Facebook has said it is opening an App Center for mini-programmes that plug offerings such as Pinterest or Draw Something into the leading social network.
The App Center will spotlight free and paid applications that use Facebook’s social graph. It will be a part of the Facebook website, but also the company’s iOS and Android apps.
The App Center is designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook – whether they’re on iOS, Android or the mobile web. From the mobile App Center, users can browse apps that are compatible with their device, and if a mobile app requires installation, they will be sent to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.
“For the over 900 million people that use Facebook, the App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga,” explains Facebook in a blog post aimed at developers.
“The App Center is designed to grow mobile apps that use Facebook whether they’re on iOS, Android or the mobile web,” Facebook’s Aaron Brady said in a blog post.
“From the mobile App Center, users can browse apps that are compatible with their device, and if a mobile app requires installation, they will be sent to download the app from the App Store or Google Play.”
Facebook invited software developers to ready description pages for listing in the App Center, where applications will earn spots based on quality, popularity and other metrics.
“The App Center will become the new, central place to find great apps like Draw Something, Pinterest, Spotify, Battle Pirates, Viddy, and Bubble Witch Saga,” Brady said.
The App Center will also see Facebook moving beyond its historic focus on free apps that make money from advertising and/or in-app purchases.
“To support more types of apps on Facebook.com, we will give developers the option to offer paid apps,” explains the company. “This is a simple-to-implement payment feature that lets people pay a flat fee to use an app on Facebook.com.” Developers can request to sign up to a beta programme for this.
What’s interesting about App Center is the change of emphasis that it represents for Facebook. The social network’s app discovery has traditionally been focused on a mixture of virality – those messages that get posted in people’s news streams – and advertising.
The App Center will open in “coming weeks,” according to Brady.