Facebook Announces Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, Samsung TV Apps
Bringing its video efforts into the living room, Facebook announced it will soon launch apps for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung Smart TV. It didn't clarify exactly when these will debut, but added that apps for other platforms are in the works.
The app will give Facebook members another way to watch videos from friends or followed Pages. The app will also recommend videos based on user interests. Members will be able to save videos for later viewing when they're on a desktop or mobile device, then view those saved videos on their TVs. The app announcement follows a news report from earlier this month that Facebook was creating connected TV apps to attract TV ad dollars. The social network is developing long-form programming with TV viewers in mind.
Facebook announced other video changes, as well, including the addition of audio to News Feed videos on mobile devices. Sound will fade in and out as users scroll through their feeds. Users who prefer silence can disable the feature by turning off the ability in their settings. Also, iOS and Android viewers will now see larger previews of vertical videos. Finally, mobile device users can now minimize videos and drag them to a corner of the screen, allowing them to scroll through their News Feed while the video plays.
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