Artifact, Instagram founders’ News app, to shut down next month

Artifact, a that also allowed users to create and share their content, is closing down its operations next month. The app was co founded by Kevin Systrom and Mike Kreiger, the former founders of Instagram, which was acquired by Meta (formerly Facebook) in 2012. In a on Friday, Systrom, who is also the CEO of Artifact’s parent company Nokto, Inc., announced that the app will be winding down its operations by the end of February, citing a lack of market opportunity and user engagement.

Artifact was launched in private beta in January last year, to provide a personalized and for its users. The app used artificial intelligence to suggest news articles based on the users’ interests and preferences, as well as to summarize, rewrite, and rank the content. The app also had a social media component, where users could create their posts by finding and sharing interesting links from around the web.

Users could also like and comment on other users’ posts, and follow their favorite writers. However, Artifact struggled to define its identity and value proposition in the crowded and competitive market of news and social media platforms. The app faced competition from established players like Twitter, Pinterest, SmartNews Apple News, and Meta’s own Instagram, which recently launched a new feature called Threads, which allows users to create and join conversations around topics they care about.

Systrom said that the decision to shut down Artifact was not an easy one, but it was necessary to avoid wasting resources and time on a product that did not have a clear future. He thanked the users, partners, and employees who supported the app, and said he was proud of what the team had built. He also said that Artifact will keep its core news reading feature active till the end of February so that users can continue to access the news articles they have saved or followed.

However, the app will disable the ability to create new posts or comments, as these features require moderation and oversight, which the team cannot provide. Users will also be able to view their previous posts on their profile self view, but they will not be able to edit or delete them. Systrom said that the team wanted to give the community time to adjust to the change and that they would provide more details on how to export or delete their data from the app soon..