Rumor: Facebook launches news app that resembles Twitter

Facebook is said to be working on an app that will allow media to push breaking news to users. The app would have some similarities with Twitter, but be more limited: for example, users cannot post updates themselves, but only subscribe.

According to Business Insider, which claims to have spoken to a source about the app and seen screenshots of the app, Facebook is working with a small number of companies to test the app. Currently, the Twitter-like app is said to be still in its alpha phase; it is not clear when Facebook would like to show the app to the general public.

According to BI, the app gives users the ability to track ‘stations’ and ‘substations’, which stands for publications and certain topics. Publications can then issue breaking news alerts, whereby it is unclear whether they actually arrive as a push message on a user’s phone.

An important difference with Twitter is that media can only ‘tweet’ links to their own sites, and therefore cannot create notifications for other sites.

Screenshot: Business Insider