Facebook’s Working On A New Twitter-Like App

Media reports indicate that the company has silently launched (alpha phase) a mobile news notification app that is similar to Twitter in terms of functioning.

Business Insider – which first reported the app-in-development, on Tuesday – thinks the new offering poses a direct threat to Twitter. The ability to procure relevant and timely news from the social giant’s new app, could attract professionals with busy lifestyles.

Facebook already has a foot in the publishing industry, but wants even more control on the breaking news side.

The new app is expected to further strengthen Facebook’s position in the social-networking space, since Twitter has found it hard to revive itself.

The publication claims to have seen a stand-alone app that would send along breaking news notifications from partner news outlets.

Now the easiest way to receive breaking news is to download a news app. Especially on the smartphones apps such as Paper or Flipboard provide the fastest news.

Alerts are said to be limited to 100 characters and a link to the article, and publishers will only be able to link to their own content, not content provided by others. The firm also announced a Periscope competitor called Facebook Live last week, and it has started testing a product that will compete with Project Lightning, Dick Costolo’s plan to make Twitter work. He possesses a special knack for choosing topics that people are truly interested in but also creating stories based on facts that appeal to a broad audience. The alerts will contain a headline and a URL that will take users directly to the publication’s website to let them read the complete article.