Facebook has started rolling out new features to Instant Games on Messenger that introduce the ability to live stream games on the instant messaging app via Facebook Live. This new capability lets you play your favorite titles on Messenger and share your gaming experience in real time with friends while engaging in casual chats with them. The feature is part of the first anniversary celebration of Instant Games on Messenger, which was launched in November last year with an initial set of 17 titles that were rolled out first to 30 countries before its release to all Facebook users last May.
To start live streaming your Messenger games via Facebook Live, simply click on the camera icon found at the upper right corner of a game while playing it and then say something about your live stream by including a brief caption in the video. You must also first set the privacy of the broadcast by selecting the type of audience you wish to view the video: friends, everyone or a specific group of contacts. Once that is all set, begin your live stream by tapping on the “Start Live Video” button, and just like any other broadcast via Facebook Live, your recording will be posted to your profile to let your other friends who missed out on your live stream watch it later. Additionally, Facebook plans to begin an experiment with an upcoming feature that will allow you to play games with friends while engaging in a video chat. The testing is set to kick off in the near future and Facebook says its goal is to release the feature early next year initially to a few titles including Zynga’s Words With Friends.
In addition to these new features, Instant Games on Messenger will also receive a plethora of new titles in early 2018 worldwide, with Angry Birds being the first game slated to use the upcoming capability along with the new version of Tetris, which was recently unveiled with a fresh set of features including the marathon mode. Facebook also announced that more games are coming to Messenger over the next few weeks and months, including Sonic Jump from SEGA, Disney Tsum Tsum, and a new puzzle game from Puzzle & Dragons developer GungHo Online Entertainment.
