Consumers will soon be able to access music, movies and news directly on their mobile devices through Facebook, now that Spotify, The Guardian, The Independent and Vevo have joined a new set of social apps.
These companies, along with Cinemur, MyVideo, Deezer and Dailymotion, are among 33 European launch partners taking part in the rollout of social apps designed to broaden Facebook’s role as a multi-entertainment platform.
Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the initiative at the company’s fourth annual f8 conference in San Francisco last week. He opened the event by introducing the new Timeline feature, which lets users compile a more complete record of their lives and interests on Facebook.
Timeline, combined with the new social apps, will let users listen to music, watch films and read news on mobile phones, smart TVs and PCs while sharing their activity with friends. For example, Spotify users will be able to listen to music with friends and post what they’ve been playing to their profile. Guardian app users can broadcast articles they’ve read to their Timeline; if they prefer to keep an item private, they can exclude it from sharing within The Guardian app or remove it later through their Activity Log.
Developers will be able to create custom actions for their apps built on Facebook’s “Like” social plugin model and define how their content is shared — using verbs such as “watch” or “read” — so those actions appear in users’ Timelines. This flexibility gives publishers and media services more control over how consumption is represented socially while improving discovery and engagement across platforms.
By integrating prominent media partners and enabling richer activity sharing, Facebook aims to make the platform a central hub for entertainment and information. Users benefit from seamless access to content across devices and the ability to tailor what they share. At the same time, publishers and music and video services gain a straightforward way to reach audiences and encourage social interaction around their content.
As these apps become available, people can expect more personalized, socially connected experiences when consuming music, video and news on Facebook — all while retaining control over what appears on their Timeline and Activity Log.