Facebook’s instant articles rolled out for Android users. iPhone users were the first to experience the latest buzz during May this year. The articles are fast loading and hence let the publishers post their articles directly over the page through Facebook. This addition has made it more convenient for the readers as it cuts down on the waiting time and allows a larger circle of sharing the same. Articles with the highest number of shares are automatically ranked higher on the News Feed. Users are benefited by the zero time gaps between the tapping and the reading. Since October, instant articles have been in Beta.
More than 350 publishers so far have signed up to the trending News feed page. Instant articles can be distinguished from the rest by a lightning bolt-like icon on the top most right corner. The format of publishing indeed gives a richer experience to the readers through the photo galleries and audio captions. It also strips out a number of hidden analytics and advertisement that can naturally pull things down when one tries to put up a story on the web.
Publishers are also given the option of allowing Facebook to sell ads on their instant article pages. In such a case, either the revenue will be split with the company or they can sell and keep the whole sum for themselves. The format gears up Facebook with more power.
Google also has its own plans of coming up with an idea of instant articles by the following year. Apple promises its users a better news reading experience in its upcoming iOS 9.