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Facebook Live Videos Now Available for All US iPhone Users

Facebook Live videos are now available for all the iPhone users in the United States, after initially being a privilege just for a select few.

The social networking platform initially launched live video streaming in August 2015, but at the time it only provided this type of service to handful of celebrities (musicians, politicians, actors, athletes and other public figures) via the Mentions app.

Afterwards, ever since December, Facebook Live was also unveiled for a limited number of users who were part of the Verified Pages network.

This allowed media companies, brand representatives, business owners and other users who had obtained a blue badge certifying that their profile is authentic to share news and interact with fans more easily than before.

Now, after trial testing allowed developers to identify potential bugs or areas of improvement in this feature, Facebook Live has been incorporated in the Facebook app designed for iOS devices across the entire nation, and can therefore be accessed by anyone who owns an iPhone.

The announcement regarding the expansion of this eagerly anticipated service has been made on Wednesday, January 28, in a Facebook Newsroom post authored by product manager Vadim Lavrusik.

In order to get started with Facebook Live, one must simply tap the “Update Status” box, and then choose the Live Video icon, showing the stylized shape of a person’s head with a set of two halos around it.

Before launching the broadcast, one can compose a short description to accompany the video, and select which members of the friend list will have access to the live stream.

Throughout the transmission, the broadcaster will be informed regarding the exact user names of those who are watching the video, and also regarding the total number of active viewers. A comment section will also be available, so that the user streaming the online video can exchange thoughts and opinions with the audience in real-time.

At the end of the broadcast, the clip will be automatically saved, winding up in the user’s Facebook Timeline. From there, it will be possible either to delete it or share it with other friends who haven’t been online during the live transmission, or who enjoyed the initial video stream so much that they wish to re-watch it.

Potential viewers will be able to see the clips as they’re being broadcast in their News Feed. In addition, choosing the “subscribe button” while watching the video stream will give viewers the chance to receive notifications whenever a new live stream from a friend or a favorite celebrity is being circulated.

Apparently, developers are working on including Facebook Live in the Android version of the app as well, but it may take another few weeks until this is finally achieved.

It remains to be seen how much longer it will take before the functionality can be accessed by all of Facebook’s 1.5 billion users, and how successful it will turn out to be.

Unlike Twitter’s Periscope, which broadcasts live streams to virtually everyone and only allows clips to be viewed for 24 hours, Facebook Live offers the select audience the chance to see the videos whenever they want to, as long as the broadcaster has chosen to store the footage in the Timeline.

Facebook’s feature will surely benefit from extensive traction, given the fact that around 3 billion videos are already being watched every day on the social network platform.

At the same time Periscope has recently been declared by Apple the iPhone App of the Year, after managing to attract more than 10 million active members, and may boost user engagement with the sense of urgency given by its temporary video streaming.

Image Source: Facebook Newsroom

The Facebook-iPhone Issue Has Been Solved

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The Facebook-iPhone Issue Has Been Solved

Any iPhone user that also happens to be a heavy Facebook app user must have been acquainted by now with the battery drain feeling. The issue was addressed last week when the Facebook app was discovered to drain more battery than intended on all iPhone devices. Luckily, the Facebook-iPhone issue has been solved and Facebook have also decided to take a step forward and come in front of the community.

The main issue behind the Facebook app was that it was consuming a huge amount of battery even when its activities were switched off, or so the devices would indicate. Reports piled up quickly and since Facebook saw that this was a real issue, they mobilized and tried to find a solution as quickly as possible. And they really help their promise.

Facebook released an app that dealt with the situation. But this wasn’t the surprising thing that occurred. Let’s be honest: Facebook usually delivers updates on time and take care of issues as fast as possible. What was actually astonishing is that the company talked freely about the problem in a post, trying to explain the situation in a very friendly way and appreciating the people’s patience for a process that lasted around one week.

Ari Grant, a Facebook representative, described that the battery is being drained so fast because of two bugs that the company is trying to get rid of once and for all. Grant has also stated that the bugs do not look like any intentional interference. Facebook is under no circumstances interested in conducting behind the scenes activities with their app. They have a reputation to uphold, after all.

Grant wanted to make sure that everybody understood what these two issues were all about, so the explanations were quite simple. The first bug was compared to a child in a car who kept asking if they had arrived at the destination yet, over and over again. It was a CPU issue and the child’s “question” was practically the reason iPhones were drained so fast.

