Facebook has been focussing on live events since last year, the introduction of video streaming and 360-degree video are one of the most notable additions to the platform. Facebook’s Live Video streaming, creatively called Facebook Live is now available in for audio only mode.
As Facebook announced it in its blog, publishers who only want to share audio streams instead of full-blown videos, can now do it directly within the app.
We know that sometimes publishers want to tell a story on Facebook with words and not video. We’ve even seen some Pages find creative ways to go live and reach audiences with audio only by using the Facebook Live API or by adding a still image to accompany their audio broadcast. Our new Live Audio option makes it easy to go live with audio only when that’s the broadcaster’s preferred format.
– Shirley Ip, Product Specialist Facebook
It will be a great addition for podcasters who had to use some still images on the video, and obviously, Live Audio will come in handy for publishers and broadcasters who are living in areas with slow-network connections.
It is a good thing for listeners too, as it will consume less bandwidth of your data plan. If you are an Android user, you can keep listening to the stream even if your device is locked, which is not possible for Video streams. It won’t work on iOS, but on iPhones, you will still be able to keep listening when you browse your Facebook feed.
Background playback on Android
Facebook has cleared that Live Audio is, as of now, only available to select publishers including BBC World Service, LBC, Harper Collins. The feature will be available for general consumer in early 2017.
Now that Facebook has started taking steps against fake news and the Messenger now supports group video chats, Facebook’s December seems to be going great.
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