Facebook Interrupts Periscope’s Regular Broadcasting With Its Own Live Streaming Offering
The guys and gals at Facebook are looking to disrupt the live streaming scene with a live video option baked into the world's largest social network. It's a feature that's already proven popular with Twitter and Periscope, but what's different about Facebook's implementation is that the video feed doesn't disappear after 24 hours.
Facebook also has the advantage of a potentially much wider audience. Periscope last summer said it had more than 10 million users on iOS and Android, while Twitter is sitting pretty with over 332 million users. Both are respectable in their own right, but neither one comes close to Facebook's more than 1.04 billion daily active users—the official average Facebook reported for the month of December 2015—including 934 million mobile daily active users.
Live streaming is a feature that Facebook's been slow testing to a limited number of iPhone users over the past several month. Now it's ready to open it up to everyone who owns an iPhone and lives in the U.S. We imagine Android won't be far behind, though Facebook didn't offer up an estimated time frame or even mention it in its announcement.
To use the feature, tap on update Status and select the Live Video icon. You have the option of jotting down a quick description and choosing the audience you want to share your live feed with, and once you start broadcasting, you'll see a spattering of related info, such as the number of viewers tuning in, names of friends who are watching, and real-time comments.
After you're finished broadcasting, your live video session is saved to your Timeline just like a regular video, which you can choose to keep or delete.
Facebook also has the advantage of a potentially much wider audience. Periscope last summer said it had more than 10 million users on iOS and Android, while Twitter is sitting pretty with over 332 million users. Both are respectable in their own right, but neither one comes close to Facebook's more than 1.04 billion daily active users—the official average Facebook reported for the month of December 2015—including 934 million mobile daily active users.
Live streaming is a feature that Facebook's been slow testing to a limited number of iPhone users over the past several month. Now it's ready to open it up to everyone who owns an iPhone and lives in the U.S. We imagine Android won't be far behind, though Facebook didn't offer up an estimated time frame or even mention it in its announcement.
To use the feature, tap on update Status and select the Live Video icon. You have the option of jotting down a quick description and choosing the audience you want to share your live feed with, and once you start broadcasting, you'll see a spattering of related info, such as the number of viewers tuning in, names of friends who are watching, and real-time comments.
After you're finished broadcasting, your live video session is saved to your Timeline just like a regular video, which you can choose to keep or delete.
