(Kevin Systrom) and (Mike Krieger) announced that the new artificial intelligence-powered messaging application (Artifact) will be available to all users after a trial period. The app is their second collaboration after founding the Instagram app, which was acquired by Facebook in 2012 before they left the company in 2018.
At the beginning of February 2019, the two partners initially announced the app as a pilot project. Registration is limited to US users and can only be registered through an invite system. Starting today, the app is available to all users through Google Play Store and Apple App Store.
Unlike Instagram, the new app focuses primarily on articles rather than photos, with Artifact making content recommendations based on interests. The app's main feed displays popular articles from major media organizations as well as other blogs, and over time users' feeds will become more personalized to their preferences.
When launching the application for the first time, the application asks the user to choose the 10 topics that he wants to follow from among the dozens of available options, such as: sports, health, politics, business, movies, etc. Thus, the application displays the latest news and articles relevant to the user's interests. According to the company, the app uses a set of predictive AI algorithms that take read articles into account to improve the display of articles that better match the interests of the reader.
The application provides users with a dedicated page to view their usage statistics, showing the topics and articles they have read in the previous period.
The app's organizers plan to add a feature that will allow users to tap a dedicated button to view more or less headlines on a particular topic, which could help personalize the experience and diversify the news displayed on the home screen. Currently, users can block certain editors or tweak themes for better customization.
The user can give the app access to their contacts on their phones, which helps the app to mark the most read articles among their circle of acquaintances. To protect users' privacy, the app does not reveal the names of people who have read said articles. According to its founder, the app will support additional social functions such as news chat and commenting in an upcoming release.
Systrom and Krieger left Facebook over a falling out with CEO Mark Zuckerberg over his desire to further integrate Instagram with Facebook. Especially since they are known to differentiate between Instagram and Facebook.