Facebook login available for Microsoft's Windows 8, Windows Phone 8

Microsoft and Facebook are making it possible for Windows Phone 8 and Windows 8 developers to add Facebook Login access to their applications.

Microsoft and Facebook announced on November 14 that developers can get access to the documentation and the application programming interfaces (APIs) through Microsoft's Windows Developer, Windows Phone Developer and Facebook developer sites and blogs.

"Facebook Login for Windows 8 is ready to use in production applications, and for Windows Phone 8, Facebook Login is being launched today as a beta. We expect the beta period to last 60 days or less and encourage developers to try it out and give us feedback," said Microsoft officials in a new blog post.

Facebook Login is meant to be used alongside and/or as an alternative login option to Microsoft Account. It's not designed to replace Microsoft Account logins.

Facebook Login is aimed at helping consumers more easily get "past an identity screen" by being able to tap into Facebook credentials stored on the device. By simplifying sign up and sign in, Microsoft is hoping to get more users to make use of more Windows and Windows Phone apps.

Making use of Facebook Login also allows developers to build into their Windows and Windows Phone apps the ability to share high scores and other app events to Facebook, play games agains Facebook friends and share and access photos inside an app.

Microsoft execs noted that Foursquare and IHeartRadio are going to be using the Facebook Login API on Windows devices, as will Adobe, which is implementing the Facebook Login API on Adobe Revel and Photoshop Express.