Facebook upgrades Mentions app to encourage more Live broadcasts

Facebook’s verified accounts exclusive, the Mentions app is getting a Christmas makeover in the next few weeks, transforming it into a portable Live Video broadcaster with a whole inventory of tools.

Celebrities such as journalists, actors, and others stars have increasingly relied on Instagram and Twitter to have a one-on-one interaction with their fans, which has led to a diminished number of celebrities preferring Facebook over other social media platforms.

Recently Facebook Live provided means to connect with audiences in a much more engaging way with Q&A sessions, interviews and many more interactive undertakings, which was an instant hit with a lot of people, even becoming a hit with the ‘regular’ Facebook audience.

Due to a lack of control over their appearance and a number of other factors when going Live, a lot of celebrities prefer to go Live in the confines of either a studio or their homes.

Mentions was launched in 2014, to equip celebrity content creators with a better amount of features and controls, some preferential treatment that would go a long way to make them feel much more endeared towards Facebook.

Facebook brings Live to Mentions, in addition to a host of new features and aims to ease the process, encouraging celebrities to Go Live more often, driving engagement on their platform, something that Facebook had been losing out to Twitter and Instagram.

The new features available on Mentions will be as follows:

Adjustments Tray, since Facebook is pushing for more sharing, not just from a controlled space such as a studio or set, but under natural conditions.

The most common obstacle for quality pictures and videos happens to be brightness. Now 'Mentions' users can control brightness, by choosing to boost or reduce it.

Mirroring is another issue that often leads to confusion, when recording text and other such instances, which can now be disabled. Under the adjustments tray, users can also control Mirroring to include a brand name, or other relevant text.

Comment Moderation, abuse and harassment is a common trouble for celebrities on social media, and Facebook has addressed the problem before it poses a serious threat. Broadcasters can pre-specify words that are unacceptable to them, which will filter such comments preventing abuse.

Team Prompts, enabling a celebrity’s team to create drafts of post descriptions that simplifies the process for them when going Live.

To boost discoverability, broadcasters can add tags before they go Live.

The Status Bar will display information regarding Audio Level, Connectivity, and Battery, to stay updated if and when the signal is strong enough to continue the Live broadcast, whether the Audio Level is satisfactory or if there is too much noise.

Also, Live broadcasts consume a lot of battery, the battery indicator lets users know about the same.

Trimming will let people using Mentions trim excess footage from the beginning and end of their live video after the broadcast has ended. "We know that it can sometimes take a few minutes for people to tune in or for broadcasters to field introductory questions from fans. Trimming gives public figures the control to create a more polished viewing experience for audiences who watch a live video after it airs.” say Jesse Chen, Engineering Manager, and Chris Hatfield, Product Manager, a Facebook on Facebook Media.

These updates will be rolled out to iOS and Android users over the course of the next few weeks.