Facebook looking at feature that lets you save links to read later

Given the vast number of links shared on Facebook on a daily basis you’d think it would have twigged that an in-built service allowing you to save content would’ve been a no brainer. By the looks of things though, the company’s only just getting around to trying it out now.

Evidence of this comes courtesy of technology blog Mytechskool, which managed to get its hands on some mobile screenshots that show off a ‘save for later’ function similar to those of Pocket and Instapaper.

The feature comes in the shape of a book-like button that’s attached to stories in your news feed. Click on the icon, and the link will be set aside in a “saved” section of your menu.

Facebook is reportedly refusing to confirm of deny the existence of the feature. If it is making a go of it though, it would be consistent with Mark Zuckerberg’s assertion that the social network “wants to give everyone in the world the best personalized newspaper in the world”.

Trouble is, the beauty of apps like Pocket and Instapaper is that you can pretty much save links from anywhere (although that’s more true on desktop than mobile). Intuitively then, a more limited Facebook function is unlikely to be as popular.

That said, if it does take off, it could see people spending more time on Facebook and its mobile apps in particular. In turn, that could help buy it more time to transform from a service that’s merely adapted for mobile, to one that’s actually built for it.