New App for Famous People only by Facebook

Facebook rolled out a new iOS app on Thursday for celebrities and public figures, making it easier for them to interact with fans.

The app, Facebook Mentions, lets users see what fans are saying in a dedicated mentions feed — similar to Twitter's @-mentions section — and start mobile Q&As.

Shout outs from other celebrities and media will populate at the top of their notifications page, and they'll also be able to see which topics are trending so they can chime in on them if they want.

Facebook is trying to make the app as elite as the people who will use it. Mentions only works for Facebook users with verified accounts in the United States, although admins of those pages can request access, too.

In fact, you'll need to provide a photo of your government-issued ID to prove who you are. In fact, you'll need to provide a photo of 

your government-issued ID to prove who you are.

Facebook has a team of staffers who will look at those requests — public figures will have to upload their ID and additional information to an online form — and grant access accordingly.

The app is only available for public figures with verified Pages, so verified users without a dedicated page won't be able to access the app. For now, brands and media aren't able to use Facebook Mentions, but the company told Mashable this is something they plan to roll out in the future, as well as bringing the app to other countries.

Facebook also released some numbers around its public figures accounts, stating nearly 800 million people are connected to those with verified pages. There are also more than a billion interactions between public figures and their fans on Facebook every week.

Several major celebrities and public figures have already been quietly using the app, including Mariah Carey, Whoopi Goldberg, Josh Duhamel, Ed Sheeran, Austin Mahone, Tyrese Gibson, Rachel Zoe, Arianna Huffington, Bill Nye and Nick Kristof.

Facebook says those public figures now produce twice as much content each day as they did before using the Mentions app. Source: Mashable