As election season ramped up, ABC News needed more than a functional app—they needed a responsive, live-updating platform capable of breaking news, streaming video, and on-demand content—all while feeling polished and brand-consistent. TribalScale stepped in to co-design and co-develop iOS and Android applications that prioritized speed, reliability, and seamless content control, even mid-campaign.
Impact Delivered
Challenge
ABC News faced immense pressure to serve millions of users consuming live, evolving content. Key challenges included:
Delivering real-time updates: Ensuring live video, breaking news, and featured stories were both seamless and high-performing.
Scalability & responsiveness: Launching new content instantly—without requiring app updates.
Analytical clarity: Gaining visibility into user behavior to prioritize features and inform UX design.
Long-term collaboration: Partnering with a team able to scale capacity during key news events and beyond.
Solution
TribalScale brought a lean, agile, and high-collaboration approach to the partnership: We embedded a dedicated cross-functional team to co-own feature delivery and backlog prioritization, enabling rapid iterations and flexibility as news cycles evolved. Leveraging Extreme Programming (XP) and Agile rituals, we introduced practices like Test-Driven Development (TDD) to improve code quality, and continuous refactoring to move ABC’s platform to a modern, sustainable stack.
Our delivery roadmap combined strategic architecture with media-grade reliability:
Introduced server-side control, enabling ABC News to push new content without requiring app store updates.
Built features to support live video streaming, autoplaying video, synchronized article/video views, audio content (including podcasts and live radio), and personalized news feeds.
Developed election-season “takeover” UI experiences—fully branded interfaces dynamically activated during high-profile events to amplify user engagement.
Tools and Technologies Used:
Swift
Kotlin
Braze (Appboy)
Outbrain
Outcome
What began as a campaign-driven project evolved into a lasting digital partnership. ABC continues to extend their mobile platform across future news cycles, leveraging TribalScale’s embedded support team across 12+ quarterly extensions. The app remains a top performer in the news category, and awards ABC News a competitive edge through speed, agility, and polished UX.
Why It Matters
Live news is relentless — and user expectations are high. By rethinking content delivery through modular architecture, automated workflows, and agile collaboration, ABC strengthened its digital infrastructure against real-time pressure and established an enduring model for media innovation.