Facebook food ordering feature goes live in the US

In between watching live videos and liking comments on Facebook, you may get a little hungry. The social network doesn’t want you to leave to get some grub, however. Facebook announced today that its food ordering feature is now rolling out in the US on its Android, iOS and desktop clients.

The process is actually pretty simple. All you have to do is go to Facebook’s search bar and type in “Order Food”. You should be presented with a selection of nearby restaurants that offer online ordering, for pickup or delivery. You should be able to complete your order while still inside the Facebook app.

The company is partnering with a number of restaurants directly for this food ordering service, including Papa John’s, Wingstop, Panera, Jack in the Box, TGI Friday’s, Denny’s, El Pollo Loco, Chipotle, Five Guys and Jimmy John’s. In addition, it has agreements with a number of third-party food ordering services, such as Delivery.com, DoorDash, ChowNow, Zuppler, EatStreet, Slice, and Olo. If you already have an account with one of these services, you can still use your existing login info when ordering through the Facebook app. You can also filter your food ordering search results to show which ones have the best price, if they offer both pickup and delivery, and more.

At the moment, Facebook is launching this feature just in the US, and there’s no word on when it might be available to other countries. Facebook itself says it does not take fees from any transactions generated from this feature. So why add it? In short, Facebook doesn’t want its huge audience to leave to order food via another app or web site. It wants users to stick around so they can keep using the service and, maybe, click on some more ads.

How do you feel about Facebook adding food ordering features? Will your next delivery come via Facebook? Let us know your thoughts in the comments!