Instagram’s co-founders are throwing open the doors to their new personalized news app, Artifact. Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger’s new app launched last month with a waitlist, but now anyone on iOS or Android can download Artifact to try it for themselves.
Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders, is now open to all
No more waitlist: you can try Artifact right now if you want.
No more waitlist: you can try Artifact right now if you want.
Image: Artifact
is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
Despite the pedigree of Artifact’s creators, it hasn’t revolutionized the way I consume news on my phone. There’s a home tab with a feed of articles Artifact thinks I will like, and while the feed generally has stuff that I’m interested in, the app’s algorithmic sorting means I’ll often be served days-old news that I don’t care about.
A “Headlines” tab offers collections of articles sorted by topics, but I don’t tend to swipe to it much. The profile tab, however, might be more interesting, thanks to a new feature that will visualize your reading history after you read 10 articles. My top three categories are apparently tech companies, gaming, and artificial intelligence (shocker!).
Artifact is introducing a few other new features, too. You’ll be able to thumbs-down an article to see fewer articles like it, a feature that I give a thumbs up. You’ll also be able to sync your contacts with the app, and if you do, the app will let you know about articles that are popular within your network. That sounds kind of like Nuzzel, and while it could be handy, I’m generally wary of syncing my contacts with an app, so I probably won’t use it.
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