Facebook Live is now available to everyone across the world. The live broadcast service has been in use in the US since last summer, and now has a few extra features that allow more control over where the live videos are seen, and new ways to interact with them.
One of the new features on Facebook Live is the ability to go live in Facebook Groups and Events. User’s broadcasts in Groups will only be visible to those who are in the group itself, limited the number of people who will be able to view it. Going Live in Events is intended to allow people to share occasions with those who can’t make it to the event itself, or allow the host to hold a live Q&A session.
Interestingly, users can also post live reactions from the previously launched “Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry” buttons. These reactions will briefly appear on top of the live feed, letting other users see how others are reacting to the video. Once the broadcast is over, users will also be able to watch comments being replayed as if they were posted in real time.
Facebook also mentioned that it has released several live video filters for Facebook Live. In the future, Facebook will also let the broadcaster draw or doodle on their live videos.
For those who wish to share a Live video, users can invite their friends to watch it together. All they need to do is tap on the invite icon, select a friend, and he/she will receive a notification along with your invite.
Facebook also unveiled the Facebook Live Map, which is a dedicated page for users to search and watch live or non-live videos from across the globe. The company has said that the feature has rolled out to more than 60 countries, but none of us in the office have seen the feature yet.
(Source: Facebook Newsroom)
