Sometimes your old high school acquaintances get on Facebook Live to talk about their side business hawking random crap like leggings or vitamins. You obviously tune in, and you probably send a group text to your high school besties informing them that Donna's involved in another pyramid scheme.
Now, Facebook is making it a lot easier to talk smack in these types of situations. The social network on Tuesday introduced a new feature called Live Chat With Friends, which lets you have a private conversation during a public Live broadcast without leaving the interface.
You can invite friends who are already watching, or anyone who you think might want to tune in. You can jump back into the public conversation at any time, should you need to share your thoughts with a larger audience.
"With Live Chat With Friends, you can be part of big moments with the wider community but also have the option to participate in personal conversations with the people closest to you, directly within the Live experience," Facebook Product Managers Erin Connolly and Fred Beteille wrote in a blog post. Facebook said it's currently testing this feature on mobile platforms in "several countries," and plans to roll it out "more broadly later this summer."
Related
- Facebook's Internal Content Moderation Guidelines LeakedFacebook's Internal Content Moderation Guidelines Leaked
Facebook also last year started letting public figures go live with a guest, and now it's extending that feature to all profiles and pages on iOS. Just select someone from the Live Viewers section or tap a comment from the person you want to invite. From there, the person you invite can opt to join your broadcast, or not. For more detailed instructions, head here.
"Sharing the screen with a friend can make going live more fun and interactive — for both you and your viewers," Connolly and Beteille wrote.
Meanwhile, Facebook as of late has had to grapple with a number of disturbing incidents broadcasted live on its platform, from murders and shootings to sexual assault and teens and tweens live streaming their own suicides. The company recently promised to add 3,000 people to its community operations team to more quickly review and respond to reports.
Facebook Live just got some new features, but questions of responsibility linger.
A federal court in New York has decided that Facebook isn't to blame for the deaths of five Israeli and US citizens caused by Hamas terrorist attacks in 2015.
MLB At Bat VR is coming to Google Daydream in June, but there won't be any 360-degree video streams just yet.
Y Combinator partner and Silicon Valley veteran Tim Brady discusses the dawn of Yahoo, and breaks down the YC accelerator and investment process in a constantly evolving tech landscape.
Relax Facebook Brings Private Chat to Live Broadcasts stories
These new features will let you more easily 'see what's happening around you and find stories related to your interests,' Instagram wrote in a blog post.
The leaked guidelines say that the comment "someone shoot Trump" is not allowed but "unless you stop bitching I'll have to cut your tongue out" is permissible.
A new study reveals that YouTube is the 'most positive' social media site for young people, while Instagram and Snapchat are 'the most detrimental' to their mental health.
Instead of lumping all clickbait into one category, Facebook will now look at whether a headline withholds information, or if it exaggerates the truth.
You have a few days left to buy it, but after that, it's gone until a new music licensing deal can be agreed, which may never happen.
A new algorithm will automatically purge posts in your News Feed that link to sites with lots of disruptive or shocking ads.
Amazon Prime subscribers get yet another incentive to sign-up for the service: live events, major artists, intimate venues.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the company will be adding 3,000 employees to 'review the millions of reports we get every week, and improve the process for doing it quickly.'
A Facebook staffer said 'code written by women was rejected much more frequently than code written by their male colleagues.' Facebook says she's working with incomplete data.
Facebook pushed back on the report, but also admitted its research didn't follow the 'established process to review the research we perform.'
These new revelations follow the arrest of a Lithuanian man named Evaldas Rimasauskas, who is charged with orchestrating the scam.
About 58 percent of teens have taken at least one break from social media, with varying results.
In the US, most requests come from search warrants and other court orders, although some are made using secret "national security letters."
A breach discovered over the weekend may have exposed the messages and content in a small number of HipChat rooms, the company said.
Facebook disabled the suspect's account within 23 minutes of receiving the first report about the murder video, but admitted that's not good enough.
Researchers from MIT have developed a series of tools called WaitSuite that test you on vocabulary words during times you wouldn't otherwise be doing anything.
Snapchat in its February IPO filing revealed that 'on average, 158 million people' use its app every day. Instagram Stories just beat that.
Bots from Marble, a San Francisco startup, are now delivering orders from Yelp's Eat24 app, dodging pedestrians and other obstacles along the way.
Prime members will soon be able to drive to a pickup location where an employee will load their groceries into their cars.
If imitation really is the sincerest form of flattery, then Snapchat should feel extremely flattered right now.
Xbox Insiders will soon be able to update their gamerpic with a custom image, though all Xbox users may be waiting a while longer for this feature.
If you're a Comcast Xfinity TV customer without Netflix, watch for free from April 3 through 9.
Everything you say over voice chat can be converted to text in real-time, and everything you type can also be spoken.
Don't have any friends, but want a photo showing everyone you do? Family Romance has a service for you.
The Snapchat Stories-like feature inside the Messenger app lets you share updates about your day with all your friends at once, or just a few specific people.
A night out with a delivery driver.
Ford said it plans to have a fully autonomous vehicle ready for package delivery fleets in 2021.
The drones would take off from UPS trucks to more efficiently cover rural routes.
Clearly aimed at competing with Microsoft's Skype and Google's Hangouts.
The company says it's attempting to balance freedom and safety.
An algorithm developed by Google's sister company DeepMind is once again taking on human opponents in the ancient Chinese strategy game of Go.
These new features will let you more easily 'see what's happening around you and find stories related to your interests,' Instagram wrote in a blog post.
You've got about as much chance inventing a lightsaber as building a mechanical hand as good as your own
Facebook Live just got some new features, but questions of responsibility linger.
Mobile Safari scrolling will soon work consistently no matter which website you're browsing.
New tournaments mean you don’t need to be a millionaire to compete.
Intel wants Euclid to be the brain, eyes, and communication device at the heart of new robot projects.
This little sensor hub can intelligently control your air conditioner for you.
The new Surface Pen is billed as the 'fastest pen ever.'
