The Meta NFT experiment is expanding. Having tested NFT integration on Instagram since May, the company is now expanding access to the Facebook app, allowing users in select markets to share and display their digital assets on both platforms.
Now, users of both Facebook and Instagram in supported territories — including Australia — can share NFTs on their profiles. Shared NFTs look more or less like a regular post on each platform, but are tagged as being digital collectibles and will automatically tag the creator as long as their privacy settings allow for it.
NFTs and Meta
To share an NFT on Facebook or Instagram, a user must connect a supported digital wallet that contains an NFT on a compatible blockchain, which they can now share across either or both platforms. Currently, Meta platforms support NFTs minted on the Ethereum, Polygon and Flow blockchains. Users can connect with crypto wallets including Rainbow, MetaMask, Trust Wallet, Coinbase Wallet and Dapper Wallet.
The Facebook announcement followed an expansion of the product earlier in August, bringing NFT support to Instagram users in 100 countries across Africa, the Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas.
Meta’s moves come amid a broader push by social media companies into the realm of NFTs and blockchain assets. Twitter has supported NFT profile pictures since early 2022 for users of its Twitter Blue subscription product and Reddit introduced blockchain-based collectible avatars in July. (Reddit, unlike Meta and Twitter, is studiously avoiding using the word ‘NFT’ to describe its product, but it is functionally the same thing.)
Name changing
As evidenced by its famous name change, Meta is leaning hard into being a metaverse company, though NFT and digital asset integration into its Horizon Worlds product is still experimental. In a blog post in April, Meta announced it was testing tools for creators on Horizon to “sell virtual islands and experiences” on the platform, and CNBC reported later that month that the company planned to take a nearly 50% cut on assets sold on the Meta Quest store.
For now, it’s the users of Meta’s more traditional platforms that are seeing wider NFT integration.
