Facebook Lets Users Share Live Video & Collages, Tests New Mobile Sharing Tool

Facebook announced that it is testing live video from the News Feed. For now it’s only for a small percentage of people in the US on iPhone, but it lets you stream video to your friends in real time.

Users can tap on Update Status and select the Live Video icon, write a description, and choose the audience they want to share with before going live. As you record, it will show you the number of live viewers, as well as the names of your friends who are watching. It will then be saved on your Timeline like any other video.

“You can discover live videos from your friends and public figures you follow right in News Feed,” says Facebook’s VVadim Lavrusik. “While watching a live video, you can tap the Subscribe button to get notified the next time the broadcaster goes live.”

Facebook also introduced a new Collage feature that lets you use pyhotos and videos to “show the whole story,” as the company puts it.

It lets you group photos and videos that were taken together into a scrolling, moving collage. When you tap on Photo, you’ll see recent pics/videos from your camera roll organized into collages based on when and where you took them. You can then edit the collage by adding, removing, or re-arranging the photos/videos. You can title the collage and share it from there.

This feature is rolling out to iPhone starting today, and will hit Android early next year.

Finally, Facebook is testing a new tool for mobile sharing:

“As we were building Live we needed to reconsider the process of sharing from mobile devices,” Lavrusik explains. “We are currently piloting a new design with a few people on iPhone and Android where they can now tap What’s on your mind? at the top of News Feed to see a drop down menu of all the different options they can share. This will allow us to include new sharing features in the future.”

Images via Facebook