Competition amongst social media powered news apps is heating up.
By Raif Karerat
Facebook will reportedly launch a standalone news app next week, according to a report by the Financial Times.
Called Notify, the service is said to alert users to stories from professional media outlets, including early partners Vogue, Washington Post, and CBS. Facebook is also courting CNN, Comedy Central, and Billboard, the FT said, PC Magazine revealed.
VentureBeat reported that users will be able to look at feature content from across all matters of media, including print, digital, and video. What allegedly makes Notify better than its Instant Articles service is how quickly the information can be made available— instead of having to scour through your News Feed or other parts of the social network, just open up a standalone app and inhale all your news in one fell swoop.
The move appears to be a direct counter in response to its competitors, such as Twitter, which recently rolled out Moments, a feed for mobile users to explore the top news of the moment.
Apple has also shown renewed interest in the sector with September’s launch of its new News aggregator app.
Meanwhile, the launch of Snapchat’s Discover service in January alerted media companies to the potential of mobile video. Companies involved in the service, including Vice, Comedy Central, and CNN, were able to charge higher rates for ads that were viewed on the service than for traditional digital video placements.