The social network giant Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) has introduced a rather trendy change to its News Feed for users to maximize their experience that is now available on Android devices. Live Video streams are now on top of the Facebook News Feed. This will allow users to discover live videos from families and friends, as well as videos from the public trending at the moment.
The new feature developed by the social media giant it’s being compared to Twitter’s Periscope. Facebook intends to satisfy the people’s demand for more ways to express their feelings on the social platform. Now, thanks to a Live Video stream, recently available on Android will continue its expansion as it’s set to reach a large number of countries.
“We know that people on Android love interacting with live videos as more than 50% of people watching live videos are using Android devices,” said the official news release by Facebook. “We’re excited to announce that in the next week we are going to start rolling out the ability for people on Android to share live video.”
Facebook’s News Feed recently added features gave users the ability to broadcast to their friends while getting real-time feedback. However, there are still a few bugs to fix, as the page’s algorithm didn’t recognize a newly uploaded video from an old one. This is extremely important in the broadcast of live videos due to the unpredictability that comes along with live video uploads and makes them fun to watch.
Innovate and adapt
The social network giant will have to re-design its entire News Feed, as it wasn’t built to support real-time content. The News Feed was designed in order to show users what’s best, even if the best has been there for a while. Now, that type of algorithm previously used won’t work with live video. Unlike Periscope, which automatically deletes the videos after 24 hours, Facebook Live lets users permanently save their streams and show them off.
Although popular apps such as Periscope and Snapchat have been giving users the ability to share live videos among friends, Facebook’s long-awaited new features have been expected for quite a while. The social network giant considered live-videos as a new content type, yet before making any permanent changes, the company will have to learn how to rank them for people in the News Feed.
The algorithm designed by Facebook to enhance the users’ experience will now treat videos as more urgent when they’re streaming live. This will increase the chances for users to encounter the live videos on top of their feed. So it appears that Facebook, which is now the Internet’s personalized newspaper, will continue its development until the social network becomes a cable news platform.
Source: Recode