Facebook, Inc. is reported to be working on a breaking news application that has been compared to being some what like that provided by Twitter, Inc.

According to Business Insider who claims to have seen screenshots and spoken to a “source,” the new application is part of the Facebook for Business initiative but works differently from a previously announced initiative “Facebook for Work.”

The app, allegedly currently in alpha testing, allows users to choose partner publications they want to follow on the new application, along with any topics (apparently called “stations” and “substations”) they want to receive breaking news from.

Like Facebook’s previously announced “Instant Articles” feature, the company is said to be looking at working only with select publishing partners to provider content for the service, with those publishers being able to create mobile notification that will “blast” out to followers of the feed instantly.

Alerts are said to be limited to 100 characters and a link to the article, and publishers will only be able to link to their own content, not content provided by others.

Meh

While obviously the details are sketchier than Business Insider founder Henry Blodget appearing before the United States Securities and Exchange Commission, what the application sounds like is nothing more than yet another breaking news service versus anything even remotely like Twitter (noting that Twitter can be used that way,) and given Facebook’s near on obsession with launching new services with limited launch partners, a lame one at that.

While Facebook has been fortunate in being able to remarkably continue to grow its user base quarter on quarter despite the occasional suggestion that it was no longer “cool” among younger users, that growth can’t last at the rates it has forever and the company needs to continue to innovate and provide value adds and related services to keep users coming back to Facebook, and to attract new users to the Facebook ecosystem.

At this stage this app doesn’t sound anything like it will bring new users to the Facebook ecosystem, but if they eventually open it up beyond “selected” partners, subsequently providing a diverse range of content providers, it could potentially find a niche audience, but niche is about as far as it will ever likely get.