Good news if you follow any celebrities or professional athletes on Facebook, and you’re an Android user. In a blog post today, Facebook announced that Facebook Mentions would now be available for Android.
Facebook Mentions gives musicians, athletes, actors, and other notable people on the platform the ability to share live video, chat with fans, and host events for holding conversations directly from their phones. Although the feature allowing public figures the ability to connect with their millions of fans on Facebook has already been available on iPhones, those on Android devices were left out.
Celebrities initially used this feature for hosting live Q&A sessions where fans could send in questions, and the public figure could answer, with a sorting option for finding the top questions later.
According to the recent blog post, Facebook Mentions for Android has been in testing with public figures around the world. When the feature was first launched, over 800 million Facebook users were connected to public figures or people with verified Facebook Pages. Until Facebook Mentions became available for iPhone users, celebrity and fan interaction were often limited to platforms such as Twitter and Instagram. The feature was originally intended to close the gap and provide a method for public figures and their fans to connect and experience better interaction without leaving the platform.
Possibly as an attempt to compete with platforms like Periscope and Meerkat, Facebook recently made its Live Video feature, which was once only available to celebrities, available to everyone with an iOS device. While Facebook Mentions hasn’t entirely blown up among famous people, it could end up becoming a valuable feature for non-celebrities and those who may only need to interact with a few thousand people rather than the millions that many public figures must entertain on the platform.
