The craze around Facebook Live might be a thing of the past, but Meta is still trying to make the platform video-friendly. The company has announced a new video player for uniformly displaying Reels, longer content and Live videos on the Facebook app.
One of the biggest shifts is that all of Facebook’s videos will now appear full-screen — even landscape-oriented ones. Videos will automatically play vertically, but you can now turn your phone on its side to watch most horizontal content across your entire device.
Like many videos on TikTok, Facebook will now offer a slider at the bottom of the screen, letting you quickly move through the video. The update also brings some of the same features streamers like Netflix offer in their apps, such as the option to jump forward or backward by 10 seconds. Meta claims that you will now get “more relevant video recommendations” of all lengths appearing on the video tab and in your feed. The company will also be increasing the number of Reels shown on Facebook.
The video player is rolling out now to Android and iOS users in the United States and Canada, with the new controls launching in the next few weeks. The entire update should be available globally in the coming months.