The second problem was related to, what Grant calls, audio sessions. If you are watching a video, for example, on Facebook and you abruptly decide to turn off the app, the audio session can still go on from time to time, thus the battery wastes energy on a process which you have no control over.

In short, the Facebook-iPhone issue has been solved and it is really nice that Facebook came forward through one person to tell the world what actually happened.

Photo Credits wikimedia.org

Facebook Groups App Lets You Interact Faster With Others

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It seems that Facebook is on fire in the last days, releasing new updates, features and apps thick and fast. The latest news coming from the social network revolve around the new Facebook Groups app. This is a standalone app which can be downloaded for both iOS and Android and which allows the user to interact faster with other members in the same Facebook group. The app also lets people share content, comments, keep in touch with their community and stay updated to everything that happens in a group.

Let’s say for example that you are part of a lot of Facebook groups. Instead of checking the news via Facebook’s main app while you’re on the go, you can download the Facebook Groups app and manage all your groups from there. The app also comes with a simple and intuitive interface. If you happen to have a favorite group, the app also lets you create a shortcut on your phone’s screen in order to access that group easier and faster.

Facebook also wants you to have more friends and contacts and share even more content. Besides allowing you to manage your groups in a more efficient manner, the app also gives you the opportunity to find other new groups you might like to join. You can discover new communities and new people sharing the same interests as you do based on recommendations or by searching for a certain topic. If you’re mobile and you just want to find others interested in books, cars, sports or charity, the app sets a clear, smooth path for you.

The app sports a sole notifications tab which grants you access to a combined view of all your groups’ notifications, a Discover tab that allows you to find new groups based on your likes and preferences, hobbies, geography or culture, and a Settings tab which permits you to manage your app preferences.

Keep in mind that this new Facebook Groups app is not equivalent to the disappearance of the main app. You will still be able to access the main app, but the Groups one makes things faster and easier.

In its constant effort to provide the users with the best and most innovative mobile solutions, Facebook comes up with new ideas and projects to make sure that people stay connected no matter what. In a blog post related to the Facebook Groups app launch, the network’s officials stated that

“People use Facebook Groups every day to stay in touch with family, collaborate on projects, plan trips and offer support to friends. We built this app with the people who use Groups the most in mind…”

Considered a sign of maturity from Facebook, the new Facebook Groups app was welcomed with enthusiasm by tech analysts and Facebook loyal users.

Facebook’s Rooms App Makes for Unique Anonymous Chatting

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Do you remember the anonymous internet forums that dominated the mid-2000s? Facebook has launched a new iPhone app meant to bring back precisely those experiences that the internet used to provide back when everything could be anonymous.

“Rooms” is an app that brings anonymous internet forums to your smartphone, functioning like a newsfeed or tiny message board. The Room gets a name, a wallpaper and afterwards, people are invited to share anything from text to photos or videos.

The most notable feature of Rooms, however, is the fact that users choose different identities whenever they enter a new room and because the app does not require a link to Facebook, Twitter or Google+ profiles, anonymity is ensured. Some Rooms have already been set up by the app’s team. Early users are dedicated to trainers, home-cooked food or Kendama, the traditional Japanese cup and ball toy.

Additionally, users can basically customize their Rooms to their liking, for instance renaming the “like” button or choosing an emoji-icon they like. If your room is connected to gardening, why not upvote the content in it by using a large tree or a flower? Invitations to join particular rooms are sent out by using QR codes which look like cinema tickets.

The invitation can be sent out on Facebook or Twitter, sent via text message or email and all the user has to do is screenshot the one he or she prefers and the Room automatically becomes a new board on the app’s homescreen.

Rooms is designed to allow more than just your Facebook friends to enter the chat- it’s more than just a place to organize days out. What Rooms aims is to become a place where like-minded people discuss topics they’re interested in. Rooms also allows users to make the content of the board searchable or mark it 18+ only.

However, there is something that Facebook has to overcome: the difficulty with which the app can become famous. Since it is a mobile-only and invite-based app, it will have to be spread by word of mouth and since people might not always be into what you like, users could have difficulties in actuallly finding rooms they’re interested in.

What Facebook knows for certain, however, is that the future of the web is mobile and that the pseudonymous message boards have been and will continue to be immensely popular. Rooms may just be the next best thing for Facebook, all they need is for someone to start the party.