the 650 million people who visit the store every week, world wide. That’s a lot of potential readers whom we can inform and educate about the truth of what’s happening in the Israel.
Real Time Potential
The app gives us a lot of potential options to update you about breaking news or other Israel related features in real time, through push notifications (if you give us permission) and through posting on the app.
How You Can Help
Here are a few things you can do to help us reach more readers:
- Download the app
- Rate and review
- Share with your kids, friends, co-workers
- Share on social media
A few people have asked us if we’re going to launch an Android app?
The answer is yes, we are planning to — but it’s much more difficult and time consuming to launch an app in the Google Play store than it is in the Apple app store, so it might take some time.
