A system transmits selected news feed stories to a client device in advance of receiving a request for news feed stories. As a result, stories are immediately available for viewing when a user interacts with the system. The system selects news feed stories to push based on criteria such as a likelihood that a user will interact with a story and the sizes of pushed stories. For example, the system selects news feed stories such that a total size of stories selected does not exceed a threshold value based on local memory at the client device. The system may determine a scheduled time at which the stories are selected and pushed. The scheduled time is based on factors including patterns of network connection speed or past user interactions, for example, a time range of the day during which the user most frequently viewed pushed stories.