You can now play Facebook cloud games in Safari on iPhones and iPads

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Facebook Gaming On Ios
Facebook Gaming On Ios (Image credit: Facebook)

What you need to know

  • Facebook cloud gaming is now available on iPhone and iPad via a Safari web app.
  • People can play games if they're in the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico.

Facebook today confirmed that its cloud gaming service is now available on iPhone and iPad, although you'll need to use Safari and live in the United States and parts of Canada and Mexico.

According to a tweet, gamers can access the cloud gaming service by opening Safari and heading to http://fb.gg/play. People in other countries will have to put up with playing HTML 5 games, at least for now.

In a statement to iMore, Vivek Sharma, VP, Facebook Gaming pointed out that Facebook has come to the same conclusion as other cloud gaming companies and services — Safari really is the only way to get onto Apple's mobile devices.

We've come to the same conclusion as others: web apps are the only option for streaming cloud games on iOS at the moment. As many have pointed out, Apple's policy to "allow" cloud games on the App Store doesn't allow for much at all. Apple's requirement for each cloud game to have its own page, go through review, and appear in search listings defeats the purpose of cloud gaming. These roadblocks mean players are prevented from discovering new games, playing cross-device, and accessing high-quality games instantly in native iOS apps -- even for those who aren't using the latest and most expensive devices.

Apple has famously made it impossible for Microsoft xCloud and other companies to get their game streaming apps into the App Store, forcing them to go the web app route.

Is it time to level up your mobile gaming? Our roundup of the best iPhone game controllers is a great place to start your research!

Oliver Haslam
Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.