Facebook gave an early peek to its TV video app back in early February and now, it’s available to the public. The social media network’s video watching application can be downloaded for fourth-generation Apple TV users, according to a report from 9to5Mac.
In the application, you can watch videos and live streaming broadcasts on your home TV from your friends, other pages and publishers. Users will also be able to receive recommendations on content to watch based on their past viewing history and can also bookmark videos for later viewing on other devices with Facebook. As TechCrunch notes, the Facebook video app’s release for Apple TV users follows it dropping for Samsung users Monday. A release date has not yet been announced for the app on Amazon Fire-based TVs.
Technically, users have been able to watch Facebook videos on their TV for a while via options like Apple TV mirroring or Google Chromecast. But functionally, the biggest emphasis and selling point for the new app is its convenience. Instead of having to daisy chain video through several devices, Facebook’s video app means that you simply have to turn on your TV in order to start watching Facebook videos.
This focus is very much intentional on Facebook’s part, as the social network’s moves in the past year have focused on making the site much more of a video-native platform. Through investments and various Newsfeed tweaks, Facebook wants users to become used to watching Facebook video, whether they’re browsing on their phone and desktop or at home on their TV.