Facebook is currently in the process of testing an experimental floating button designed for video suggestions, as several users of the most popular social network on the planet noticed the new feature in the main Android app of the service, Android Police reports. A number of screenshots proving the existence of the button show the element appearing in the main News Feed of the Facebook Android app, designed as a floating blue circle with a simple video icon located in its center. It’s currently unclear whether the floating button can appear in other sections of Facebook outside of the News Feed, but regardless, initial reports suggest that the new element serves only as a shortcut to Facebook’s list of recommended video content.
Tapping the newly added experimental button brings users to a curated video section of the app filled with suggested videos from a broad range of sources spanning traditional news outlets and entertainment-oriented publications, as well as platforms focused on educational content. The main Facebook app received a client-side update on Wednesday, but first sights of the button were only reported today, so it’s currently unclear whether the Menlo Park-based social media giant rolled out the feature with an update distributed through the Google Play Store or whether the functionality was delivered with a server-side command. Given the simple nature of the new button, the latter scenario seems more likely. Regardless, it seems that users who have received the feature are currently unable to disable it, though the element itself doesn’t conceal a major portion of the app’s user interface. Refer to the gallery beneath this writing to see the first screenshots of Facebook’s latest addition.
Given how this floating shortcut for video suggestions is only showing up to a limited number of users, Facebook is likely still in the early phase of testing the functionality, meaning that the feature might never be rolled out to all of the company’s users. However, the nature of the aforementioned button is in line with Facebook’s new focus on video content that’s been the basis of the firm’s content strategy in recent months, meaning that even if this particular feature never rolls out worldwide, something similar likely will.
