Facebook brings Instant Articles to Messenger

Instant Articles, as the name suggests are articles that load quickly and do not take a toll on a user’s data connection. They were recently introduced to Facebook’s core platform, but the social media giant intends to simplify user access to news and other articles through Messenger now.

The quick loading Instant Articles would be denoted by a lightning symbol at the top right corner of an article. Facebook  understands the importance of keeping users confined within their ecosystem thereby amplifying the potential to advertise.

This new update will be immediately rolled out to Android users and soon for iOS users as well.

Facebook owned Messenger has a vast user base of nearly 900 million but there is also another interesting statistic that may have prompted Facebook to develop this new update. More than half of Facebook users prefer to access the social media platform through their mobile devices.

The new update is good news for many publishers as instant articles will motivate users to read more content but the scales of benefits are tipped in Facebook’s favour as users spend more time on Facebook and the traffic to publisher’s websites will experience a sizeable dip.

Facebook’s grip over social media will tighten significantly as it gives users very few reasons to exit their platform.