Breaking News: Instant Articles to take the world by storm
Yesterday, Facebook announced, in its annual conference, F8, the release of Instant Articles and the access to all publishers, across the world. Until today, this feature was only available to a few top companies of the world market. So, what exactly are these Instant Articles?
Speed Does Matter
Instant Articles is Facebook’s newest innovation, which offers never-before experienced navigation speed and interaction to the user. You have most probably come across an article like this, at some point, where there’s one small symbol on the top right, like a small lightning.
If you also took the next step and opened one of these articles, you definitely know what’s all this about. Joyful, easy navigation to the article, while staying on the Facebook app, without you being redirected to the publisher’s website, one-touch sharing and more suggested articles in the bottom. Those are just some of the awesome features offered by Instant Articles.
This brand-new feature was given experimentally to top publishers and websites, with millions of readers and followers. The result to these publishers? A 20% increase in article reading and 10 times faster page loading speed.
Instant Articles is a similar version of AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) for social media. AMP, a self-proclaimed “project” by its founders, was designed by a collaboration between Google and Twitter, in the USA, and offers immediate article page loading.
Navigation speed, therefore, implies easy reading and exploration of more pages. What does this mean, exactly? More interesting, immediate and relevant ads, which publishers can offer, specifically targeted to the needs & interests of the reader. Practically, instant articles take digital age to a whole new level, where speed does matter.
How it works
Instant articles is a publishing format for mobile devices (smartphones, tablets). These articles are HTML5 documents, appropriately optimized, using a markup language, similar to XML. In other words, Facebook’s API works like a tube or channel, which receives an article’s current HTML and, passing it through its software, converts it into a lighter, faster version of the SAME document. This fact allows the styling adjustments and addition of interactive functionalities in the article. There’s also the possibility of adding specific tags, relevant to the topic, text, maps, hiqh quality images & slideshows, while at the same time, article interaction with likes, comments and shares is made easier than ever.
How-to: Use Instant Articles to your website
There’s two methods for someone to add this unique Facebook feature to its business publishing tools. Regardless of what method is chosen, though, some degree of adjustment is always necessary. As time passes and technology evolves daily, adjustment needs to become even more specialized to the needs and characteristics of the business or publisher.
Easy Way
In its recent conference, where Instant Articles was announced, Facebook also presente a specific plug-in, user-friendly for any open-source Content Management System (like WordPress, Drupal & Tempest). Its installation, therefore, is quite easy and fast to do, by downloading the plug-in and adjusting it to the Management System.
Tough Way
As a Digital Agency that’s passionate with the latest trends, iTrust started designing & “writing” its own plug-in, from the day Facebook announced the launching date of the Instant Articles. Our goal was to be 100% prepared for the day this feature would be launched.
Contact us for any information regarding Instant Articles, as well as if you wish to use it for your business. We would like to serve you with great pleasure.
With the digital world experiencing such a rapid progress, navigation and user-friendly content goes on a whole other level, where interactions are direct. Thinking about the advantages Instant Articles offers, it’s something every publisher has to try. Why? Simply put, if you don’t give it a shot, one of your competitors will.
