Facebook Gets More In-Your-Face

facebook this week announced new features for News Feeds videos, along with an app for TV.

News Feed videos now have sound turned on by default in mobile devices. This can be disabled in the Settings menu.

A larger format to present vertical videos now is standard on iOS and Android devices. The feature became available as a preview last year.

A Watch and Scroll feature lets users minimize the video they're watching and drag it to any corner of the screen so they can continue browsing their News Feed while the video is playing. Android device users can keep the video playing even when they exit the Facebook app.

Facebook also announced a video app for TV, which it promised to roll out soon to Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV. More platforms will be added later.

The app lets users watch videos shared by friends or posted on Pages they follow. It lets them watch previously saved videos, and revisit videos users have shared, watched or uploaded. It also recommends videos.

"Facebook continues to innovate with a focus on the user experience," remarked Cindy Zhou, a principal analyst at Constellation Research.

"Competition is fierce for user time and attention on video platforms," she told TechNewsWorld, "and the new video features on mobile devices can give Facebook a competitive edge against YouTube and SnapChat."

source:technewsworld.com