You can now download Artifact, a news app that tailors stories to your interests, without joining a waitlist. The app, created by Instagram’s co-founders, is available for iOS and Android devices in most English-speaking countries. You can also use Artifact without providing your phone number unless you want to sync your account across devices.
Artifact has some new features as well, such as a social aspect. You can upload your contacts and see if an article is popular among them. A badge will show up next to a widely read story by your contacts.
However, you won’t know which contacts or how many have read it. This is to protect their privacy, according to Kevin Systrom who spoke to TechCrunch. But this also means that you have to share your contacts’ details with Artifact to use this feature.
Artifact may have used Twitter’s APIs to show what people you follow are reading (like Blue’s Top Articles feature), but that may not be possible anymore due to Elon Musk’s restrictions.
Artifact plans to add more ways for users to share and comment on articles within the app. The beta version already has a Discover feed where you can see what others are sharing. You can also like and comment on those shared articles.
The app also has a stats feature that shows you what categories and publishers you read most often. Artifact is also categorizing articles into more specific topics. You can now tell the app if you don’t like an article or publisher and it will show you less of them. You can also block publishers if you want.
