LinkedIn Updates App, Introduces Mobile Ads

LinkedIn has redesigned its Android and iOS apps – the first major update to the social network app in 20 months.

The update is focused on improving the presentation of the users news stream, which looks much sleeker, with a greater emphasis on images. Users can also now comment on or like individual posts directly from the stream. 

LinkedIn has also added customisation features and wider language support, bringing the total number of languages to 15.

But the key to this update is that LinkedIn will use it to test mobile ads for the first time. Sponsored posts will appear in the news stream, in a way thats not dissimilar to Facebook and Twitters mobile advertising. Its strictly an experiment for now, though given the importance of monetising its mobile offering – and the fact that LinkedIn introduced similar sponsored content to its iPad app not long ago – suggest that the ads are probably here to stay.

LinkedIn promises more updates to its mobile offering, singling out search and personalisation as areas that are set to improve, throughout 2013.

You can watch the promotional video for the revamped app, and see its shiny new UI in action, below: