Facebook Now Allows Live Video Broadcasting For iPhone Users In The U.S.

Facebook introduced its newest feature that allows users to broadcast their own live video on the social media app last Thursday. 

iPhone users living in the United States can now access this feature through the application. Meanwhile, the function will be available for Android customers as well as the rest of the world "over the coming weeks," as reported by The Wall Street Journal.

This move by Facebook is meant to rival Periscope, which is owned by Twitter, after it allowed GoPro owners to livestream using their device.

The simple instruction on how to turn on the livestream was explained by the product manager Vadim Lavrusik in a Facebook Newsroom blog post.

A user wanting to broadcast live video just has to tap the Updates Status much like when one wants to post a text or an image. There is a new Live Video icon that allows sharing of live video.

This feature also allows the user-host to choose the audience he wants the video to be visible with and a count of the live viewers along with the names of friends who are currently watching will be seen by the user. Just like how live video works in YouTube, the comments as explained in the blog will also be streamed in real-time.

The user can either delete the video after the broadcast or save it for future use or let others watch it later. A Subscribe button for a favorite broadcaster is also made available in the feature.  

The Live Video Feature is especially useful for public figures like politicians in a campaign or for music streams by live bands.

"Video is an important part of the Facebook experience," Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said during its quarterly call on Wednesday. He also said the company is "exploring" a dedicated place within Facebook just to watch video, as written in Time News.

The Facebook user base currently registers 934 million worldwide and more than 100 million hours of video are watched every single day in the platform.