Facebook announced a complete overhaul of Facebook Live, rolling out a dedicated mobile space for the live streaming tool and adding several new features to the mix including the ability to go live in Groups and Events.
Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, went live on the platform to speak about the changes, and affirm Facebook’s dedication to the feature. He noted that the company has been very pleased with the success of Facebook Live, which was launched last summer.
“We took a bunch of our teams at Facebook and built a lot of new features,” said Cox.
One of the noteworthy changes is that Facebook has begun to roll out a dedicated space for live streaming on the mobile app where you can discover content from your friends and pages, as well as live content that is trending or targeted to your interests.
In a blog post published concurrent with the live broadcast, Facebook noted that Live has increased interactivity on the platform, with initial data showing that people comment over 10 times more on live posts than regular posts.
After a stream is finished, however, comments often look confusing and disjoint. One of the features released today will fix this issue, by displaying comments on the stream as they were posted, even if you’re watching after the fact.
To facilitate even more interaction with Live content, Facebook is adding Live Reactions. Users will be able to mark live streams with the Love, Haha, Wow, Sad or Angry emojis, which will appear in real-time then quickly disappear. When a friend reacts to your live video or a live video you are watching, you will see their profile picture and a starburst before the reaction emoji they chose.
Facebook has also added an invite button underneath the video so you can easily share live video with friends and a Facebook Live Map for desktop where you can see a locational view of live streams around the world.
In case all that wasn’t enough, Facebook has also caved to the demand for Instagram-like filters on live streaming video, so you can finally stream in sepia.
Related reading: Facebook’s iPhone app is helping blind people see
[source]Facebook[/source]
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