Mobile App: How to Follow an Author

We are pleased to share that as of version 8.24.0 of the Star’s mobile app that you can now follow authors.

Following an author will allow you to connect with the stories written by authors you enjoy and discover more content written by them.

Here’s how:

Following an Author

When you open an article by an author who writes for the Star, you will see the word Follow next to their name. You may even see this for multiple authors in a single article. Tapping on this will follow the individual author, and add their stories to your Author feed.

1. Locate the word Follow next to an author’s name at the beginning of an article.
2. If you are already logged in, tap on the word Follow. You will receive a pop up confirming that you are following the author you selected.
3. If you are not logged in, you will receive a pop up informing you to be logged in before you can follow an author. You will then have the option to cancel or log in.

Follow an author directly from an article in the app.

Now that you are following an author, let’s go see articles published by them and other authors you may also choose to follow.

Your Author Feed

All the authors you are following will have their stories provided to you in a feed that is presented chronologically and can be filtered by author. This area can be found in For You, which is located in the main navigation at the bottom.

1. Go to the Home screen by tapping the back arrow at the top of an article.
2. Tap on the For You icon in the bottom navigation.
3. Tap on the word Author from the choices at the top.

You will notice that the feed is combined with all the authors you are following, but each story includes the name of the author first so you can scan for content published by a specific name, or you can filter to see all content from one author.

See stories from all the authors you follow in For You.

Filtering Authors

When you are following many authors, it’s important that you are able to seek out content written by a single name, or even a group of names you want to see stories from; you can do this using the filtering feature.

1. From the Author tab in For You, select the filter on the right-hand side
2. To select authors to include in your feed, select the check box next to their name.
3. To remove authors from your feed, select the box to remove the check from beside their name.
4. You can also include all authors in your feed by selecting Select All from the top of the filter list.

The stories in your author feed will now be updated to only include stories from the authors you have selected.

Filter your author feed by names you want to see.

Unfollowing an Author

If you wish to remove an author from the list of who you are following, there are two ways to accomplish this:

1. Go to an article written by the author you wish to unfollow. Select Unfollow from beside their name. You will be informed through a pop up that you are no longer following that author.
2. Go to the Author tab in For You. On the top right of the screen select Manage. This screen will list the names of all the authors your are following. Select Unfollow beside the name of the author you wish to remove.

Unfollow an author from the Manage screen or directly from an article.

There’s more to come, but if you would like to share your experience with this feature or have questions, feel free to reach out to us by emailing mobile-feedback@thestar.ca

The Toronto Star app is available for smart phones and tablets in the Apple, Google and Huawei stores today.