In a move long overdue, Facebook videos on your phone or tablet will finally employ the Google Cast API. What this means for all you cat video and meme viewers is simple sharing is now just a button away.
In this official video, Facebook releases the long-awaited feature that allows users to either Chromecast or Airplay videos from the Facebook app.
The feature is launching on iOS first and will land in the Android App shortly after. While the list of Chromecast-enabled apps continues to grow, many have wondered when and/or if Facebook would add the needed API to get casting enabled.
Facebook Did Some Homework
Now that they have, it at least seems like they put some thought into the process. The app will allow real-time comments and queue features, giving it at least a bit of parity with the way YouTube can be leveraged with Chromecast. As you can see in the video above, users can start a video and, while watching it, queue up another to play after it. Nothing new if you’ve used YouTube and Chromecast together, but it’s still great to see this finally come to fruition. Hopefully this update will make it to the web experience as well in the coming months.
Once this is fully realized on Android, we’ll give it a test drive and report back on how the experience is. Sitting around with friends and sharing YouTube videos around the room via the big screen in the room is quite fun. The addition of Facebook videos being able to be shared in this way will be a fantastic addition to the expanding Chromecast family.