Sharing links through the Facebook mobile app can sometimes be frustrating, especially when you have to search for a page in your browser and then jump back and forth between two apps to get it right. Now Facebook Inc is reportedly testing out a new feature that would allow users to search for and share links directly from within the Facebook mobile app.

Recently, several iOS users have noticed a new button called “Add A Link” in their Facebook app. Tapping the button prompts users to find a website using a search bar, and after viewing previews of those pages, they are given the option of sharing the link they selected directly through a status update on Facebook.

Facebook has yet to explicitly confirm the new feature, but a Facebook spokesperson told TechCrunch, “We’re piloting a new way to add a link that’s been shared on Facebook to your posts and comments.”

Trapped in Facebook

“Add A Link” would be yet another feature released by Facebook intended to keep users on its app instead of forcing them to open their browser. While this could be faster or more convenient for users, it also ensures that people keep looking at the Facebook app and all of the sponsored ads that come with it.

Facebook is taking a similar approach to its Messenger app, which the social media giant is turning into its own developer platform. This would allow Facebook to offer third-party apps that would still keep users within its own ecosystem.

That would be good news for both Facebook and the businesses who use it as an advertising and social selling platform. There have been predictions that Facebook could reach over 2 billion monthly active users by the end of the decade, accounting for roughly a quarter of the current estimated population of the entire world.

That puts Facebook in an excellent position as an advertising platform, and with the company’s Internet.org initiative opening up new markets for the social network in countries like Colombia and India, Facebook could have a natural monopoly on internet advertising in several emerging economies. Of course, this has also put Facebook at odds with net neutrality supporters in some of those countries.