Facebook brings 'watched,' 'want to read' and other buttons to mobile feed

With the new Timeline, Facebook users can share richer stories about the books, movies, TV shows and music in their lives.

The social network is beginning to get to the vision it set out at the expansion of Open Graph in 2011. Users don’t have to Like a book, they can read it. Similarly, they can watch a movie or listen to an artist. The latest profile redesign helps users list what they’ve read, watched or listened to, but also what they want to read, watch and listen to.

Over the past few weeks we’ve seen a number of new ways Facebook is helping users fill out these sections of their About page, including through desktop News Feed stories and Timeline modules. Now we’ve seen options on mobile, too. In the past, it hasn’t been very easy for users to update their profiles from mobile besides Liking things in the feed. Now, it’s easier to add a range of new information just by browsing News Feed and tapping a few buttons.

The following is an Open Graph story from Goodreads. Users can tap the plus sign to add a book to their own “read” or “want to read” lists.

A similar style is used for stories that come from Facebook directly rather than third-party apps. For example, if a user’s friend updates a section of their profile with a book, movie, TV show or musical artist, users can do the same by tapping on the plus sign.

On desktop, the function is nearly the same, except users have options to change their default privacy setting for the action.

Another action users can take from mobile is visiting a friend’s Timeline and browsing their movies, books, TV or music sections. From here, like on desktop, users can add more content to their own profile. If a user has already added an item to a list, a small checkmark will appear.

By getting user to connect with more things they care about or have experienced, Facebook can improve ad targeting, News Feed relevancy, Graph Search and recommendations.