Facebook today announced a new live streaming features to its popular iOS and Android app.
With today’s update, Facebook Live will not only be available to individual accounts, but also members that are part of Groups or Events. That’s right, the Facebook mobile app will now allow you to broadcast to only the people in your Facebook Group or Event.
This will be more useful if there are some people who can’t make it to your birthday party but don’t want to miss out on the fun, or if you’d just like to broadcast to your family or close friends. You can even use Events to schedule live Q&A sessions with this new features add by Facebook.
Another amazing new feature rolling out in this update is Live Reactions. This will make it easy for your viewers to express their feelings during a live broadcast in real time. Using the same reactions Facebook rolled out in its News Feed a few months ago, your viewers will now be able to send Love, Wow, Sad, Haha or Angry emoticons during the live stream to the top of the video. Facebook says:
Live Reactions appear in real time and disappear quickly so broadcasters and other viewers can get a sense of how people are feeling at different points during the live video – it’s like hearing the crowd applaud and cheer. When your friend reacts to your video or to a video you are both watching together you’ll see their profile pic and a little starburst before their reaction appears.
Facebook will accommodate the growing popularity of interactive comments and filters into its live videos, much like Periscope and Snapchat. When someone begins a live video, viewers can post written comments, to show how they feel about a video, which will pop up and disappear Periscope-style at the bottom of the video. The initial rollout will introduce five "Live Filters," but future updates will implement the ability to doodle on your video in real-time, as well.
The company says this big update will be rolling out to Android and iOS devices over the coming weeks.