According to Facebook product engineer Bob Baldwin, video comments are supported on desktop web, iOS, and Android. Videos can be uploaded in response to posts by people and pages, as well as within groups and events. Baldwin explained that it was “no small feat to add support across interfaces and within two heavy traffic services, like comments and videos.”
The update will likely result in a lot more data being pushed on to Facebook’s servers. Facebook is also working on providing SMS support in its Facebook Messenger application for Android smartphones. To post a video response on Facebook, users must tap the camera icon in the comment box below the post, which will then connect to your smartphone’s camera library, allowing you to share a pre-recorded clip. Facebook Live was launched last year in Facebook’s Mentions app and was released to users in the U.S. in January and outside America in February. A new video discovery tab substituted the Messenger symbol at the bottom of the iOS and Android apps. Messenger notifications moved to the top of Facebook’s mobile apps near the search box.
Facebook has also just launched the ability to post 360 photos. After taking panorama pictures on your camera, users upload the shot as they normally would and it is then transformed for the Facebook site in a similar way to 360 videos. “Just look for the compass icon on the right-hand side of the photo,” says a news blog. “Explore a 360 photo on mobile by tapping and dragging the photo or by moving your phone, and on the web by clicking and dragging.” The social media company disclosed a high-end virtual reality camera rig that captures 360-degree footage in 3D in April. Facebook will be expecting that the new feature encourages more people to share videos, making them more comfortable with the medium as a form of communication. This in turn could encourage users to adopt Facebook Live, and begin streaming more often.
