You may have noticed how Facebook’s News Feed works: When you interact with several posts from a certain category, you will end up seeing more of them subsequently. For example, if you like someone’s posts, Facebook’s AI will continue to serve you with more posts from the person in your Newsfeed. Same case with video, if you consistently watch videos, as expected you will see more and more videos on your newsfeed. This can be annoying when it comes to videos and Facebook has a solution for this: Suggested videos.
Currently only available to iOS users, suggested videos enables you to discover those related videos in a row in one place so that you can be able to catch up with them either in the moment or later on. If you want to view this videos later on, Facebook allows you to do that where they are testing a button that allows you to save this videos, which is essentially like bookmarking them so as to view them later.
In addition, Facebook too rolled out a way to let you watch video as you scroll down the video newsfeed. The video that you are currently watching will “float” on the screen and you can drag the video anywhere on the screen as you scroll. This functionality was rumoured earlier and it mimics what some smartphone manufacturers have implemented in their custom video players.
Finally, Facebook is testing a dedicated hub where people will only visit to watch only video. You will be able to discover new video content that are being shared on Facebook and in typical Facebook fashion, you’ll see what is relevant to you. This can be accessed by tapping on the Videos icon at the bottom bar on the Facebook for iOS app or on the web in the “Favourites” section.
Suggested videos have been rolled out to iOS users globally but the dedicated Video hub is only being tested only among a small subset of users. However for Android users, the suggested videos will be rolled out in the next few months.
Facebook has been serious about video for a while now. They are rivaling YouTube in terms of the view count and recently launched 360 degree videos. They are also testing a video button that lets you wish someone a happy birthday which will make those birthday wishes more personal than ever. The social network’s video ambitions are impressive and it won’t be long if in the future, it would be the leading video hosting platform in the social media landscape.
