Every news app ranks. Almost none will tell you how. Here's our formula, published — six factors, all yours to audit and tune.
score = affinity + recency + popularity + similarity − seen + surprise
Every open, like and save nudges a per-genre score. Like three tech stories and tech climbs — visibly, the same session.
Newer stories start higher and decay smoothly. The slow-news toggle flattens this curve when you'd rather depth than speed.
A modest boost for stories multiple publishers are carrying — consensus is a signal, not a command.
Stories close in topic to ones you just engaged with get a nudge — so a developing story keeps developing for you.
Stories you've scrolled past decay; duplicate clusters collapse to their best version. The feed respects your time.
A small exploration term keeps the bubble porous — something from outside your lane, every single day.
Tap "why you're seeing this" on any story and Pulse prints the actual numbers that put it where it is — every factor, signed, totalled. If you don't like the maths, the dials are right there.
No other feed will show you this, because no other feed wants you to see it.