Artifact: The News App Brought to You by Instagram’s Co-founders

Recently, Instagram’s co-founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger announced the launch of Artifact. A new social app that is supposedly set to change the way people consume news, Artifact isn’t a photo-sharing platform. Rather, a personalized news app that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to analyze reading habits and suggest news stories based on individual preferences.

Here’s what you need to know about it.

The Artifact app: the future of news?

No doubt, the digital age has transformed the way people consume news, and traditional news outlets have struggled to keep up with the changing trends. As well as being a powerful tool for rapid communication, the rise of social media has also led to a rise in fake news and misinformation. The need for credible and accurate news sources has never been more important.

This is where Artifact seeks to fill the gap. Described as a news app that aims to provide a personalized news experience to its users, it uses AI and algorithms to learn about the news that’s most relevant to you over time. The more you use the app, the better it gets at recommending news stories based on your preferences.

How does Artifact work?

Artifact is designed to provide users with more control over their news reading experience. Users are able to fine-tune their feed to specific topics and block or pause publishers that they’re not interested in. The latest version of the app also includes several new features to improve the user experience. The app shows statistics on the categories users read, the recent articles they read within those categories, and the publishers they’ve read the most.

So where does the social aspect come in? Artifact allows users to sync contacts and after the fact, to see which articles are popular among their network. It’s similar to Twitter’s Top Articles feature, which shows articles popular with the people you follow, but Artifact’s feature is more privacy-focused. It won’t reveal who read the article or how many people read it, for example.

Kevin Systrom, Artifact co-founder, says the goal is to “expand the social experience to allow users to discuss news articles within the app”. The beta version, which was only available to testers, offered a Discover feed where users can share articles, like, comment, and vote on those shared by others. These votes go towards giving every user a “reputation score.” Sound familiar? That’s because it is – this aspect of Artifact is very similar to Reddit’s upvote, downvote, karma system.

Artifact: the Tik-Tok of news?

The Verge has also dubbed Artifact as “a sort of Tik-Tok for text.” Artifact offers a visually appealing and user-friendly interface that makes browsing news stories an enjoyable experience. The app’s algorithm curates a selection of news stories that match users’ interests and presents them in a scrolling feed. It also uses a card-based design that allows users to quickly swipe through news stories and easily share them with their network.

Public launch

Artifact was initially launched as an invite-only app, but as of very recently, has been made free for all. The app launch was postponed to generate consumer interest, and to collect data to ensure the best user experience. Now with a few weeks of testing under their belt, the founders are now confident that the app is ready for a larger audience. As such, they launched a social conversation component within the last week. After setting up a profile (in order to mitigate spam) users can now comment and interact on news stories.