Facebook tests standalone news app Notify

Facebook is developing a news application called Notify. The app makes it possible to receive feeds from news media posting to Facebook on a smartphone as system notifications.

According to journalist John Herrman of The Awl, users can choose from a list the news media they want to see in their notifications. A screenshot he posted shows that users can toggle news media like Vevo, Huffington Post, and BuzzFeed on and off with a switch. These news media are currently part of Facebook’s test run and it is not clear which media will all be available via Notify after release. Enabled media publications will cause a notification in the operating system and not in the Facebook app.

The news media in the app are called providers, and a screenshot shows that users can also choose stations afterwards. Based on Business Insider’s previous coverage, stations are likely topics, themes, or sections that users can choose from to avoid every publication from a news medium appearing in the notifications. According to Herrman, the app “apparently” will be released for iOS at the end of this month. Nothing is known yet about an Android and Windows Phone version.

It’s not the first step Facebook is taking to take on more of the role of a news media platform. In addition to Notify, Facebook is working on Instant Articles, a format for articles in its iOS app. News media thus publish their entire article on Facebook, including the image elements and even advertisements. The accessibility of Instant Articles to users and the ability for a medium to simply advertise in the articles should convince them to use Facebook as a platform for their publications.