Facebook launched Live Video in December last year and now a year later it is expanding live media to audio as well. The social network has now introduced Live Audio for a select group of publishers and plans to make it available for everyone next year.
Facebook has partnered with publishers such as BBC World Service , LBC, Harper Collins, and authors Adam Grant and Brit Bennett. They will be the first ones to test Facebook Live Audio. Similar to Live Video on Facebook, listeners can discover live audio content in News Feed, ask questions and leave reactions in real time during the broadcast, and easily share with their friends.
Facebook’s Shirley Ip, Product Specialist and Bhavana Radhakrishnan, Software Engineer said in a blog post,
We know that sometimes publishers want to tell a story on Facebook with words and not video. We’ve even seen some Pages find creative ways to go live and reach audiences with audio only by using the Facebook Live API or by adding a still image to accompany their audio broadcast. Our new Live Audio option makes it easy to go live with audio only when that’s the broadcaster’s preferred format.
Facebook Live Audio is present on Android and iOS however Android users can continue listening to the broadcast if they leave the app or lock their smartphone while iOS users can only listen while browsing Facebook.