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Live streaming is about to get huge on Facebook

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After testing the feature with celebrities and verified accounts, Facebook announced on Thursday that anyone with an iPhone in the U.S. can broadcast live video from its mobile app. 

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When composing a status update in the app, you'll see a new option to share live video. The stream can be customized for anyone to watch or restricted to just your friends, and people who watch can leave comments as you broadcast. After you end a stream, it's saved on your profile.

Facebook's live video is directly competing with Periscope, the Twitter-owned live streaming app that was named Apple's app of the year for 2015. Unlike Periscope, broadcasts are saved permanently on Facebook unless you choose to hide or delete them. Periscope broadcasts currently expire after 24 hours, although the company has said it's considering letting users save their videos permanently as well.

Facebook also has an answer to Periscope's notification system, which alerts you whenever someone you follow on Periscope has started streaming. While watching a live video on Facebook, you can tap a subscribe option at the top right to be notified whenever the person starts streaming again.

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