Three new features coming to Instagram Live: Details here
What's the story
In a new development, photo-sharing app Instagram has extended the duration of its Live video to four hours from the existing timeframe of 60 minutes. It will also provided an option to save the Live videos for 30 days. Further, the company has added a 'Live Now' section in IGTV and in the Explore tab of the app. Here are more details.
Twitter Post
You can read Instagram's announcement here
🌟3 updates about Live🌟
— Instagram (@instagram) October 27, 2020
🎥You can now go Live for up to 4 hours
🎞You can save your Lives for 30 days before they delete
📺 You’ll start seeing a “Live Now” section in the IGTV app and on Explore so you can discover more Lives pic.twitter.com/0wipQJXr1F
Archive
How can you archive the Live videos?
Notably, Instagram already allows the users to save their Live videos to IGTV. However, with this new update, the archived videos, available under the 'Live Archive' section, will be available for 30 days, before they are deleted. In the said period, the users can either save their Live videos or upload them to the IGTV. It would be similar to archiving Stories or posts.
Viewership
Why Instagram is focusing on Live videos?
Evidently, there has been a 60% increase in the views of Live videos in India, ever since the coronavirus induced lockdown was announced. Hence, this looks like a step in the right direction to improve users' engagement and experience. In general, the tech giant is focusing more on videos and has launched apps like Reels, the company's answer to now-banned TikTok app.
Comments
What Instagram has to say about the update?
Meanwhile, the company has mentioned that the increased duration of the Live videos will allow the broadcasters like fitness instructors, musicians, artists, teachers and even activists to connect with their audience for a longer period of time, thereby promoting better conversations. This extended timeframe will be available to all the users globally, provided they don't have a history of intellectual property or policy violations.
Do you know?
Instagram has also expanded its badges
As for its monetization efforts, Instagram has just recently expanded the option to allow the viewers to buy badges from creators. These badges would help viewers stand out in their comments.