Get ready for more Facebook Instant Articles in your News Feed. The social network today rolled out the feature more broadly on iOS and said it will arrive on Android later this year.
Look for the lightning bolt in the top right corner of stories in your News Feed; these are Instant Articles and should load much faster than links taking you to third-party sites.
"Instant Articles not only connect readers to stories faster; they also provide a richer reading experience than standard mobile Web articles," Facebook product manager Michael Reckhow wrote in a blog post.
When a publisher like PCMag posts something to Facebook, it takes an average of eight seconds for that story to load. Instant Articles, however, makes the reading experience up to 10 times faster because publishing partners are essentially publishing directly on Facebook, which allows for richer content.
Instant Articles from NBC News, for instance, feature autoplay videos that begin as you scroll through a story; The Atlantic's photo blog lets users zoom into high-resolution images by tilting the phone; and BuzzFeed lets you like and comment on individual content within a story.
Early partners include The Guardian, BBC News, Slate, Cosmopolitan, The Huffington Post, and Vox Media, a more publishers will be joining the program soon, including big names like Billboard, CBS Sports, Entertainment Weekly, Good Housekeeping, Mental Floss, MLB, People, Rolling Stone, Time, Variety and The Weather Channel.
Facebook began beta testing the feature with Facebook for iPhone users earlier this year, "and we know readers love them," Reckhow said. "The enhanced experience inspires people to share Instant Articles with their friends more often than they do with standard Web articles."
On Android, Facebook is kicking off a public beta today, with a full rollout expected by year's end.