Facebook opens Live Streaming for all the users

No longer just for celebrities, Facebook’s Live Video feature is now available for testing by “a small percentage” of U.S. iPhone users, the company said today. Facebook launched its Live streaming feature in August for public figures with large followings on the site.

Celebrities who have sent out live broadcasts through the Facebook Mentions app since the launch include Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Serena Williams, Martha Stewart and Michael Bublé. Their videos are made available live through News Feed, and are then published to the account holder’s Page so fans can also watch them later.

“Live lets you show the people you care about what you’re seeing in real time  whether you’re visiting a new place, cooking your favorite recipe, or just want to share some thoughts,” Facebook product managers Vadim Lavrusik and Thai Tran wrote today in a blog post. “No matter where you are, Live lets you bring your friends and family right next to you to experience what’s happening together.”

Facebook’s streaming feature works much the same way as competing video-sharing platforms like Meerkat or Twitter’s Periscope. People sharing videos via Live can write descriptions and choose their target audiences before launching broadcasts, and they can track the number and names of viewers, along with comments, while the video streams.

After a live broadcast ends, the video will be saved to the user’s Timeline, where the account holder can either delete it or save it so friends and family can view it later.

“As we were building Live we needed to reconsider the process of sharing from mobile devices,” Lavrusik and Tran wrote. “We are currently piloting a new design with a few people on iPhone and Android where they can now tap What’s on your mind? at the top of News Feed to see a drop down menu of all the different options they can share. This will allow us to include new sharing features in the future.”

In addition to celebrities and online friends and family, some brand names are also experimenting with live streaming videos to promote their products and services. BMW and Benefit Cosmetics, for example, have used Twitter’s Periscope  with various levels of success  to drive online campaigns.