Hoping to drive yet another nail in the coffin of dedicated social TV apps, Facebook (News - Alert) is now offering to write status updates about TV shows for you.

A new optional feature for Android and iOS essentially uses automatic content recognition (ACR) using a device’s microphone, be it a television show on the box, or a piece of music in the car, to sync up what’s being watched or listened to. So when a member is writing a status update, an audio icon moving on the screen indicates when a content match is found. The user can then tap to add the song, TV show or movie to the post.

For TV shows, the story in News Feed will highlight the specific season and episode that the person is watching, “so you can avoid any spoilers and join in conversations with your friends after you’ve caught up.” For music, friends see a 30-second preview of the song. 

“You may have seen a friend post a photo after a tough workout with a ‘feeling proud’ icon,” said Aryeh Selekman, Facebook product manager. “Or you’ve seen your friend check in at a coffee shop ‘drinking an iced coffee.’ In the last year, people shared more than 5 billion status updates that included these kinds of feelings and activities, sparking conversations with friends in a more visual way.”

The content recognition play is merely a natural progression of people’s urges to share the minutiae of their lives, Selekman argues: “We’re making those conversations quicker and easier by introducing a new way to share and discover music, TV and movies.”

And while this is certainly true, it’s also a strategically savvy move for the company. It’s no secret that chatter across Facebook and Twitter (News - Alert) about TV and movies has become big business for advertisers—there are metrics from Nielsen discussing “social lift” when it comes to driving people to tune into shows. Tweets boost ratings, put simply.

And as a result, plenty of content providers that have partnered with established social networks to push specific content and run integrated ad campaigns. So, the more Facebook can leverage its user base to make a measurable difference in audience engagement, the more of a monetization opportunity it has that deepens value beyond simple Web SEO.

Third-party second-screen apps—many of which are developed specifically for one show or movie—have had only middling uptake so far, and part of that is the fact that consumers generally don’t want to reinvent the wheel. They already have their social circles established on Facebook and Twitter, and are in front of them anyway, and so choose to use these conduits to chat about TV. The need to click open a separate app that requires building up yet another friendship circle within that app in order to get social about a favorite program has thus far been a bit of a no-go.

Consider: A survey by Wowza Media Systems found that 40 percent of survey respondents reported that they have used a TV show’s branded second-screen app at some point. But 82 percent of survey respondents reported that they use Twitter, Facebook or other social media while watching a show. And half (51 percent) said that they have used social media specifically to connect to other people watching the same show.