Instant Articles is officially available for Android
(Mirror Daily, United States) – The service is now out of beta, so Facebook brings Instant Articles to Android officially, a feature that iOS users have had for a few months. It’s one of the many useful tools that the social media giant is holding onto for the purpose of quick browsing and less strain on users’ data plan.
With technology quickly advancing, Facebook has noted that more and more people are starting to read news directly on their mobiles. For now, this particular side of the social media network has remained etched into the News Feed, though it’s still a question on whether it will break off as its own app. It has happened before, see Facebook Messenger or Facebook Moments.
Instant Articles is a way for Facebook to allow major publications to share news and articles directly on their platform. Reportedly, they load 10 times faster than their official websites. This boost is said to improve their viewership, as it was found that users tend to stop reading if an article loads too slowly. And, there’s always the potential of placing a few ads there to monetize.
With their overwhelmingly high number of users that has crowned Facebook the king of social media, there’s the potential for more viewers on each Instant Article. They’re the ones marked with a lighting symbol on your News Feed.
From a user’s standpoint, the service is highly useful as it’s said to be much gentler on their data usage. It will demand only a bit of your bandwidth, and now there are many publishers at your disposal. At least for Android devices. It has been available on iOS since May 2015, and entered beta for Android in October 2015.
Now, the service is finally ready to roll out for everyone. Instant Article boasts of Facebook cooperation with 350 publications, including the New York Times, ABC, NPR, Mashable, BuzzFeed, and many others, including local publishers depending on your region. This will bring quick and easy articles directly to your News Feed. It’s one way for publishers to ensure bigger viewership, and for Facebook to secure higher activity on their platform.
Publishers have the option of monetizing through ads by adding them in between articles, or even sharing the space with Facebook and splitting the revenue. Reportedly, there are at least 100 publishers posting daily, and more are being added each day. It’s a huge potential for both parties to increase their user count, and for users in turn to get quick and easy access to stories.
Image source: media.fb.com