Google News alerts: the two Google tools, and a sharper way to get them

Google News alerts usually means one of two free Google tools: a Google Alert with its source set to News, which emails you fresh search results, or a topic you follow in Google News, which fills your Following tab and can send app notifications. If you only want to hear when one specific story breaks, an AI monitor such as AyeWatch does that job better.

What people mean by Google News alerts

Google has no product with that exact name. The phrase covers two services.

Set up a Google Alert for news

1. Open Google Alerts while signed in to the account that should receive the emails.
2. Type your query. Google's search help documents quotes for an exact phrase and a minus sign to drop a word; the preview under the box shows what the query would catch, so test there before saving.
3. Click Show options. For How often, choose As-it-happens, at most once a day or at most once a week. Set Sources to News, then pick a language, a region, and Only the best results or All results.
4. Click Create Alert.

When emails stop coming, Google's help suggests confirming the signed-in account, clicking Enable if your alerts were switched off, and checking the spam folder.

Follow a topic in Google News

On a computer, search for a topic, place or outlet at the top of Google News and click Follow. In the app, tap Search, find it and tap Follow. Its stories then land in the Following tab.

Pings are a separate switch. In the app, tap your profile picture, open News settings, then Notifications, and turn on Get notifications. Number of notifications sets the volume from Low to High, and each notification type has its own toggle. You can also mark a story "more like this" or hide every story from an outlet.

Where both tools fall short

A Google Alert matches words. Watch a company name and you get the funding round, a passing mention in a roundup and the recap, all in one inbox. Google News turns it around: you choose the topic and how many pings you want, and Google chooses which stories count.

Neither lets you give a rule like "only tell me if the company names a new chief executive, and skip speculation." Neither follows one page, such as a company newsroom or a regulator's notice list. And Google's help pages describe email for Alerts and app notifications for News, with no Slack, Discord or webhook delivery.

AyeWatch: alerts on the story, not the keyword

AyeWatch is an AI internet monitor. You write what you want to know in plain English and add the conditions that matter, for example a leadership change at one company with profiles and recaps left out. Its AI reads new items by meaning instead of exact words, and each alert is a short summary with links to the sources behind it.

It reaches past the news tab. Paste the URL of a company newsroom or a filings page and hear when something meaningful changes there, or watch public accounts on X, Reddit, YouTube, LinkedIn, Instagram and TikTok. A daily digest collects quieter beats into one dated briefing.

Push alerts and the in-app feed come with every plan, on the web, iOS and Android. Paid plans add email, the digest by email, Slack, Discord, webhooks and an API. There is a free preview with no card, and paid plans start at $9 a month, billed in monitoring credits.

Which one to use

• A free stream of headlines to scroll over coffee: Google News is hard to beat. Keep it for browsing.
• A free email when a phrase appears in the news: a Google Alert with the News source is enough.
• One ping when a specific development happens, from news, pages or social posts: use AyeWatch. The AyeWatch team's roundup of Google News alerts alternatives also covers news readers if you would rather scan feeds yourself.