Facebook doesn't want to just be the hub for all your friends' news; it wants to be the center for all the news in your life. And apparently, just adding a major notification upgrade within the Facebook app wasn't enough. Today, the social network launched a wholly separate app that's entirely dedicated to notifications. It's called Notify, and it delivers breaking stories from outside sources directly to your phone.
Notify wants to keep you informed, show you the news you want to see, and, most importantly, keep you within the Facebook ecosystem. Like the "notification" tab in the regular Facebook app, Notify alerts users to changes in the weather, sport stats, and upcoming movie times. You choose what sort of things you want to be notified about by subscribing to different stations, such as Business, Culture, or Fun. Thanks to partnerships with heavy-hitting news sources (ABC, CNN, The New York Times), lifestyle brands (Racked, Epicurious, Wired), and more, users can customize their feeds to an even greater extent. And after subscribing to your favorite publications, you can receive suggestions for other sites and sources to follow through the app.
Notify proves its worth by taking steps to prevent total news inundation — something that could happen if you followed a ton of sites in the app. If you don't have time to read something right now, you can save stories to a "read later" page (useful for keeping lengthier, more in-depth stories from falling by the wayside). You can also browse a feed of the day's updates in the app (sounds a bit like Twitter, minus the 140-character limit). Users can also share news via email, text, or (duh) through Facebook.
Notify is available for download on the iPhone today. May your lock screen never be empty again.
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