Meta will stop supporting the Instant Articles feature on mobile for news sites in mid-April 2023.
Instant Articles was initially expected to be a push for Meta to enter the news industry, providing a feature to help news sites linked to Facebook optimize their content on mobile, helping to increase news download speed 10 times, as well as not having to go to the direct link of that newspaper.
However, this expectation did not come true when only "nearly 3% of Facebook users view posts with links to newspaper and news sites. As a business, it makes no sense to invest in areas that are no longer relevant to user interests."
Plus, in 2021 Google will no longer prioritize news articles that appear in search rankings using accelerated mobile page formats (AMP), making this Facebook feature even more worthless.
So, starting October 14, 2022, only partners who are monetizing this feature will have access to Instant Articles.
By mid-April 2023, Instant Articles will officially stop working, publishers must manually share article links on Facebook.
With business declining, Meta is making efforts to restructure, directing more resources into video-focused products and features like Facebook Reels.
