Facebook Launches Instant Articles

This article originally appeared on 60 Second Social.

Facebook has unveiled a new feature which it promises will yield faster loading times for news stories and interactive features that you see in your news feed when on a mobile device. In fact, Facebook says that articles will load instantly from publishers when you click on them in your feed.

The new feature is called ‘instant articles’ and is aimed at getting rid of that time you have to spend waiting for an article to load in the Facebook app when you click on it. The social network giant says that it will make loading articles on mobile 10 times faster than other articles on mobile web.

The feature is also going to include rich content in the form of interactive maps, image zoom, autoplay videos and audio captions. These tools will be available to the publishers to use in their content to make information stand out in a new fresh way.

The initial partners who will be taking advantage of the instant article feature include BBC News, The New York Times, BuzzFeed and more. Facebook Chief Product Officer Chris Cox said the following in a statement:

“Fundamentally, this is a tool that enables publishers to provide a better experience for their readers on Facebook, Instant Articles lets them deliver fast, interactive articles while maintaining control of their content and business models.”

The feature is just another thing being put into play from Facebook to keep users on their site, as we mentioned just yesterday, it is no secret that Facebook wants you to spend as much time on Facebook as possible and have no reason to leave.

Previously when you clicked a link in the Facebook app you would be taken to the publication’s web site outside of Facebook and this would add extra loading time and taking users away from the social network. With instant articles, the content is held on Facebook, loads as soon as you tap it and it keeps users on the social network.

Content producers should also start to see a benefit over time from increased ad revenue as Facebook plans to allow publishers to sell adds with their content and keep the money. The instant article feature has been launched for select publications on iOS, Facebook has made no mention when it would be available on Android.

TechCrunch got hands on with instant articles and their video is below.

About The Author

Mark is the founder of 60 Second Social media where he provides social media news and digital marketing analysis. He has an Advanced Diploma in Psychology and a Diploma in Digital Marketing And Social Media. You can follow him on Twitter here. You can also follow 60 Second Social on Twitter here. Or you can drop Mark an email at, [email protected]