Passive listening will soon be a feature for Facebook app during status updates
Facebook has added a new feature to its mobile app as of Wednesday that uses a phone's microphone to identify ambient TV shows, music, or movies and include them in status updates. The feature is off by default, though the app offers to turn it on in an intro screen that it pops up for users.
Facebook has lately made a push into encouraging its users to talk about trends by introducing hashtags and a list of topics people are discussing on the site (Nicki Minaj, Aaron Hernandez, and Petco are some on this reporter's news feed, presently). The microphone trick is likely meant to make status updates more uniform so that cataloging can be more seamless. But it works passively, not on command, so any time a user writes a status update, their phone will be listening to surrounding noise.
