Facebook rolls out Live Video feature to take on Periscope and Meerkat

Facebook is rolling out a new feature that allows you to share live videos on its social network site. Few Facebook users will be able to take advantage of this feature right now though, as it's only available to a small number of iPhone users in the US.

To share your live videos, just tap on Update Status then select the Live Video icon. You can add a description to it and even choose the viewers you want to share with. During the live streaming, you can see the live viewers and friends who are tuning in and their comments. The live video will remain in your Timeline like any other video, or content, which you can later on choose to delete.

"Live lets you show the people you care about what you're seeing in real time — whether you're visiting a new place, cooking your favorite recipe, or just want to share some thoughts. No matter where you are, Live lets you bring your friends and family right next to you to experience what's happening together," notes Facebook in a blog post.

Before releasing it to users, Facebook made the Live Video feature available for celebrities, who can share live videos from Facebook Mentions. The live videos from your celebrity appear in your News Feed, and you can comment, like or share it as with any other media post.

Live streaming videos over smartphones is a notable new technology. Before Facebook Live, Meerkat was released in February 2015, which allowed Twitter users to broadcast live videos to their Twitter followers. Twitter's Periscope, which launched a few weeks after Meerkat in March and quickly dominated its rival, lets you share live videos from your phone.

Alongside Live Video, Facebook has also introduced a new way to share photo collages, allowing you to group the photos and videos together. When you open Photo, you will see recent moments from your camera roll organised into collages.

You can always edit the collage by adding, removing or, re-arranging photos and videos you want. While Collage is already available for iPhone starting 3 December, Android users will get this feature early 2016.