Facebook begins testing feed to watch and share videos

In a move to take on video sharing site YouTube , Facebook is testing a new feature that will allow people to go and exclusively discover, watch and share videos that are relevant to them. According to Will Cathcart, vice president (product management) at Facebook, they will be testing a dedicated place on Facebook for people to go to when they exclusively want to watch videos - whether those are videos they have saved for later or videos from friends. It can be accessed by tapping a ‘Videos’ icon at the bottom of the Facebook app on iPhone or in the ‘Favourites’ section on the left-hand side of News Feed on the web. “We will be testing this with a small number of people now, so this isn’t something most people will see on Facebook right away. We look forward to seeing how people use it to discover, watch and share videos with their friends,” Cathcart wrote in a blog post on Tuesday. The company will allow people to watch clips on a floating screen while continuing to scroll through Facebook like people can do on YouTube. In August, Facebook announced that public figures can share live video with their fans via its feature titled Mentions. In addition to helping people find more videos they may be interested in, Facebook knows people sometimes want to multitask while they watch videos. “To make this possible, we are testing a way for people to watch a video in a floating screen while simultaneously multitasking on Facebook,” Cathcart added. Suggested videos is one of the features Facebook has been testing on iPhone. “We are pleased with initial results which show that people who have suggested videos are discovering and watching more new videos,” he wrote. Facebook is also starting suggested videos on the web and plans to test on Android phones in the coming months. “To make it easy to return to the videos you’re interested in, we’ve been testing a button that allows you to save a video to watch later, which can be accessed in your ‘Saved’ bookmark,” the company posted. IANS