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Facebook incorporates social app discovery channels into its Android app

Earlier this week, the folks over at Facebook rolled out version 1.9 of its Android app. Unbeknownst to us, the app actually included a new feature that is outlined by Facebook on its blog today. With this latest update, Facebook is bringing social app discovery channels to native Android apps. The update also makes Android now on par with iOS, which has had this feature for a few months. Over on the iOS side, users have enjoyed apps like Pinterest and Words with Friends.

Facebook announced: “Users can now discover native apps directly from Facebook for Android using the same social channels, such as Requests, Bookmarks, and News Feed, that are available on other platforms.”

I know the way Facebook explained it is a little confusing, but essentially you will now be able to launch an Android app that has Facebook integration from right inside of the social network’s app. Let’s say you have Word with Friends linked to your Facebook account, you will now be able to launch the Android app directly from the Facebook app. Facebook’s Alex Wu showed off the feature on video.

As for developers who want to enable this on their apps, Facebook explained how they can get it going: “Once you have a mobile optimized version of your app ready with Facebook Single Sign On, simply go to app settings, enable Android Native Deep Linking, and fill out the required fields.”

The video really explains it all.

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