Messenger users will be able to tell if an article is an Instant by looking for a small lightning bolt icon next to the link, the same way Instant Articles appear in the Facebook apps.
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Unlike Google’s strategy, Facebook’s Instant Articles offered fast-loading by hosting the publishers’ contents itself, so that users can quickly load the content when clicking the link.
Facebook Messenger for iOS will also roll out support for Instant Articles in the weeks to come. “Instant Articles” in Messenger will be faster to open; and will thus unfold a smoother experience for the reader.
It will soon take less time to load links when friends share an article via Facebook Messenger.
With “Instant Articles” essentially underscoring a mechanism for making the use of mobile web faster, the availability of “Instant Articles’ in Messenger will likely give a boost to publisher sign-ups, especially in the wake of Messenger’s reach as one of the top five mobile apps on the App Store”.
Before now, links shared inside the Messenger app loaded up in a mobile browser. It presented an entirely new way to interact with your phone, as for the first time, iPhone senses how much pressure you apply to the display. The Verge notes that Facebook Messenger, which has over 900 million monthly users, should speed up Instant Article’s popularity.
The Menlo Park, California-based social media company began experimenting with Instant Articles in 2015 with a limited number of publishers and has slowly expanded since.
It covers all types of content from publishers, including article links, video, and live video. Bots continue to hit the app as major publishers launch chatbots for Menlo Park’s communication app to bring news stories to users.
Articles that undergo Instant Articles are fast loading, and free of other distractions. However, it will take few days for Android users to work with this feature because Facebook is releasing the update via OTA gradually. However, it was the turn for iPhone users to first test drive the feature followed by Android. Besides, most of the personal sharing has shifted to messaging apps like WhatsApp, Snapchat and of course Facebook Messenger.
Instant Articles is just the latest feature that has been included in Messenger.
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Facebook has rolled out Instant Articles for Facebook Messenger.
