Instagram’s co-founders are throwing open the doors to their new personalized news app, Artifact. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger’s new app launched last month with a waitlist, but now anyone on iOS or Android can download Artifact to try it for themselves.
Despite the pedigree of Artifact’s creators, it won’t necessarily revolutionize the way you consume news on your phone. There’s a home tab with a feed of articles the AI intuits that you’ll like, but the app’s algorithmic sorting means you could be served days-old news that you don’t care about. A “Headlines” tab offers collections of articles sorted by topics. The profile tab, however, might be more interesting, thanks to a new feature that will visualize your reading history after you read 10 articles.
Artifact is introducing a few other new features, too. You’ll be able to thumbs-down an article to see fewer articles like it. You’ll also be able to sync your contacts with the app, and if you do, the app will let you know about articles that are popular within your network.
Artifact is a free app available now on iOS and Android.
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