It looks like Facebook is preparing another huge update, introducing Instant Articles. This new feature can be used starting on April 12th.
So, from April, all publishers globally will be able to use Facebook’s “Instant Articles” program. This means that the social network will host articles directly on their platform instead of directing users to publishers sites. This is a really good thing because, this way, users will save a lot of time while waiting to load the publisher’s page.
Of course, this new update also comes with some tense discussions between Facebook and news organizations. Many publishers have declared that this participation will sabotage their own businesses and cause them to lose control over distribution.
With this new update, anyone with a Facebook page and a website in the world will be able to use this program and take advantage of it. From now on, they will be able to host content directly on Facebook instead of posting links that will direct readers back to their own sites.
Facebook launched Instant Articles last year in May, but with a small dozen publishers, including BuzzFeed, the New York Times, and NBC News. They have promised that this feature will significantly speed up load times for mobile users. This year, the program has expanded to a few hundred publishers, which is a good thing.
“Slow loading times on the mobile web created a problematic experience for people reading news on their phones. This is a problem that impacts publishers of all sizes, especially those with audiences where low connectivity is an issue,” declared Facebook in a blog post.
“Our goal from the beginning was to open up Instant Articles to all publishers, and we’re excited to be able to do that,” Facebook continued.
This move will definitely expand Facebook’s variety of content, and most importantly, users will spend more time on the site. With the Instant Articles feature, Facebook will also be very attractive to new advertisers. However, this new feature is also very comfortable and useful for publishers because, over the years, they have struggled to bring in advertising revenue because much of their audience has shifted to mobile. So, closing a deal with Facebook was very important to them, especially because the social network has a strong position in the mobile world.
Instant Articles was Facebook’s will to create a smoother user experience and also to create a huge benefit for its business. This feature effectively keeps users on Facebook without forcing them to wait for web pages to slowly load or to close. It should be added that Facebook’s Instant Articles announcement has also come as a response to Google, which will also launch its similar “Accelerate Mobile Pages” product.
However, Google and Facebook will not be competitors in this field. Publishers will be able to use Google’s program to speed up their pages for all readers, as well as use Facebook’s program to drive a better experience on the social network platform.
“With that in mind, our goal from the beginning was to open up Instant Articles to all publishers, and we’re excited to be able to do that in a way that makes it fast and easy for all publishers to reach their audiences on Facebook,” declared Josh Roberts, Facebook’s product manager.
