Facebook’s new update allows users to share live videos and collages

Facebook's new update now allows users to share live videos and collages. The social network started testing the ability to share live videos on Facebook, with a small set of people in US on iPhones. The update would allow users' friends and connections see they see in real time.

To share a live video, users only need to update their status and then select the Live Video icon. They can also choose to write a quick description and choose the audience they wanted to share their stream with before going live.

During your broadcast, users would be able to see the number of live viewers, names of friends tuning in, and a real-time stream of comments. The video would be automatically saved to users' timeline once the broadcast ended. Users can then choose to delete the video or retain it on their timeline.

Live videos of users' friends and people they follow would also show up in their news feed as well. While watching a live video they could tap the subscribe button if they liked to receive a notification the next time the broadcaster went live.

The collage feature was the next update, with which users can group photos along with videos into a tiled collage. Tapping the Photos section of the Facebook app would reveal recent moments from their camera roll organised into collages based on when and where they were taken.

According to commentators, the feature represented Facebook's latest challenge to online messaging service Twitter, which added a live video application called Periscope earlier this year. Another popular app called Meerkat could also be used to share live video in social circles.

This was not the first time that Facebook Inc had copied others' ideas in an attempt to ensure its social network remained the leading digital hangout.

Recent years had seen Facebook embrace the hashtag symbol, a Twitter technique for flagging major events and topics of conversation, and clone an option to check into specific places that was popularised by Foursquare.

The new feature will enable 1.5 billion Facebook users use their smartphones to shoot video so other people can see what they are doing as it happens or, alternatively, watch live video of friends and family doing something fun.