Facebook is testing its live video streaming feature with a small percentage of iOS users in the United States, expanding Facebook Live Video to users who are not rich and famous.
Facebook Live Video, similar to live streaming services such as Twitter's Periscope and Meerkat, started allowing celebrities to use the feature in August. They were given the option to choose the users that can watch their live streams, and notifies them when users are watching.
"Live lets you show the people you care about what you're seeing in real time -- whether you're visiting a new place, cooking your favorite recipe, or just want to share some thoughts," said Facebook product managers Thai Tran and Vadim Lavrusik.
Facebook Live Video will further push the social network as one of the most popular destinations to watch video online. Around 1.5 billion users watch over eight billion videos daily on Facebook, according to statistics from the company. An even better statistic for Facebook is that at least 75 percent of video views occur on mobile devices, which is the preferred platform for advertisers.
Facebook looks to keep users watching videos on the social network, and making it simpler for users to share their personal videos is one attempt to do so.
Through Facebook Live Video, users will be able to record and then share live videos using the Facebook app. Users that have the feature enabled on their devices will see a "live video" option upon tapping the Status Update box.
Upon selecting "Go Live," users will be able to see how many users are watching the live stream, the names of the user's friends on Facebook that are tuned in, and comments that are made in real time.
The feature will function similarly to Periscope and Meerkat, with the main difference being the fact that the replays of live streams on Facebook will not be deleted after 24 hours, which is what happens with the two rival apps. The video replays will instead be posted on the user's timeline until the user decides to delete it.
Users could soon see push notifications if one of their friends has started a live broadcast. They will also be allowed to subscribe to receive notifications that a Facebook user is broadcasting a live stream.
Representatives of Facebook said that the company is looking to further expand the feature to Android device users early in 2016.
