New Facebook App Fires News To Smartphones

Smartphone doesn’t buzz enough during the day?

Once a Facebook user gets a notification regarding the topic they have chosen from the “Notify” app, they can simply ignore it and leave it in the lock screen. Sports notifications, for example, can be narrowed down to certain teams, or Bloomberg alerts by company. Launching a standalone app is part of Facebook’s plan to try out something new without messing up its main business.

“Since their launch in 2012, we’ve incorporated elements of [Camera and Poke] into the Facebook for iOS and Android apps, including the photo upload flow used today”, Facebook said in a statement to CNNMoney.

Notifications are shareable with your friends via Facebook itself, SMS, email and other social media platforms, even without leaving the lock screen.

Notification can also be saved by users so that they will be able to review that again, hence making sure that users are being kept updated with what is going on.

Outside of the main Facebook app and Messenger, Facebook has had a few trouble seeing its other apps, such as Paper, Slingshot and Rooms, get much traction.

Facebook published a blog post on the new app, called Notify, to explain a little further: “Everyone has different interests, so whether you’re into sports, celebrities, news, movies, music or shopping, Notify makes it easy to find notifications you’re into with a broad selection of great ‘stations” across a variety of categories’. Visit the Notify app website to see a complete list of sources.

The benefits to Facebook of introducing the app are less clear, since it is distinct from the social network’s core service, although it could increase sharing.