With some enhancements announced today, Facebook’s video experience is designed to more closely resemble YouTube than ever before.
Several of the key features native to YouTube’s mobile app are now coming to Facebook videos. Perhaps the most notable new feature is the ability to collapse a video into a floating window.
Now, watching videos won’t take you away from engaging on Facebook — they’ve become part of the experience. Watching videos in a floating window will allow you to continue using Facebook while simultaneously watching a video.
When a video is done, a new feature being tested on iPhone will display a set of suggested videos for you to choose from next. If you’re really in the mood to watch Facebook video, you’ll be able to find nothing but video in Facebook’s new dedicated video feed.
The new video feed sounds like a News Feed exclusively for video, which can be accessed by tapping on the “Videos” icon on the bottom navigation menu of the Facebook app.
If you come across a video that sounds interesting, but for whatever reason you can’t watch it at that moment, you can save it for later. This works the same as saving saving articles to read later. Saved videos can be accessed via the “Saved” bookmark.
Facebook says in its early tests several of these new features have led to people watching more video content, which is great news for publishers.
However, these features are still in the testing stages and not everyone will have access to them at the same time. Sounds like a slow rollout right now, with no word on when we might be able to expect a full launch.
Image Credit: Bloomua / Shutterstock.com
