ABC News on Facebook Messenger

ABC News has a new way for Australians to stay across the news, with the launch of a dedicated news service on Facebook Messenger.

It follows a major speech to The Wheeler Centre  Friday night, where ABC Managing Director Michelle Guthrie outlined the direction for the ABC in the era of social and mobile media. This comes as part of a series of changes to ABC Radio and ABC News, as revealed earlier by radioinfo.
  
With ABC News on Messenger, mobile users will now be able to get the latest headlines and stories, whenever they want, in a fast, informative and conversational format.

After a successful trial over the past few months, the service officially launched today.

ABC News on Facebook Messenger sends users a message each morning with the latest news summary and upcoming news events.

You can message the service whenever you want to find out the news you want to know, and opt-in to receive breaking news alerts. Time-pressed users have the choice of simply skimming the headlines, or can read the whole story if they wish

ABC Director of News Gaven Morris said: “Messaging apps have seen massive global growth over the past few years, especially among younger users, and offer a promising opportunity for ABC News to reach new audiences.

“Our goal is to make ABC News an essential part of people’s daily lives by engaging with whatever medium they are on.”

ABC News on Facebook Messenger offers:

A morning summary of what’s making news to get you up-to-speed, at a time that suits you
A digest of the latest news available at any time

  • Breaking news alerts
  • News alerts for particular categories, such as Politics, Business and Sport
  • Updates for special events – such as the Melbourne Cup, the Cricket Test and the US Election
  • A sneak peek at the day’s upcoming news events with our ABC News calendar
  • Good news stories from Australia and the world
  • A selection of long reads
  • The best ABC News analysis and opinion

During special events, such as the Melbourne Cup, first Cricket Test or the US election, users can get key questions answered, such as “Which horse won the Melbourne Cup?”, or “What’s the score at the WACA?”, or “What’s the latest in the US election?”.

ABC News has been trialing the service since August, following on from the successful launch of an ABC News 2016 Federal Election service on Facebook Messenger and Twitter.

News content in Messenger is delivered by ABC News Digital’s editorial team and the service is powered by a third-party provider, Chat fuel.

More than 11 million people in Australia use the Facebook Messenger app each month*.

How to sign up to ABC News in Facebook Messenger: Go to this link http://m.me/abcnews.au and follow the prompts. Alternatively, find ABC News in Messenger by searching for “ABC News”.

You can also find more information here on the ABC News website.

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