Facebook today said a small percentage of iPhone owners in the U.S. will be able to test streaming live video to their Facebook friends.
Facebook has allowed celebrities and other public figures to stream live video for several months, so today’s news marks an expansion of the feature. Similar to Twitter’s Periscope app, live video from Facebook lets broadcasters see the number of viewers and their names, and a real-time stream of comments.
Live broadcasts are automatically saved to users’ timelines where they can be kept or deleted. People will be able to see live videos in their News Feed, but may also subscribe to the feeds of their favorite broadcasters. Facebook will send alerts to let people know when broadcasters go live.
Facebook didn’t say how it is determining which people will be able to test this feature. Facebook also expanded its photo-sharing tools. Moving forward, Facebook will automatically organize photos and videos into collages based on time, date, and location data. Users can rearrange the collages however they wish and then share them with others.
Facebook said the collage feature will roll out to the iPhone today and to Android devices early next year.
