Facebook is Apparently Testing a New Browser that Will Not Need You to Leave the App

After recently rolling out a slew of new features for its app, now Facebook is testing out a new in-app browser which has been drastically improved. Facebook has been testing out this new in-app browser from December last year and it seems close to rolling it off.

As it is obvious from the screenshots, the UI has undergone a major revamp and along with it the browser also comes baked with new features. It is now that you will realize the old browser was just a bridge that hyperlinked to the stories along with a teeny tiny abstract, plus it also came with a “open with” option that would let users access the link on their favorite browsers.

So the screenshot of the latest browser shows off a field to actually input the URL which will allow users to access other pages within the Facebook browser. In the bottom, the article is accompanied by a bar which tells you how famous the article actually is, this however is done by displaying the “number of people talking about it” stats.
It is evident that Facebook wants to create a light yet effective browser that would not require the users to leave the app, thus in a way trying to foster a self-contained ecosystem (or a walled garden) of their own. This is something that the Facebook has already done with the videos, instead of hosting the videos on YouTube, it is doing so on its own video service. That being said, it would still be premature and foolish on our part to call the new browser full-fledged as it still doesn’t come with a Tab feature, something which is considered quintessential in any browser. The new browser has been made available to select iOS users and just like the other public test features, we are expecting a larger roll out in the imminent future.