Artifact, the AI-powered news app from Instagram’s co-founders, is introducing a key new capability: the ability to post. Up to this point, the app has served as an aggregator for news and links from across the web, but users will now be able to directly upload posts to the app.
Mike Krieger, one of the co-founders of Artifact, unveiled their latest innovation during a discussion with Casey Newton at the Code Conference on Wednesday. This new feature allows users to share more than just links; they can now post titles, text, photos, and more. Furthermore, each post is given its own URL, making it easier to spread across different platforms. Krieger conceded that the app's new direction has a “flavor” of Twitter, potentially enabling it to emphasize the stories that are trending in the current day, much like what is seen on X, previously known as Twitter.
At the Code Conference on Wednesday, Krieger explained that Twitter was previously known for its watercooler-like experience — where people discussed the day’s news or its “main character”. He envisioned a similar experience with Artifact, but “we need to get more skill to really feel like that’s the case”. Krieger does not see Artifact as a Twitter competitor in terms of breaking news, instead, it would become a place that surfaces interesting content and attracts community discussions. He pointed out that “people’s interests run much deeper than news” and thus, Artifact has the potential to become “the next place where that can happen”.
Krieger and fellow Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom launched Artifact in January, and the company has quickly added features like AI-powered article summaries, text-to-speech, clickbait detection, and the ability to follow writers. Now, Artifact is taking a big step forward with the addition of a new posts feature, which could allow it to compete much more directly with social media giants like X (formerly Twitter) and Meta's Instagram and Threads. Robby Stein, Artifact's CEO, has confirmed that the feature will be available in the latest versions of the iOS and Android apps.