Raymundo Rush: Facebook Live now streams to Groups and Events, gets Reactions, filters, and more

Facebook has added Reactions to its video livestreaming product.

Facebook is making some changes to its livestreaming product, adding features that should make your broadcasts more engaging, shareable, and discoverable. Rolling out over the coming weeks are the ability to broadcast live videos to Facebook Groups and Events, addition of Reactions and filters, and a new dedicated destination that highlights livestreams taking place throughout the world.

In a blog post, product management director Fidji Simo described Facebook Live as being a tool to “share a moment instantly with the people you care about. This means your friends, family, or fans can be there with you, and you can respond to their comments and see their reactions.” Over the past eight months, this has been possible, but broadcasting was limited to the audience based off of Facebook's privacy settings: The public, friends, or any other subset.

Above: Facebook Live setting to broadcast to a specific Group page.

Image Credit: Facebook

But what if you're interested in livestreaming to your fans or friends that are attending a specific event like your birthday party, wedding, or other occasions that you only want to have a curated set of people see? That's possible now with support for Groups and Events on the social network. Musicians, artists, celebrities, VIPs can host a broadcast within an event page to offer fans a behind-the-scenes look at what's going on or even schedule a live Q&A session - like a video-based Ask Me Anything event.

“We hope this new ability to both broadcast and watch live video within Groups and Events enables people to connect more deeply with their closest friends, family and the communities of people who share their interests,” Simo wrote.

New ways to participate

Facebook declined to state how many broadcasts have been created to date, likely to avoid showing its hand to Twitter, whose Periscope service has had over 200 million streams in one year. However, there is some pretty good engagement on Facebook Live: Simo explained that people comment at least 10 times more on the platform's livestream tool than with regular videos.

It's perhaps because of this trend that Facebook has now included Reactions into the mix. Launched in February, it's a way for people to better express how they feel beyond simply liking it. This is the first time that Facebook has used Reactions beyond the News Feed and posts, but it makes sense. Now broadcasters will get a better idea about their viewer sentiment - are they sad, happy, laughing, angry, or shocked by what they're seeing? Simo explained that when a friend reacts to your video, their profile picture will appear along with a “little starburst before their reaction appears.”

Above: Facebook's creative tools: filters and doodling while livestreaming

Image Credit: Facebook

Simply broadcasting au naturel isn't enough for Facebook, as it has added in five filters (like with Instagram videos) for you to choose from to personalize your livestream. In the future, you'll also be able to draw or doodle right on your video in real-time.

To maintain the broadcast's experience after you're off the air, Facebook Live now also supports Replay Comments, which provides more context in terms of what's being discussed when on air. Right now, you're not sure exactly when viewer comments are being addressed, but Replay Comments displays the comments as they occur when you're watching the video later, making it seem like you're part of the “live” experience.

Easier ways to find livestreams

Before today, in order to find when someone was using Facebook Live, the notification either had to appear in your News Feed or come from someone you're following. Now there's a destination within the social network that will display the live streamed videos that are both happening now and what you can watch later.

Facebook has released what it calls a “Facebook Live Map” for the desktop that lets you view footage from people who are sharing their experiences through Facebook Live.

Lastly, if you stumble upon a video that you think a friend may be interested in, Facebook has added a sharing option that will send a push notification to whoever you want inviting them to watch the event with you. You no longer have to leave the broadcast just to share the Facebook post with someone - it's all done while watching the video.

Rolling out now

Videos have become one of the main focuses of Facebook recently with chief executive Mark Zuckerberg seemingly ecstatic about its potential. The company once said that it's “excited that people are embracing this new format, and we're working to make it available to more people around the world.” Since its launch in August, people in more than 60 countries around the world can share live video on Facebook.

These latest updates are aimed to make Facebook Live more appealing to the company's 1.59 billion monthly active users. It'll help stave off competition from not only Periscope, but also eventual challenger Google, which will launch its YouTube Connect app soon.

While being introduced today, these features are rolling out over the coming weeks for Facebook's iOS and Android apps. So if you don't have it right away, be patient and hopefully you'll get these updates soon.