Facebook Now Allows Pages to Schedule Live Videos

Facebook's Live Video feature started rolling out to users globally at the beginning of this year. Now, the social giant has started rolling out ability for Verified Pages to schedule Live broadcasts. The new feature will initially be available to Verified Pages starting Thursday and admins can schedule Live Videos via the Facebook Live API. Publishers will be able to schedule a live broadcast up to one week in advance. The company has plans to roll out scheduling feature to all Pages on Facebook in the coming weeks.

The ability to schedule Live Videos will make it easier for Pages to create buzz with their audience ahead of broadcast. Facebook says that when a publisher schedules a live video, "an announcement post will be published to News Feed" letting followers know about the upcoming broadcast. From the audience's perspective, Facebook will allow them to opt in to receive a one-time reminder that will alert them just before the broadcast begins.

In an attempt to make Live Videos popular with audience, Facebook will also allow viewers to join a pre-broadcast lobby where they can connect and interact with others before the live video starts. Viewers can join pre-broadcast lobby three minutes before the broadcast begins.

"Once you've scheduled a live video, you will be able to share a link to the broadcast or embed it in other places, such as websites or blogs," adds Facebook's Peter Roybal, Product Manager, and Brian Lin, Software Engineer in a blog post. The company also confirmed plans that it will make scheduling features available for developers so that it can be implemented in third-party tools as well. Facebook in the blog post stressed that the scheduling was a feature requested by many publishers.

The company explains how admins of Verified Pages can schedule a live video through Publishing Tools in a step-by-step guide.