The Moment I Snapped
August 2024. Same protest. Two channels.
Channel 1: "Peaceful protesters demand justice"
Channel 2: "Violent mob disrupts capital"
I flipped between NDTV and Republic for 10 minutes. It felt like they were covering different planets.
That night I asked myself: What if there was an app that showed BOTH perspectives side by side?
1 year later, The Balanced News has 3000 users.
Here's the story.
## The Problem With News Apps
Inshorts: Great summaries, but from limited sources. You're still in a bubble.
Dailyhunt: Aggregates content, but no way to know if you're reading left or right spin.
Google News: Personalizes based on your history. Read one BJP article? Here's 50 more. Echo chamber amplified.
None of them answer the basic question: "Am I getting the full picture?"
What We Built
### Bias Detection on Every Article
Open any article. See instantly:
- Left: 20%
- Center: 15%
- Right: 65%
No hiding. No pretending to be neutral. Just transparency.
### 2 Same Story, Different Angles
Tap any news story. See how:
- Times of India covered it
- NDTV covered it
- Republic covered it
- The Hindu covered it
All on one screen. Compare yourself.
### 3 Lens Score
Our AI finds stories that mainstream media is ignoring.
High Lens Score = "This is important but nobody's covering it."
It's like having a journalist friend who reads 50 newspapers and tells you what everyone missed.
## What Users Say
"Finally I can show my dad that his favorite channel is biased" — Delhi user
"Best app for UPSC prep. I see how different papers cover same topic" — Student
"The Lens Score feature is addictive. I keep finding stories I never saw elsewhere" — Mumbai user
The Hard Parts
### 1. "You're biased against MY side!"
Left-wingers think we favor the right.
Right-wingers think we favor the left.
That probably means we're doing something right?
### 2. Scaling NLP
Processing 5,000+ articles daily with complex AI is expensive. Our Azure bill gives me nightmares.
### 3. Source Selection
Every source we add, someone complains. "Why did you include X?" "Why didn't you include Y?"
We now have a transparent methodology doc explaining our selection criteria.
## What's Next
- [ ] Fact-checking integration
- [ ] Video content analysis
- [ ] Browser extension
- [ ] API for researchers
## Try It
Stop reading news blindly. See the full picture.
🌐 thebalancednews.com
📱 iOS & Android: Search "The Balanced News" https://thebalancednews.com/download-app
## For Developers
If you're building something because existing solutions pissed you off - keep going. That anger is fuel.
The best products come from personal frustration.
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