Facebook looks to drive app installs with ‘send to mobile’ button in News Feed

Facebook is testing a “send to mobile” button in the hover card that appears when users mouse over app stories in News Feed.

The feature, which initially launched as part of App Center, helps users discover mobile apps while browsing Facebook on desktop. If an app has a mobile component, users will see a “send to mobile” button when they hover over the name of the app within the feed. Clicking the button will send a notification to the user’s phone and link to the app’s mobile site or native app download page in the Apple App Store or Google Play.

“Send to mobile” is one of the stand-out features of Facebook’s App Center, however, users are more likely to learn about new apps from their friends through News Feed so it’s useful to have the button available here as well. Developers might also benefit from having a “send to mobile” option on their app’s Facebook fan page, and we’ve wondered if the social network would create a plugin that allows developers to put a “send to mobile” button on their websites.

Facebook has taken a number of steps to position itself as a “growth engine” for apps on the web and native mobile operating systems. In the past 30 days, Facebook sent users to the Apple App Store and Google Play 146 million times, via clicks from News Feed, Timeline, bookmarks and App Center. The company also announced this week a new mobile ad unit, which will link directly to an app’s download page.

This story originally appeared on our sister site, Inside Facebook

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One Response to “Facebook looks to drive app installs with ‘send to mobile’ button in News Feed”

  1. [新。潮]–臉書積極拓展應用程式功能 | WaveNet | 潮網科技 says:

    [...] 另外,當我們使用臉書以外的App,卻又想即時轉貼到臉書,現在,像Foursquare的打卡記錄、Instagram的照片等都可以事先設定好轉貼功能,不過像按讚、閱讀、加朋友或玩遊戲等就不是分享的重點。(資料來源:AllFacebook、Inside Facebook) 摘譯、整理:Elsa 網站連結: Facebook looks to drive app installs with ‘send to mobile’ button in News Feed [...]

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