Another day, another feature being tested at Facebook. This time around, it looks like the company is working on a seriously improved in-app browser.
Here’s the old one that most people are used to seeing:
And here’s the new one:
@MattNavarra is this in-app browser new to the @facebook app? pic.twitter.com/aIhYSp2kC9
— Henry Wilmer (@HenryWilmer) January 16, 2016
It’s worth noting the company has been testing it for at least a couple of months; the earliest mention we can find is around December 4.
Aside from the aesthetic shift, there seem to be a several new features to help it approximate a real browser. Not as if that were a difficult task; the old browser didn’t do much beyond loading the page you wanted to read and following hyperlinks to other sites.
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Up top, it looks you can now actually input your own URL should you want to check another page without leaving the Facebook app. You might want to fact-check a detail on an article you read, for instance, or define a word you didn’t understand.
Meanwhile a new bar on the bottom tells you how popular a post is, includes back and forward buttons (finally), lets you bookmark pages, and has a menu button which likely includes a few more features too (unfortunately we can’t access the new browser ourselves yet).
Just about the only big feature that appears to be missing now is tab support. It’s obviously a huge omission, but it might only be a matter of time given all the other features the company is adding.
It’s also an interesting contrast to Instant Articles. While those are bare-bones renderings of publications in order lessen load times, the new browser is instead quite close to approximating a full-fledged app.
Still, both options have the same goal: make sure you never need to leave the Facebook app. With a good enough browser, the Facebook app could essentially become a self-contained ecosystem of its own.
Who knows, it might even be a sign a dedicated Facebook browser could pop up somewhere along the road. Until there are tabs, it wouldn’t stand a chance, but given how many people already load articles from Facebook (read: a lot), improving the browsing experience is a sensible move for the company.
Don’t be surprised if you don’t see the browser yet. It’s only available to a small subset of users (iOS only, as far as we can tell), but most public test features end up receiving a wider roll-out a few months later. We’ve contacted Facebook for more information and will update this post if we hear back.
➤ @Henry Wilmer [Twitter]
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