Live streaming video is coming to Facebook, but it may not be the most noticeable feature coming to the News Feed in coming weeks.
Facebook will allow audio slideshows and other rich media straight to the News Feed in the coming weeks and months through Facebook developer partners. Media such as slideshows will be native to the News Feed instead of bringing users to Facebook’s video player. Inline News Feed HTML5-based media will be available from six select Facebook developer partners in the coming weeks.
The first six Facebook developer partners will be Sketchfab, SoundCloud, iHeart, ThingLink, Interlude, Vimeo and Sharalike according to sources familiar with the features. Each company will bring HTML5 features to Facebook in one form or another, depending on its expertise. SoundCloud can bring whole podcasts or independent music while Vimeo can use HTML5 to bring full videos or teasers to the platform.
Essentially, Facebook wants to vacuum up all the different types of content on the Web and bring it straight into the News Feed. HTML5 will be the vehicle of choice for this integration.
Sharalike is bringing audio slideshows to the News Feed. Right now you can create audio slideshows in Facebook now, but not native to the News Feed. For instance, you can post an audio slideshow to Facebook from Google Photos, but once you click it you will have to watch it in the Facebook player as opposed to in the News Feed. Essentially what these audio slideshows will do is treat the content as native to the News Feed instead of as a link to the media player, in the same way that Facebook currently handles video.
Boston-based Sharalike just released its integration of the feature, available through its iOS app and as a Web editor on its website. In addition to Facebook, Sharalike allows the slideshow to be embedded into websites (as an iFrame ), on Twitter or via email. From Twitter, the link will go back to the Sharalike website instead of playing inline on the Twitter feed.
At the time being, users need a business account through Sharalike to post links back to content in the slideshows. Sharalike built functionality for ARC as part of this story.
HTML5 And The Facebook Effect
Facebook is the most obvious company to be building new rich media features using HTML5. Especially when it comes to what plays directly inline the News Feed.
The News Feed is a phenomenon of modern media as Facebook is the center of the online communication and information dissemination world. As such, even the slightest of changes to the News Feed bring massive ire, scorn, frustration, elation and jubilation to millions of users across the world. When Facebook launched auto-play video in the summer of 2014, it was an instant sensation and helped memes like The Ice Bucket Challenge take off. What is and what is not showed in the News Feed has been the subject of intense academic, moral and political debate over the years.
The News Feed is so central to the online experience these days that it acts as its own king maker, advertiser and marketer. Publications, organizations, companies, apps and individuals that know how to take advantage of the News Feed can see huge benefits. If Facebook changes how it ranks media on the News Feed, those same entities can see a massive drop in traffic (see: Upworthy).
The audio slideshows and other rich media features bring a new dimension to the News Feed. If done right, the slide shows can stand out from the mass of static words and images that get posted to Facebook every day. The slideshows even differentiate themselves from video in the News Feed as a bit of a change up to the expected format. The News Feed is now becoming a full stack rich media stream that is both of and separate from the Web and the apps economy itself.
You can imagine how many of these slideshows such as Sharalike’s and other rich media inline with the News Feed will work by looking at the initial list of partners. SoundCloud can put snippets of podcasts straight into the News Feed while Vimeo can tease longer videos. Advertisers can use it to push traffic to websites or apps and brands can create small features that do not involve the preparation of full production videos. Sitting alongside video and the new live streaming features, Facebook is hacking rich media into the News Feed that can be used for just about any purpose.
*This article has been updated to better reflect the media various partners are working on.