Facebook is continuously testing with new features, trying to make the experience better for their over 1 billion users. Last year, they revealed plans for their artificially intelligent personal assistant, they introduced video profile pictures, Facebook Reactions, Mentions and Video Autoplay to name a few. We have recently found out that the social media giant is experimenting with a new in-app browser that will make sure you never leave Facebook.
Currently, when you open up articles they appear something like this:
The new browser will be in-built and this is how it will reportedly look like:
@MattNavarra is this in-app browser new to the @facebook app? pic.twitter.com/aIhYSp2kC9
— Henry Wilmer (@HenryWilmer) January 16, 2016
The company has been testing with this new feature for a few months now. Here’s what we know about Facebook’s new in-app browser:
- Apart from the UI changes, Facebook is hoping to imitate an actual browser . Their current browser loads pages and follows hyperlinks to other sites.
- You will also be able enter your own URL, browse whichever sites you want without actually leaving the Facebook app.
- A bar at the bottom will tell you how popular a post is, buttons to move back and forth between pages, a bookmark button (thankfully) and a menu button whose functionality we’re not sure about at this point.
- The browser apparently does not support multiple tabs but that feature will probably be introduced in due time.
- This new browser would be a close approximation of a full-fledged app.
This new venture quite a sensible move from the company for two reasons: (1) It’ll make Facebook an eco-system unto itself, making sure that the traffic they draw is contained for as long as possible. (2) It could also pave the way for a future dedicated Facebook browser.
The browser isn’t available to the public yet and is only being tested on small subsets of users, that too for iOS only.
Image Source – The Next Web
