Crafting a status update on Facebook is now a bit more in-depth thanks to a recent update. When using the latest version of Facebook for Android and iOS, the software can now automatically detect the song or television show you're watching and add it to your status update if you'd like.
The new feature is called audio recognition and kicks in as soon as you start typing an update. You'll be able to opt-in to it the first time via a new button in the status creation window - after that, it'll be enabled by default.
Whenever it's in use and a match is found, a badge will appear over the Facebook feelings button. In real-world testing, the service was typically able to find a match within five seconds or so.
It's similar in function to audio tagging services like Soundhound and Shazam which take about the same amount of time to locate a match. It is not clear at this hour how it'll be able to handle things like bad cell phone reception and background noise. Furthermore, Facebook's media catalog that it compares against is extremely small with only 160 TV channels and a few million songs on tap thus far.
It's worth pointing out that Facebook created the technology for the feature completely in-house over the past year. Services like Shazam, meanwhile, employ a couple of hundred people and have spent years refining their technology.
Do you think this will be a feature that you will ever use?