Facebook's celebrity-only Mentions app adds live video chat

If you are one of the elite few Facebook users that is famous enough to use the Facebook Mentions app for the iPhone, you can now use it to launch live online video chats with your Facebook audience.

Yes, that means celebrities have their own online video service that's similar to Meerkat and Periscope, except that it targets Facebook audiences. If that happens to be you, here's what Facebook says you can do with this new feature:

  • Grow and engage your fan base - Whether you have an established fan base or want to build up your audience, Live is a new way for you to connect authentically with your fans in the moment. When you start a Live video, it will appear in News Feed for your fans to comment, like and share with their friends. People who have recently interacted with your posts will also receive a notification when you start your broadcast.
  • Interact directly with fans and other public figures, in real time - During your broadcast, you'll see the number of viewers and a real time stream of comments from people tuning in. You can respond to comments live during the broadcast, or choose to hide comments.
  • Keep your video for fans to view later - After your broadcast has ended, your video will be published to your Page so that fans who missed it can watch at a later time. If you'd rather not keep the video, you can also remove it from your Page at any time.

Facebook says this new feature will be used in the coming days by people like m Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson, Serena Williams, Luke Bryan, Ricardo Kaka, Ashley Tisdale, Lester Holt, Martha Stewart, Michael Bublé and others.

Source: Facebook

John Callaham

I have been writing professionally about technology and gaming news for 14 years.