Hernando Álvarez, BBC World Service Americas Region editor
Users of the Facebook Messenger app can now subscribe to specific news feeds from the BBC’s Spanish-language news website bbcmundo, provided by an automated “newsbot” account.
Subscribers to the BBC Mundo Facebook Messenger newsbot will receive a headline and thumbnail image of news stories, which they can click on inside Messenger – and go through to bbcmundo.com. Using this app inside Facebook Messenger, users then can share these stories with their friends on Facebook and share their own content with BBC Mundo. The push alert is visible on the phone’s lock screen.
Facebook Messenger requires an Android, iOS or Windows phone. Users can subscribe to the newsbot via this link or by searching ‘BBC Mundo’ inside Facebook Messenger.
“There are now more users of messaging apps globally than there are users of social media platforms, and this fundamental change in digital and mobile behaviour has been accelerating over the past eighteen months. Facebook Messenger is one of the fastest growing chat apps in the world, and this will allow its Spanish-speaking users to access our world-class journalism directly inside the app on their phones,” said Trushar Barot, BBC World Service Mobile editor.
“BBC Mundo reaches over 20 million users in Latin America and the US Hispanic market every month. This innovative tool will help us grow our presence on this popular messenger platform, available to anyone with a smartphone, so we can reach new audiences and engage with them,” added Hernando Álvarez, BBC World Service Americas Region editor.
