Facebook announced Wednesday that it’s testing the option for users to access their News Feeds offline.
The move is aimed at helping those in emerging markets or with poor internet connections, the company announced in a blog post.
“Our mission with News Feed is to connect people with the stories that matter most to them, but if people’s News Feeds aren’t loading because of poor internet connections, we can’t show them the most relevant stories,” according to the post. “To improve News Feed so it works seamlessly and quickly for people in all parts of the world, we’re focused on designing it to operate well regardless of device or network connection.”
One new feature being implemented has to do with showing users relevant posts when their connections are slow. “We are now testing an update in which we look at all the previously downloaded stories present on your phone that you have not yet viewed, and rank them based on their relevance,” according to the company.
Those posts will be updated periodically when the users has an internet connection.
Facebook is also allowing those offline to prepare comments to posts despite being offline. Those will be made public once a connection is restored.
The social media site already allows people to like and share posts while offline.
On Thursday, Twitter said it was testing the ability to show ads to people checking the service without logging in.
