Facebook brings photo collages to iPhone app, starts testing Periscope-like video broadcasts

Facebook Live Video iPhone screenshot 001

Facebook today announced that its main iPhone client in the App Store has been updated with two new features: Live Video and Collages.

Collages, automatically created from the photos and videos taken together, are presented as a moving carousel within the app and on the web.

More important than that, implementing live video broadcasting on Facebook has been prioritized in the wake of the Periscope phenomenon. Starting today, a small percentage of people in the United States can begin testing the live video feature on their iPhones.

Photo Collages

As its name implies, this new feature was conceived to simplify the creation of attractive photo collages as simple and straightforward as humanly possible. Collages are automatically-grouped photos and videos that were taken together, presented in the form of a cool-looking moving carousel.

“Whether you’re on a weekend trip, at a concert or just hanging out with friends, collages are a great way to share with friends and family who aren’t there with you,” argues Facebook.

Facebook Collages teaser 001

As seen top of post and above, tapping the Photo option shows you the recent moments from your Camera roll, grouped into collages based on when and where you took them. Individual items can be moved around, added to or removed from a Collage.

Before posting a Collage for your friends and family to see, add na optional title.

Live Video

Like Periscope, Facebook’s Live feature lets you share live broadcasts, in real-time, with your Facebook friends. Live videos appear in the News Feed. To get notified the next time the broadcaster goes live, just tap the Subscribe button next to a Live Video.

Facebook Live Video iPhone screenshot 002

After starting a Live Video broadcast of your own, the number of live viewers, the names of friends who are tuning in and a real-time stream of comments will be shown, just like on Twitter-owned Periscope.

“When you end your broadcast, it will be saved on your Timeline like any other video, which you can then delete or keep for your friends to watch later,“ says the firm. The easiest way of checking out Live Videos right now is connecting with public figures.

Facebook Live Video iPhone screenshot 001

When can I start playing with these features?

For starters, Collages are available in the iPhone app starting today and will be coming to Facebook for Android early next year. As for Live Video, this feature is currently available for a subset of Facebook for iPhone users in the United States, but we’ll keep you posted when it starts rolling out to everyone.

Facebook Live Video teaser 001

Facebook’s Help Center has more on the new Live Video and Collages features.

What’s on your mind?

Last but not least, both iPhone and Android editions of Facebook’s mobile app are now testing a brand new design for the share feature with a subset of users.

The new experience lets you tap the “What’s on your mind?” heading at the top of News Feed, which brings a menu with shortcuts to all the different sharing options.

Facebook New Sharing Flow iPhone screenshot 001

I’ve had this design for a while now, but as Facebook said, it’s currently in limited testing so it might not be live for you just yet.

Availability

Facebook requires an iPhone, iPod touch or iPad with iOS 7.0 or later.

The app is localized in English, Bokmål, Norwegian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Malay, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Simplified Chinese, Spanish, Swedish, Thai, Traditional Chinese, Turkish and Vietnamese.

Grab Facebook for free in the App Store.

Source: Facebook