Facebook rolled out some updates this week around options for watching video on the platform, including a new video app for TVs. That is promised soon in app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Samsung Smart TV. More platforms are to come, according to the company, but they weren’t named.
Last year, the company gave users the ability to stream videos from Facebook to the TV, and the company is expanding the capability. With the app, people can watch videos shared by friends or pages they follow, top live videos, and recommended videos based on interests. They also can save videos to watch later, and replay videos they’ve watched, shared, or uploaded.
On the sound front, Facebook also is revealing some changes. Previously, videos in users’ news feed played silently and they tapped to enable sound. Facebook reports it tested “sound-on” and got good feedback so it plans to begin to roll out an update “slowly” in which sound fades in and out as users scroll through videos in News Feed. Phones set to silent will not play with sound. Users also can disable the feature.
The company also reports in a blog that it’s aiming to make vertical videos look better on mobile devices. “Last year we began testing a larger preview of vertical videos in news feed on mobile. People responded positively, so that larger format is now available to everyone watching videos on iOS and Android,” it says.
