Artifact -The News App Created By Instagram Co-founders, Is Now Available To The Public

Artifact, the personalized news curation app created by Instagram’s co-founders, is now available for download on the Apple App Store in most English-speaking markets and on Android. The waitlist has been removed, and users no longer require a phone number to use the app, except to create an account and switch to a different device.

The team has added several new features, including a social element that allows users to upload their contacts to see if a particular article is popular among friends. A badge appears next to an article that has gained traction among contacts, but privacy considerations prevent users from seeing which specific friends have read a story or how many. Artifact has stats feature that shows the categories and publishers users read most frequently, and the app groups articles into more narrowly defined topics.

In the future, Artifact will add a way for users to share and comment on articles within the app. The beta version already has a Discover feed that shows what people are sharing, and users can like and comment on those shared articles. The app also allows users to indicate when they don’t like an article or publisher and will show them less of that content. Blocking publishers is also possible.

Overall, Artifact’s suggestions become more tailored to a user’s preferences the more they use it and provide feedback. It reminds the author of Facebook’s old Paper app, which was their favorite Meta creation to date. Although Artifact lacks Facebook’s social graph, its creators’ track record suggests the app has a good chance of success.