Facebook has officially confirmed through the mouth of its Vice President of Partnerships Dan Rose and via a press release that it’s indeed planning to launch a video-focused Apple TV app soon. The forthcoming app will let users kick back and watch Facebook videos from the couch. Rose has confirmed the development at the Code Media conference in Dana Point, California. The Wall Street Journal was first to report that Facebook was working on an app for set-top boxes back in January.
“Today we’re announcing a new Facebook video a
pp for TV, which will roll out soon to app stores for Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV and Samsung Smart TV, with more platforms to come,” reads the press release.
The software will allow owners of the fourth-generation Apple TV to watch videos shared by friends or Facebook Pages they follow, including top live videos from around the world as well as recommended videos based on their interests.
You can also catch up on videos you’ve saved to watch later, as well as revisit videos you’ve watched, shared or uploaded, the social network has confirmed.
Facebook recently launched a feature that lets you stream videos to smart TVs.
In other Facebook news, the company said the users can now keep watching videos while browsing other stories in their News Feed in the mobile app. To use this feature, simply minimize the video you’re watching to a picture-in-picture view that keeps playing in the corner of the screen while you browse your News Feed.
You can drag the video to any corner of the screen, but it won’t keep playing when you exit the app. Additionally, vertical videos now look better in News Feed, with the larger vertical format now available to everyone watching videos on mobile.
And last but not least, videos in News Feed that have previously played silently will now start playing in News Feed with sound on and fading in and out as you scroll through the various clips in your News Feed.