Facebook will be opening up its Instant Articles initiative, which enables stories in its core app to load much faster than regular mobile pages, to all publishers on 12 April at its F8 conference.

“Slow loading times on the mobile web created a problematic experience for people reading news on their phones. This is a problem that impacts publishers of all sizes, especially those with audiences where low connectivity is an issue,” the company said in a blog post, explaining its decision.

It said that while it has been getting feedback and making improvements to Instant Articles, it has also been building the tools to open up Instant Articles more broadly.

“Instant Articles uses the languages of the web and works with publishers’ content management systems, and we have documented an open standard that is easy for publishers to adopt,” it said.

The social media giant added that publishers have full control over the look of their stories, as well as data and ads, and that media organisations and journalists are an integral part of Facebook.

In December, it launched an Android version of the service and also introduced it in Latin America and Asia for iOS users.