Facebook now allowing Google to index its mobile app

The need to use Google Search is becoming less and less prominent in today’s society, as mobile apps are now able to do much more than they were in the past. To keep its search engine relevant, Google has been using something called App Indexing that displays a developer’s app content in Google Search results. This helps ensure that users who have a developer’s application installed will be able to open content within the app directly from Search results.

In the past, Google has been able to crawl through and index Facebook user profiles and other pertinent information through the social network on the web. Now, Facebook is allowing Google to index its mobile application, according to The Wall Street Journal. This new agreement between Facebook and Google means that results from Google searches on smartphones will be able to display content from Facebook’s mobile app, including public profile information. A spokeswoman told WSJ that the listings will show up as “deep links,” which means clicking on these results will take users directly to the relevant part of the Facebook app.

Google isn’t allowed to show content from private Facebook profiles and pages, though, which means the Alphabet-owned company still doesn’t have access to the walled garden of Facebook.

Smartphone users spend the majority of their time inside applications, so this is a big deal for Google. Facebook allowing Google to index its mobile app is a sign that the social network is receiving some sort of benefit from the deal. Facebook wants users to stay inside Facebook no matter what, and this is a great way to help with that initiative.