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Facebook Live: Site adds huge new update to feature that lets people stream in their timeline

The company launched the project last summer after the success of apps like Periscope and Meerkat and has been rolling out more publicly since — and now it has added a whole series of new features

Andrew Griffin
Wednesday 06 April 2016 17:14 BST
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(KAY NIETFELD/AFP/Getty Images)

Facebook has added a whole host of new features to its live broadcasting tool, which lets anyone post streams of themselves to their timeline.

The company launched Facebook Live last year, as the hype around streaming apps took hold, initially giving it to public figures. It has been rolling out to the public since, with everyone in the US now able to use it.

Facebook now hopes that other users will be able to go live within Facebook groups and events, and has released a whole set of features and other ways of joining in with live events.

The new Live features brings filters to its videos, which lets people turn their broadcast black and white or add other tints. The site will also “add the ability to draw or doodle on your video while live”.

The site has also allowed people to comment in new ways. It has added “Live Reactions”, for instance, which lets people react in the same way to live videos as they do to posts, and it will also allow people to replay the comments that they get during a live broadcast.

The site has also added new ways of finding videos, either by location or by inviting friends. The site has added a new button that means that people can ask their friends to watch a live video alongside them, for instance.

The new features will be rolling out on iOS and Android “in the coming weeks”, the company said. It isn’t clear whether that will also come with an increased rollout of the availability of the feature, which at the moment is mostly limited to people in the US.

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