By Josephine Akaerr
People are turning to Facebook Live and Instagram Live for workout classes, cooking lessons, faith services and more, to respond to this Facebook is adding interesting features to make them even more useful.
Bringing back “Live With” a feature that enables users add another person into their live video, no matter where they are in the world. The feature will also allow users to bring on a guest speaker, interview an expert or perform with a friend.
Users will also be able to mark Facebook Events as online only and, in the coming weeks, integrate Facebook Live so that they can broadcast to their guests. To support creators and small businesses, Facebook plans to add the ability for Pages to charge for access to events with Live videos on Facebook – anything from online performances to classes to professional conferences.
To help users raise money for causes, users can now add the donate button to live videos wherever nonprofit fundraisers are available.
Facebook is making it easier to access live video so its users can watch or listen anywhere. For those with limited data or a spotty connection, there is now the option to listen to the audio only. For those who don’t have a Facebook account, most public live videos are now available on the web and some Pages can share a toll-free number that lets users listen to the audio through any telephone.
Facebook users can also live stream games from their phone to Facebook using the new Facebook Gaming app available on Google Play. The app also lets users play games instantly, watch their favorite streamers and discover new gaming groups. Tournaments are another new feature for game streaming on Facebook that lets users create, play and watch the competition in one spot. Tournaments are available on Facebook today, and coming to the Facebook Gaming app soon.
To help users support some of their favorite creators, we’re expanding Stars to more Pages and more countries. Once users buy Stars you can send them to creators while they’re streaming, and they’ll earn 1 cent for every Star.
