🏠 Homepage — User Guide

1. What you see first

The homepage is the front door of the site. From the top down you typically get:

• The breaking-news strip pinned under the logo, which scrolls the publication's latest breaking headlines (see Breaking News Marquee — User Guide).
• On a phone, a scrolling rail of section names — the same sections as the menu, with a round arrow at each end, so you can move between sections without opening anything. It can be hidden from your profile page (see Profile — User Guide).
• The Tags and Flags quick-link rows — tapping a chip opens that topic's own page; each row can be hidden from your profile page (see Profile — User Guide), in which case the other row fills the full width, or both disappear and the block collapses.
• The hero — one lead story shown large at the very top, with its cover image, headline and summary.
• Top news — a row of the most important recent stories, ranked so the day's lead stories come first.
• Category feeds — parallel columns for the sections you scan most (Politics, City, Sports, Business and so on), so you can skim the whole paper in seconds.
• A ticker / market strip and live highlights (cricket, medals, panchang) where the site enables them.

Every card on the homepage links to the full article, so a tap takes you straight to the story.

💡 The homepage is built to be scanned, not read cover-to-cover. The hero is for the story of the moment; the category feeds are for browsing; search (see Search — User Guide) is for when you know what you want.

2. The hero — today's lead story

The hero is the single featured story at the top of the page. It gets the biggest cover, the strongest headline and the summary, so it is the story the site wants you to notice first.

• The hero changes as the news changes — a stale hero is the fastest way to make the home page feel old.
• The hero card shows the article's cover, headline, summary, read time and the author (when the story has one).
• Tap the card to open the full article.

Reading the hero

• Read the summary (the dek under the headline) to know what the story is in one or two lines.
• If the story has an AI summary, it appears under the dek so you can scan the point of the story even faster.
• Open the article to read the full story, or use Listen to hear it when your eyes are busy.

ℹ️ The hero is chosen by the site's editors through story priority and recency — you don't set it yourself, but you see the day's lead story every time you visit.

3. Top news and the section feeds

Top news

• The top news row shows the most important recent stories, in priority order — the day's leads come first.
• Each card carries the cover, headline, summary, author and any badge (breaking, exclusive, and so on).
• Scroll horizontally on mobile to see more; on desktop the row is wider.

Category feeds

• Below the top news, the homepage shows one feed per top category — so you can scan Politics, City, Sports, Business and the rest in parallel.
• Each feed is a list of cards for that section, ordered so the stronger stories come first.
• Tap any category tab to focus on that section.

The section rail, Tags and Flags

• On a phone the first thing at the top of the page is a scrolling rail of section names — the same sections the menu lists, laid out flat with a round arrow at each end. The section you are reading is the filled-in one, and the rail scrolls it to the middle. It scrolls away with the page instead of staying fixed, so it never eats into your reading space, and it is not shown on a wide screen, where the same sections are already listed across the page.
• You can switch the rail off for yourself from your profile (see Profile — User Guide).
• Directly under it sit two horizontal rows: Tags (topics such as a city, a scheme or a person) and Flags (editorial categories such as Breaking, Exclusive, Opinion, Video and Interview).
• Tapping a chip opens that tag's or flag's own page, with its latest stories and related sections below.
• The rows are curated by the newsroom, not generated randomly: only the strongest topics are shown, in rank order, and a freshly updated topic moves ahead of others of the same rank. So the rows change as the news day moves.
• If the newsroom switches every topic off, the row does not vanish — it falls back to a small set of suggested searches so the space still works.
• You can switch either chip row off for yourself from your profile (see Profile — User Guide) — the remaining row then takes the full width.

💡 The homepage feels like a real newspaper because the sections sit side by side — Politics next to City next to Sports — the same way a printed edition lays out its pages.

4. Every card tells you who wrote it — the author on the homepage

Most cards on the homepage carry the article author — the writer's photo and name, shown the same way they appear on the article page. You can recognise a story by its writer at a glance.

• The author photo and name sit on the card so the story has a real person behind it.
• Tap the author's name or photo to open a small author card with their photo, name, a short bio and the number of articles they have written.
• From the author card you can follow that writer's other articles.

💡 Trust travels with people, not logos. A story with a named, pictured author is more likely to be read, trusted and shared — and the homepage is where that first impression happens.

5. Badges and flags on cards

Some cards carry a small badge — for example breaking, exclusive, or highlight. These badges are used sparingly, so when you see one it means something.

• A breaking badge marks a story that just dropped.
• An exclusive badge marks a story the site is leading with.
• A highlight badge marks a story the editors want to push.

Don't expect every card to have a badge — if every story is highlighted, none of them are.

6. The ticker, market strip and live highlights

Depending on what the site has enabled, the homepage may also show:

• A ticker / market strip with market data and panchang (the daily calendar of tithi and auspicious timings).
• Live cricket scores or a medal tally where the site runs those feeds.
• A weather or city-relevant strip where configured.

These are the "always-on" bits at the bottom or side of the page — quick glance information that makes the home page feel alive even when you are not there for a specific story.

7. Making the homepage yours — reader context

Where the site has enabled it, the homepage can reflect a little about you:

• My City — if you have chosen a city, city-tagged stories can rise in visibility so the home page feels more relevant to where you are.
• Language — the page renders in the language you have chosen (Gujarati, Hindi, Marathi or English), including labels and numerals.
• Your saved / liked state — if you are signed in, cards reflect whether you have already saved or liked that story.

These are gentle personal touches; the homepage is still the same front page for everyone, just a little more yours when you are signed in and have set a city or language.

8. Quick actions from the homepage

Each card gives you the same quick actions you get on the article page:

• Tap the card to open the full article.
• Save / bookmark the story for later — it goes to your saved list.
• Share the story — one tap to WhatsApp, another app, or copy the link.
• Like / dislike to react to the story; the counts update automatically.

The same actions are available on the article page, where the reading experience is fuller (see Articles — User Guide).

9. Tips for using the homepage

• Start at the hero to see the story of the moment; then scan the category feeds for what else is new.
• Read the summary on each card before deciding to open the article — it saves time when you are skimming.
• Tap an author's card when you like their coverage — following a writer is the easiest way to see more of what you like.
• Set a city and sign in if you want the homepage to feel more personal.
• Use search (see Search — User Guide) when you know what you want rather than scrolling.
• Use Listen on a story when your eyes are busy — it turns a long article into a hands-free read.

10. Troubleshooting