FACEBOOK launches Notify, an iOS app that shows news notifications on your lock screen

Facebook has launched another standalone app into the world, this time to let you keep track of what’s going on in the world. Called Notify, it’s the control center for the news you want to receive, all from your mobile device’s lock screen. The app is available for iOS and can be downloaded from the Apple store.

“Everyone has different interests, so whether you’re into sports, celebrities, news, movies, music, or shopping, Notify makes it easy to find notifications you’re into with a broad selection of great ‘stations’ across a variety of categories,” product manager Julian Gutman wrote in a blog post. “Notifications are becoming one of the primary ways people first learn about things, wherever they are.”

You can create your own “mix” of notifications from across business, celebrity and gossip, culture, entertainment, fashion, food and drink, gaming, sports, and more. Facebook said that there’s also personalized tuning, meaning you can subscribe to the Game Summaries station from the Bleacher Report, and then choose to follow the Golden State Warriors within that station. Also, the mix will be fine-tuned based on what you’ve Liked or denoted you’re Interested in on Facebook. This is probably going to be good news for people who don’t want to be inundated by notifications about teams or specific things they just don’t care about.

Once you get a notification, you can ignore it, or just swipe or tap on it to open the link in the app’s browser, where you can read the full article, view the video, or peruse the rest of the site.

At launch, Notify will have news from at least 70 different media partners, including A&E, ABC, Billboard, Bloomberg Business, CBS Sports, CNN, Comedy Central, Cosmopolitan, Curbed, Discovery, E!, Elle, Getty Images, The Hollywood Reporter, Techmeme, Quartz, Sports Illustrated, The Washington Post, The Weather Channel, Groupon, GQ, and Harper’s Bazaar.

Search Apple store for Facebook Notify