It must be flattering to be Marco Arment, creator of Instapaper and pioneer of putting articles aside to read in the bathroom. Imitators of his app are legion and Facebook has just added itself to the list. Its “save for later” feature is no Instagram, but it may not have to be.
The new service, which is rolling out today, according to iMore, is available on both Facebook apps and Facebook.com. When you’re on mobile, press a post you’d like to read at another time, and you’ll be prompted with the option to put it in a Saved folder. On your desktop, the option will appear as a button below each article.
The contents of your Saved folder are private, and you’ll be able to access them from your menu sidebar. Like Instapaper, it keeps interesting articles in your digital satchel for when you actually have time to read them. Unlike Instapaper, it doesn’t appear to let you read things offline, or format them prettily, or have advanced sharing features (which, presumably you’re already doing that, you’re on Facebook, dummy). Then again, it doesn’t cost anything either.
We haven’t seen the service pop up yet on our devices, but expect it to be hitting soon. [iMore]