Facebook adds social app discovery to Android

Facebook today announced it is bringing social app discovery channels to native Android apps. In fact, all the groundwork was set up for this announcement with the release of Facebook for Android version 1.9 last week.

Facebook has already introduced social app discovery for mobile web apps on Android (see Facebook Platform on Mobile comes to Android ) and native apps on iOS (see The Facebook effect: Timeline app developers rule the App Store). Some app developers have seen great results as their work goes viral and millions of Facebook users go check out their apps every month.

Users can now discover native apps directly from Facebook for Android using the same social channels (Requests, Bookmarks, the News Feed, and so on) that are available on other platforms. 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. More details are available on Facebook Developers: Native App Linking for Android.

The release of Facebook for Android version 1.9 means social app discovery for native apps is available on both Android and iOS. In other words, if you have a cross-platform app, you'll definitely want to use Facebook to bring in some potential new users.

"Social channels like Bookmarks, Requests, and News Feed have been successful in driving the discovery and distribution of apps on the web, and the momentum is continuing on mobile with 7 of the top 10 iOS apps and 5 of the top 10 grossing Android apps integrated with Facebook," a Facebook spokesperson said in a statement. "The Android apps include: Live Holdem Poker Pro (#1), Zynga Poker (#3), Slot City – Slot Machines (#5), Slotomania (#6) and Draw Something by OMGPOP (#7)."

See also:

• The Facebook effect: Timeline app developers rule the App Store
• Facebook brings status update features to apps
• Facebook starts rolling out Timeline to everyone
• How to get started with Facebook Timeline
• A closer look at the Facebook Timeline and the Open Graph
• Facebook: "We're going to become a mobile company"