The app will reportedly let users subscribe to publishers and then deliver breaking news through notifications.
Facebook’s rumoured breaking news app may be known as ‘Notify’. It is expected to launch by the end of October this year. As per the report from The Awl, the social network giant is currently testing the app with a few selected partners.
From the screenshots, it appears that users will have the option to subscribe to the publishers of their choice. The publishers are known as ‘Stations’ in the app and include the likes of Huffington Post, BuzzFeed among others. Under the Stations, users can also select specific topics known as 'sub-stations'. Once users subscribe to them, they will start receiving the breaking news updates through notifications. Tapping on a particular notification will take users to the specific publication from where they can read the complete news.
The news of Facebook working on the news app was first reported earlier this year. At that time, it was reported that the app would send 100-character news via notifications. Along with the report, the screenshot of the app from the point of view of a publisher was also posted. The screenshot showed the text fields for entering the name of station, sub-station, notification text, and the URL.
The app would be competing with Twitter’s newly launched feature ‘Moments’. The feature lets users stay updated about live events as well as trending stories on Twitter. The stories are also categorized into various sub-categories like sports, entertainment, news, etc. The good thing about ‘Moments’ is that users don’t need to follow any specific Twitter account for receiving the update. Each story comprises of tweets, videos, images, vines, and GIFs. Twitter has also teamed up with various publishers like BuzzFeed, Bleacher Report, Fox News, etc for curating and delivering the latest stories. The feature is currently available only in U.S. with plans of expanding it to other regions in coming months.
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