Facebook reportedly plans to release a new way to get news next week
A standalone app for getting news stories from Facebook could be launching as soon as next week, according to a report on Wednesday from The Financial Times.
"Facebook is preparing its latest push into news with a new standalone app called Notify that is scheduled to launch next week," the report said. Media companies like "Vogue, Mashable, CNN and the Washington Post" will reportedly participate in delivering stories through the app.
Business Insider's Alyson Shontell was first to report that Facebook was working with publishers on an app for delivering news in August.
The app was described as being able to send notification alerts for breaking news that "allow for up to 100 characters of text and a url to the news article on that publication's website."
The Awl then published alleged screenshots of what the Notify app looks like, which depicted toggles the user could enable for receiving alerts from publications like The Huffington Post and BuzzFeed.
A standalone news app wouldn't be Facebook's first foray into working directly with publishers. The social network recently opened up Instant Articles, a reading format native to Facebook that loads publishers' content faster than a normal website, to all users of its main iPhone app.
We've reached out to Facebook for comment and will update when we hear back.