Bringing sound to videos in news feed to making changes to the vertical videos look and feel, it seems Facebook is leaving no stone unturned in its attempt to outdo rival Alphabet’s YouTube. The social giant has now confirmed on its new video app for TV to attract viewers and snag ad dollars from its competitors. The dedicated video app for TVs will roll out soon to app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV, with more platforms to come.
According to Facebook’s announcement, “Our video app for TV is a new way to enjoy Facebook videos on a bigger screen. Last year we rolled out the ability for you to stream videos from Facebook to your TV, and today’s announcement expands this capability. With the app, you can watch videos shared by friends or Pages you follow, top live videos from around the world, and recommended videos based on your interests. You can also catch up on videos you’ve saved to watch later, as well as revisit videos you’ve watched, shared or uploaded. We look forward to seeing how people use the app to enjoy Facebook videos in a new way.”
Facebook also elaborated few other updates on its video services. Earlier, videos in news feed were played silently. A user has to tap on a video to hear sound. After testing sound on in news feed and hearing positive feedback, the company is planning to present it to more users. However, there may be many users who would not appreciate the sound intrusion on the device without their permission. Fortunately, there are ways to disable automatic sound in auto-play videos by following these simple steps.
Also, toeing the lines of Snapchat’s success with vertical videos, the company has put efforts to make its vertical videos look better on mobile news feed. The larger format is now available to everyone watching videos on iOS and Android. It’s now possible to minimize the video you’re watching to a picture-in-picture view that keeps playing in the corner of your screen while you browse other stories in news feed.
The social network plans to launch the new TV app in the next few weeks.
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