Real-time Updates

Overview

NewsMesh provides instant access to breaking news through our /latest endpoint. Pro and Advanced plans include real-time updates with minimal latency, ensuring your application always has the freshest content.

Articles are indexed within minutes of publication. Each response includes a published_date timestamp so you can track content freshness and implement efficient polling strategies.

With real-time access, you can build applications that surface breaking news, send push notifications for trending stories, or power live news feeds that update as events unfold.

How It Works

Real-time access is controlled by the "freshness delay" setting on your plan:

• Free: 24-hour delay before articles appear
• Starter: 1-hour delay
• Pro & above: Real-time (no delay)

When you call the /latest or /search endpoints, only articles within your freshness window are returned.

Code Example

Fetch the latest articles with real-time access:

$ curl -s "https://api.newsmesh.co/v1/latest?apiKey=YOUR_API_KEY&limit=5"

Response:

{
  "data": [
    {
      "article_id": "abc123def456",
      "title": "Breaking: Major Tech Announcement",
      "description": "Leading tech company unveils new product line...",
      "link": "https://example.com/article",
      "media_url": "https://example.com/image.jpg",
      "published_date": "2025-12-24T10:30:00Z",
      "source": "Tech News Daily",
      "category": "technology",
      "topics": ["technology", "product launch"],
      "people": [],
      "author": ["John Smith"]
    }
  ],
  "next_cursor": "eyJwdWJsaXNoZWRfZGF0ZSI6..."
}

Polling Best Practices

For real-time applications, we recommend:

• Poll every 60 seconds for breaking news feeds
• Use the published_date field to detect new articles
• Cache responses locally to reduce API calls
• Implement exponential backoff on rate limit errors

Plan Availability