Facebook will enable custom 'action links' for reacting to shared content

02.05.2012
Facebook will add a set of "action links" to its social networking service that give users a third way to react to posts in their news feeds, in addition to liking or sharing them, the company said Wednesday.

For example, if a user shares a recipe from a recipes app, a friend can save the recipe into their own account by clicking a "Save This Recipe" link beneath the post. If the friend hasn't installed the app, they'll be prompted to do so. Each action, in turn, creates another story in Timeline.

Facebook highlighted share, watch, listen and read in its to the feature, but developers will be able to create additional customized actions.

Facebook said the action links "will drive more distribution" of apps with fewer clicks.

For several months, Facebook has allowed developers to customize how a status update reports their users' activities with verbs like "listened" and "read." The action links announced today will extend that functionality to users' friends' reactions to status updates.

Facebook has often to the active sharing verbs that Timeline introduced as a boon to apps and websites that integrate well with the new format.