14 DAY TRIAL // Facebook launched bots on Messenger not long ago, but it seems that the company continues to focus on improving the application that 900 million people use each month in order to chat with friends. So it's no surprise that Facebook Messenger for Android will be updated with a new feature, namely instant articles.
When bots were first released to Messenger, some news articles opened in web browsers upon tapping, which wasn't quite convenient for users. In the new instant articles feature, when users tap on news stories, these open directly in Messenger, just as it happened in the main Facebook application.
Not all articles would open in such a convenient way, but only the ones that come with a little lightning bolt next to the link in a Messenger conversation. The icon would be the same as the one for Instant Articles in the Facebook app. The new feature will be available for Android while iOS users would have to wait until next week to receive it.
With Instant Articles, users won't switch between apps
The main advantage of Instant Articles is that Facebook loads articles faster than on a browser, which means that users wouldn't have to wait that long to access the content. In addition, users wouldn't have to switch between apps to read a news story.
Facebook has made some major changes to its Messenger application recently, as it has also released SMS in Messenger for Android and brought some new features to Messenger bots, which constantly get updates.
Other than that, just a few days ago, Facebook added 3D Touch support on Messenger for iOS. The feature is addressed mainly to iPhone 6s users, and it allows them to quickly view and access information using the pressure-sensitive display. It also lets them preview conversations, photos, GIFs, videos, stickers and more.