Facebook Launches Notify App for News Updates

Facebook NotifyFacebook has launched Notify, a standalone iOS app that sends news and other updates to users based on their interests.

The app offers a selection of stations – including breaking news from CNN, a daily forecast from The Weather Channel, film trailers from ticket site Fandango, and daily offers from Groupon – that users can sign up to in order to receive notifications onto their devices lock screen throughout the day.

Each notification can be tapped to see the full story or video through an in-app web browser, and notifications can be shared via SMS, email or social networks or saved for later.

The apps release is currently limited to iOS in the US, with no official word on other markets or platforms.

Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal reports that Facebook may be rethinking the business model for Instant Articles, its previous step into this space, which brought news content from 20 partnered publishers directly onto the social network.

Those partners are reportedly struggling to make the same revenues from Instant Articles content as on their own sites, due to restrictions on “the type and volume of ads publishers are allowed to sell” – for example, limiting publishers to one 320 x 250 pixel ad unit per 500 words.

The exact changes Facebook will make arent yet clear, but between Instant Articles and Notify, its clear that going forward, the company wants to be an important player in the news publishing game.