Facebook is going unique this time around with two brand new features for its live video broadcasting platform, Facebook Live. Launched last year, the platform has been a blessing to users especially celebrities who’ve been using it to engage their followers thus building their fan bases.
The company is now rolling out Live Chat With Friends and Live With features for an awesome fun experience with your friends/followers during live broadcasts – be it your favorite celeb or loved sports teams or publication going live. To start with, ‘Live Chat With Friends’ lets you jump into private chats with your friends while streaming live videos. Unfortunately, this feature is a still under tests in select countries at the moment.
For Live With, the feature has been around for a while but its access, until now, had been limited to celebrities and public figures. Now, the function has been sent out to everyone with confinement to iOS powered devices for now. A similar treat could be on the way for the vast Android community, only that nobody knows when.
This year, Facebook’s efforts seem to be leaning more towards Messenger. The standalone instant messaging platform has received excellent treat this year; Live Location, group payments and tons of bots have all hit the platform in the recent past. On the other hand, it is too early to say that the company has abandoned its main app, as a matter-of-fact Facebook Live is barely a year old. Maybe, the team is still sorting out the best features for the platform which shouldn’t cause eye bats at all. Facebook has been exceptional with features of late, and it takes time to fine tune a robust function. That said, there is a thin doubt, if at all there is any, as to whether the two additions will be of convenience.
Live With
Live With has been around for a while but the feature had been limited to celebrities. Well, that changed as from yesterday and now everyone on Facebook Live can use it. It lets a friend join you in a live broadcast, in a picture-in-picture scenario for portrait mode of landscape side-by-side design, so that your followers not only see you but also your friend. It sounds somewhat useful in cases where you want to go public remotely like in public interviews with friends far away or instances of unplanned briefings.
The feature is straightforward and easy to use:
To get going, you only need to head to Live Viewers section and choose a guest or simply click a comment by your prospective guest. Thereafter, the person invited will choose to accept or reject the invitation. And if he/she accepts, there you are. It’s that simple. But in case of anything, you can go through this guide before you actually get rolling. And as earlier said, it is an iOS thing at least for now, however, Android model should be following in the near future.
Live Chat With Friends
This another nifty feature to bolster engagement with your friends during live broadcasts. Before then, Facebook Live users could share their views during live streams in a worldwide arena. Now, you are able to jump into private chats explicitly with your friends only while watching your favorite live streams and drop your comments where they get the right attention.
You can start a group live chat by inviting friends already streaming or those you think might get interested in the ongoing live video. And because you know your friends well, you can continue discussing in Messenger even after the live session has ceased.
Facebook is currently testing Live Chat With Friends on mobile in select countries with the full launch slated for summer.