Google and Facebook compete on a number of different levels, and while Facebook certainly has the upper-hand where social networks are concerned, it’s arguable Google’s YouTube has the video side of things locked up tight. Facebook is desperately looking to reverse that, and have been aggressively pushing video on to their users and promoting its use with their partners. Facebook Live has become something that the blue network has started to bet big on, and now it’s getting a new feature that should help bring some different content to the network, and perhaps help other people turn on to the idea of streaming live on Facebook.
Facebook Live video previously had a time limit on how long a stream could last for, but in this latest update, Facebook is removing this limit. Said limit used to be 90-minutes’ worth of content, but now partners of Facebook’s will be able to stream for as long as they choose. This new feature will make use of Facebook’s Live API, which allows professional outfits to use their own high-end equipment and still broadcast live on Facebook Live. This has already been used by Explore.org to document nature cameras all day and night, and Disney have been using the Continuous Live feature to bring all of the happenings from the premiere of “Alice Through the Looking Glass”.
Along with geo-gates and age-gates, to restrict users based on their location and age, Facebook’s live video option is also offering users the ability to use onscreen graphics. Combined with this new Continuous Live feature, Facebook suddenly have a much more fully-featured live video platform than they did just a few months ago, and if it wasn’t clear that this is where Facebook is focusing much of their efforts right now, these new features should make it abundantly clear. The only downside to being able to stream continuously is that it restricts users from being able to play back any of the stream at a later date, which is done to take some of the strain off of the Facebook servers. Users of Facebook Live should be able to do a lot more with their live streams in the coming weeks, and viewers will have a lot more content to get involved with as well.