Apple wants a slice of the burgeoning online cooking business.
The tech giant is taking another step to turn its Apple News+ subscription service into a full-service publishing app, launching a new food section that will include tens of thousands of recipes, as well as restaurant reviews, stories about healthy eating and kitchen essentials, and more.
The new section, called Apple News+ Food, will launch with iOS 18.4 and iPadOS 18.4 in April, and includes recipes, stories and content from publishers that include Allrecipes, Bon Appétit, Food & Wine, Good Food, and Serious Eats. Some select content and recipes will also be available to Apple News users who don’t subscribe to News+.
Almost everyone has had the experience of propping up their phone while cooking and trying to follow a recipe, so Apple designed recipe functionality that allows for users to search by ingredient, by length of time to complete the meal, simplicity, type of cuisine, and a slew of other options.
When a user selects a recipe, they can check off which ingredients they have, and which they need. When they are ready to cook, the app has a cook mode that makes the recipe full screen and keeps it brightly lit, letting users follow the recipe without having to unlock their phone. Recipes can also be saved for later or for offline.
Still, it’s hard not to look at the new food section without drawing comparisons to The New York Times, which has had success bundling its robust library of recipes within its larger subscription bundle.
While some Times brands like The Wirecutter and The Athletic are in Apple News+, the core Times reporting and recipes are not.
Apple has taken steps in recent years to add functionality to News+ that brings it closer to the Times offering, launching a sports section (and later a dedicated sports app), as well as crossword puzzles and other games similar to what the Times has with its Games offering.