Facebook which acquired the read-it-later startup Spool around two years ago, has finally put it to use by announcing a new feature called ‘Save’.
Clearly designed to compete with popular mobile app Pocket, Facebook’s new offering helps store links from News Feed and Facebook Pages, allowing users to view/read it later. This means, the next time you run through your inundated feeds section, you can simply mark an interesting article to be read later.
Introducing the new feature, Facebook writes in its official blog, “Every day, people find all sorts of interesting items on Facebook that they don’t have time to explore right away. Now you can save items that you find on Facebook to check out later when you have more time. You can save items like links, places, movies, TV and music. Only you can see the items you save unless you choose to share them with friends.”
The new feature is available for Android, iOS and web. ”While Save doesn’t cache content behind links like Pocket or Instapaper, it should give all Facebook users a quick way to stockpile links and content they find so they don’t have to interrupt their News Feed reading flow,” points out Techcrunch. This also means you will need an Internet connection to view the saved linked.
Moreover, the saved items can be viewed only by you, unless you choose to share a specific link with friends. Mobile users can view the items saved on the ’More’ tab or by clicking the link on the left hand side of Facebook on the web. The list is organised by category and lets you swipe right on each item to share it with your friends or move it into your archive list.
Facebook will also send out reminders of your saved items. The company will begin rolling out the new feature over the next couple of days.
