Artifact, the new app from the co-founders of Instagram, is now available to everyone

Artifact, TikTok text news, is available to everyone. A very interesting and no less spectacular concept from the co-founders of Instagram.

Artifact, a personalized current events curation app developed by the co-founders of Instagram, has eliminated its waiting list. The application is available to everyone directly in the Apple App Store in most English-speaking countries, as well as on Android. Starting today, you no longer need to enter your phone number to use Artifact, unless you want to create an account and switch to another device.

Artifact, TikTok text news, accessible to everyone

Elsewhere, the team of Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger added more features, including a social element. Now you can upload your contacts to see if your relatives have followed a particular article. An icon will appear next to an item that has been popular enough among your contacts.

Kevin Systrom told TechCrunch that you can’t tell if a friend has read a particular article or how many. There is also a threshold that must be exceeded for the icon to appear, so you can’t take advantage of the single contact functionality and know exactly what it reads and what it doesn’t. This was apparently done for privacy reasons, but they overlooked the fact that you have to hand over your contact details in order to use it in the first place.

In another era, Artifact could tap into Twitter to see what the people you follow are reading — much like the Featured Articles feature for blue followers. But since Elon Musk decided to significantly restrict the Twitter API, this option is probably no longer an option.

A very interesting and no less spectacular concept from the co-founders of Instagram

Finally, Artifact will provide users with the ability to share and comment on articles within the app. The currently available beta contains a Discover feed of what people are sharing. Of course, you can like and comment on these general articles.

The app also offers a stats feature to view the categories you visit the most as well as the publishers you read the most. Artifact also groups articles into more specific areas of interest. And you can also indicate that you don’t like the article or the editor so that the app shows you less. You can cleanly and simply block the editor.

I have been using Artifact for a few weeks now and I must say the experience is very pleasant. No wonder the offerings have narrowed down a lot over time to my interests, with what I read and what I don’t want to see. The app is reminiscent of Facebook’s old Paper app. Artifact has nothing to do with Facebook’s social graph, but since the Instagram teams are working on this project, it’s safe to say that this new app will have some success.

It’s not a launch without a little video ? Join us at @ARTIFACT_News! pic.twitter.com/QrdXctfNl1

— Kevin Systrom (@kevin) February 22, 2023