Live videos can be extremely engaging. And for those that are joining them, it can indeed be fun to be part of a broader community. However, things can go be pretty noisy and comments can be harsh.
Facebook is ramping up its efforts in its Live feature. Introducing 'Live Chat With Friends', Facebook is giving users the chance to avoid those endless comments which are usually too crowded to make any sense.
Facebook Live might be about bringing the entire community together around events. But at some occasion, users may just want to know the reactions of friends. This is where Live Chat With Friend is used for.
The Live Chat With Friends is essentially what it sounds like. With it, users can enjoy peace by having conversations with only their few chosen friends. It's basically a private chat feature for those that want to say something without having the whole Facebook universe being able to see.
Users can invite both friends who are already watching the stream, or others they think may be interested.
This is a feature available for public live broadcasts. The option to share private videos with friends is still available.
Facebook is also introducing 'Live With' feature that allows users to invite a friend to join them during a Live video, regardless of where they are at that moment. So for example, a user is running a podcast on Live, he/she can invite someone else as a special guest to join the personal stream.
To do this, they can pick a guest from the Live Viewer section. After that, the person will join in either a picture-in-picture window, or in a side-by-side frame.
Users can also invite just friends if they want to.
Live With is a feature previously available to only public figures. But Facebook is rolling out wide, earlier to iOS for all profiles and Pages, with Android to follow. As for Live Chat With Friends, Facebook is testing it on mobile devices in "several countries", and is rolling it out gradually to users.