You can now try Facebook's long-rumored news app
Facebook's news app - which Business Insider first reported on back in August - finally launches today (for iPhone users at least, Android people will have to wait a bit longer).
Called "Notify," the app lets you subscribe to push alerts from a wide range of over 70 sources, like Vogue, Washington Post, CNN, and Comedy Central.
All the publications that you subscribe to will send you push notifications with breaking news:Facebook
From your lock screen, you can choose to either save or share the story. Or, if you open the app to read it, you'll be re-directed to the publisher's website. Facebook
Notify sounds pretty similar to other news aggregation apps like Apple News or Flipboard, except that you'll also be able to subscribe to less newsy content like daily forecasts, new movie trailers, Groupon deals, or Hulu clips.
By trying to take over your phone's lock screen, Facebook is hoping that you aren't already feeling inundated by too many notifications, and that you'd rather get a selection of publisher links from one source, instead of just downloading individual news apps.
"People have different ways they want to consume information," product manager Michael Cerda told Re/code's Kurt Wagner. "Search is one way. Social is another way. And we think push notifications might be yet another."
While there's an obvious upside for publishers - traffic to their sites - Facebook says it hasn't thought about monetizing the app just yet.