Flipboard has announced that it’s bringing its notes feature to its iOS and Android apps, two months after it launched the feature on the web. The launch made Flipboard the latest contender in the battle to relocate some of the online conversations taking place on Twitter onto its own platform instead.
The notes feature offers an easy way to share ideas or start conversations, the company says. Flipboard’s curators can now publish original content into their magazine in order to engage with their readers in a conversation. You can also use a note to welcome new followers, or share your thoughts and ideas with them.
“Have you ever wished you could ask a question on Flipboard to get other people’s perspectives or recommendations? You can now, thanks to notes,” the company said in a blog post. “With their distinctive sapphire-colored background, notes not only let you express yourself and add your voice to your Magazine, they also provide an engaging way to connect with people who follow it. The responsive layout of a note shows when conversations are happening by displaying replies.”
You can create a note by opening the magazine you want to add to and tapping on the “Create” icon in the navigation bar. From there, you can start writing your note. You can also mention other users to add more context to the note. You will receive notifications about who’s responding to your notes, who’s mentioning you and who’s commenting on your notes. Notes that are added to magazines you follow may appear in your For You feed.
Flipboard says that notes are especially useful in Group Magazines, where multiple people are curating content together. In these instances, notes can provide a way for users to share their thoughts and start conversations.
The company believes the feature will allow curators to create small communities around a particular theme or interest. Flipboard first introduced the ability for users to create their own magazines in 2012, by finding articles and then “flipping” those into a magazine that others could follow in their own feeds. With the new notes feature, curators can now do more than share articles and other information, as they now have the option to post text notes, which can also include uploaded images or links.