The largest social network is now bringing these games back to its Messenger and mobile app.
Facebook mobile games are on their way, says the company. The goal is to help to replicate the type of success they have seen on Facebook.com. According to the social network, 15% of the time spent on the website is from users playing games.
However, until now, those mobile games were not available on the Facebook mobile app.
Despite the fact that the majority of its users spend most of their time on the app, it didn’t include Facebook mobile games. Instead, the social network encouraged people to use Google Play or the App Store to download the games. They could not be played within Facebook’s mobile app itself.
It is precisely that limitation that will soon be changing. The company announced that it is rolling out Instant Games. This feature makes it possible for Facebook users to play some of their favorite mobile games inside Facebook Messenger and the main Facebook app.
Some of the Facebook mobile games that will be available include Words with Friends and Pac-Man.
This isn’t the first time the king of social media platforms has chosen to host content within itself. Previous efforts have included advertising and web articles among other things. The goal of this strategy is to ensure that users remain within the Facebook mobile apps for as long as possible. Hosting the content instead of sending users elsewhere is an important step in keeping them on the platform.
After all, if users can play mobile games while still in Facebook – where they already were – then why would they leave that app in order to use a different one?
This also presents a considerable mobile marketing opportunity for game app developers. The reason is that Facebook has a massive reach. Therefore, it can place a mobile game in front of a larger number of potential players. Moreover, because users can simply start playing as they don’t need to leave Facebook to download it. Eliminating that additional step can make it far easier to encourage users to give the game a try.
With 1.8 billion users, it is more than likely that Facebook mobile games will have quite the draw for developers and users alike.
The barcodes are actually being called Messenger Codes, although they look just like a redesigned version of a quick response code. On the other hand, the links are just as self-explanatory, as they come in the form of a regular URL that can be tapped in order to begin a conversation over Facebook Messenger. The URLs are designed in the form of m.me/username and are essentially an extension of the traditional vanity URL.