After releasing it in November and making it available only to users in the US, Instagram has now introduced live broadcasting on Instagram Stories for users worldwide. The Live video feature will work in the same way as Facebook Live, and will allow users to go live for its followers to see real-time feed via the social app.
Live video on Instagram Stories is rolling out globally for all users with version 10.0 and above across platforms. The new Live button shows up on Instagram Stories, which appears when you swipe right on the home page. The Live Button now sits at the extreme left in Instagram Stories section, followed by the Normal, Boomerang, and Hands-free mode. Hit the Start live video button and the app will start looking for a proper connection. Once it is satisfied with the connectivity, a countdown starts to warn you to get ready for the live video. As the live video starts, followers are notified of the development so that they could come and watch the live broadcast. The number of people watching your live video is also shown on the screen.
Unlike Facebook, the live video does not get saved on Instagram, and disappears as soon as you finish with the broadcast. There’s also an option to comment on the live video, and the user can even pin it to the top for everyone to see. The user can alternatively even disable comments if need be. You can switch cameras from rear to front mid-recording, and can even see the time since you started recording by tapping on the Live button on the top-left edge.
Instagram has also added a new section in Explore called ‘Top Live’ that shows you all the people that are live currently with the most popular ones getting the top spot.