Facebook is getting ready to combat Google News and Apple News with its own standalone news app “Notify,” which will be launched next week.
The Notify news app will be Facebook’s way of delivering fresh news to its users in real time. The social media giant has already struck deals with The Washington Post, Billboard, Vogue, CBS, and other media partners, according to a Financial Times report cited by The American Bazaar.
Unlike the Facebook’s news feed, Notify will deliver news to users in a more organized way because only items from subscriptions will appear on the app feed. Facebook users can use the Notify app to subscribe to their desired media outlets. The app will also send them notifications whenever breaking stories are published, the report details.
The upcoming launch of the Notify app comes in the wake of the success of the social network’s Instant Articles service. This is a Facebook service that allows media organizations to add content directly to the news feed of a subscribed user, the International Business Times reports.
Notify will directly compete with Twitter’s news aggregating service Moments, which was launched just recently. Moments provides mobile Twitter users a way to follow live events and curated news. Aside from that, Notify will face competition from other news apps including Flipboard, Yahoo News Digest, and Inside.
Facebook currently has at least 1.55 billion monthly active users, 1.39 billion of which access the app on mobile. Launching its own standalone news app will help Facebook expand its profile beyond just being a social network, and its wide user base will serve as an advantage in that goal, the report explains.
As of now, details about Facebook’s Notify news app are still scant, but it is expected to include digital and video news content. It is also expected to have an option to share content from Notify on Facebook. More information will probably be revealed as Notify’s launch date approaches.
