Facebook Gaming App Goes Live - But Not For Everyone

Games have always been a big part of Facebook, but in the past few years, Facebook has been making a rather big gaming push. First, we saw a number of casual games rolled out through Messenger, then the company started to dive into game streaming in a big way – in some cases signing streamers who had already established audiences on Twitch to become exclusive streamers for Facebook.

Facebook has started to offer all of its gaming content – whether that's games, streams, or pages and groups dedicated to specific games – under one "Facebook Gaming" brand. Since fall 2018, it's offered a Facebook Gaming app in some regions on a rather small scale. Yesterday, we heard reports that Facebook was gearing up to launch this app globally, and now it seems that launch day has arrived.

Facebook announced the global release of the Facebook Gaming app today, meaning anyone with an Android phone can snag it from the Google Play Store. At the moment, there is no iOS version, but Facebook says that one is in the works for release at "a later date."

The Facebook Gaming app is more a less a hub where users can find Facebook's gaming content. If you're looking to play one of those casual games we mentioned before, you'll find it in the app. Streams? You'll find those in the app as well. You can even use the app to livestream gameplay content from your phone to Facebook, if you feel so inclined.

It sounds like we're getting this app a little earlier than anticipated, as Facebook says that it accelerated the launch "to encourage meaningful community interactions while advocating for social distancing during COVID-19." In any case, you can find the app over on the Google Play Store [download]; we'll let you know when more information about the iOS version surfaces.