Slightly more than a year after acquiring the digital magazine subscription service Texture, Apple is unsurprisingly shutting it down in favor of its recently announced replacement, Apple News+ — but it’s leaving former Android and Amazon Fire HD subscribers without service.
Texture’s final day will be May 28, 2019, after which subscribers are encouraged to transition to the News+ service. Apple News+ promises access to 300 magazines and newspapers, up from Texture’s 200 magazines, plus full reading rights for multiple relatives using Apple’s iCloud Family Sharing feature. A free one-month trial is offered to all News+ users, with no special privileges for former Texture subscribers.
But the newer service is compatible solely with iOS and macOS devices running the free Apple News app. By comparison, Texture’s app is available for iOS, Android, and Amazon Fire HD tablet users. Apple hasn’t said anything about plans to bring News+ to competing devices, even though it devoted a portion of its Show Time media event on Monday to extending its iTunes and Apple TV offerings to competitors’ TVs and video streaming devices — notably omitting Google’s Android platform.
Apart from potentially needing to switch devices to continue using the all-you-can-read magazine service, there’s no additional charge to move from Texture to Apple News+. Both services carry $9.99 monthly fees for unlimited iOS and macOS use, which began on Monday.
