Facebook has been in the news quite a bit as of late — mostly in regards to testing new ideas like its giant drone that will spread free Wi-Fi over certain parts of the world, or testing out their new storefront. Now, it looks like Facebook is getting ready to compete toe-to-toe with Twitter as the company is looking into developing a news application that functions quite a bit like Twitter.
Not So Fast
It’s definitely true that a lot of people rely on Twitter for announcements and breaking news, but there are a lot of other social features that allows users to interact with each other. The Facebook app that Business Insider reported about is more focused on the business nature. That means users won’t necessarily be interacting with each other, and they won’t be creating content either.
Instead, Business Insider suggests that the app will be a “broadcast-only experience.” Facebook will only be allowing partnered companies to produce content. Users will follow various topics they are interested in and receive instant alerts that are limited to 100 characters — slightly less than Twitter’s 140 limitation.
Facebook Hopes to Clean Up the User Experience
One aspect that Facebook hopes will give it an advantage over Twitter is reliant on how Facebook’s new app, currently in alpha, will curate posts better. Information about the app is still pretty vague, but Facebook is hoping that news won’t dissipate into the social masses as quickly as it happens on Twitter.
Facebook believes that this provides new users with a bad experience since the more people they follow, the faster their Twitter feed moves. Some users may never see a post on Twitter unless the tweet is retweeted by someone else or the original tweeter, but with Facebook’s new app, news will stay relevant for longer.
Facebook Is Trying to Stay Relevant
We’ll know more about Facebook’s new app as the company gets ready to share more details about it. This app is just the latest addition to the company’s rapidly expanding suite of apps that it hopes will help maintain its relevancy moving forward. Facebook also owns Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
