Facebook testing breaking news app to send out alerts, reports say
Tool allows people to sign up to alerts from companies, who will be able to give them a notification when anything interesting happens
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Facebook is testing an app that will send out breaking news alerts to users, according to reports.
Users will be able to sign up for specific publications and topics, known as stations and substations, that they will then receive push notifications from.
The app is still in very early testing, reports Business Insider. Initially, it is just being used by a few select publications.
The breaking news service will be separate from the main Facebook app, in keeping with the company’s gradual move towards “unbundling” its services and offering them in separate forms. It is being developed as part of the Facebook for Business initiative, which is being built to help the site function as a kind of marketplace for various other companies.
To use the app, users will sign up and give their interests. For publishers themselves, they’ll push out a notification with text and a web address, so that users can click through on them to open up the corresponding website.
Business Insider, which says it has seen early versions of the production, described it as “similar to Twitter”. Twitter has been working on its own breaking news platform, internally known as “Project Lightning”, which will be built around following events rather than people.
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments