The New Digg App is Just Another App

With all the excitement surrounding the first official iPhone app for Digg, you would be fooled into thinking this was going to revolutionise the app world. I am sorry to report that this is a good app but does not raise the bar on what an app can do.

The free download app is quick to install and easy to set up. The standard content channels are immediately available, allowing  you to switch views quickly to see each channel. Just to read content is free, so you don’t need a Digg account just to enjoy good content. However, if you wish to Digg the articles you need the account, just like on the website.

A simple log-in connects the phone to my Digg account in seconds plus I can connect to Twitter and Facebook here for easy sharing. I am then free to Digg the articles on any category, choosing from top stories, recent stories and upcoming stories.

Any story can be immediately Dugg or opened for an initial iPhone preview which offers a nice overview of each article. As you would expect the Digg buttons are never too far away and the handy share function offers me the ability to email, tweet or post to Facebook any story.  The save story feature is a neat little trick enabling me to bank stories I like even if I don’t Digg or share them.

The biggest problem with the app is that we are still reviewing ‘all’ stories so if I click through to a site, there is a chance it is not optimised for mobile screens which over time may start to get annoying and reduce the amount of deep reading I undertake on the ‘phone.

The interface is nice and clean, easy to use and it will be nice to have Digg in my pocket. But to be honest, this is Digg and I was expecting a lot more. There are no labs  – not even an app lab which would be cool. So it is a good app and good to have,  but it will need to work hard to keep my interest.