Skip to main content

Facebook Live Videos will be given more prominence thanks to an algorithm update

Facebook has been heavily promoting its Live Videos feature since making it available to general users alongside celebrities in December.

Now that the live streaming functionality is available on both iOS and Android, the social network is updating its news feed (the timeline of status updates you see when you log in) to display Live Videos above older clips.

Recommended Videos

Facebook will be hoping this encourages more people to use the feature, which already faces stiff competition from the Twitter-owned app Periscope. The viewing numbers for Live Videos, on the other hand, are already promising.

Earlier this week, when Facebook introduced the feature for Android, it stated that on average people watch a video three times longer when it is live compared to when it is not live. The higher engagement rate was likely the catalyst for the update. As Facebook puts it, live streams are “more interesting in the moment than after the fact.”

This isn’t the first time Facebook has rejigged its News Feed algorithm around video clips. In 2014, Facebook made an update that moved videos that had higher viewership figures to the top of timelines. The social network also takes into account the likes, shares, and comments on a clip in order to ascertain its placement on the News Feed. Additionally, last year, its algorithm began showing users similar videos based on clips they had watched in the past. It also monitors a viewer’s interaction with a clip, including the muting of sound, whether HD capability has been turned on, and if the video is watched in full screen in order to suggest more content.

Saqib Shah
Saqib Shah is a Twitter addict and film fan with an obsessive interest in pop culture trends. In his spare time he can be…
Bluesky finally adds a feature many had been waiting for
A blue sky with clouds.

Bluesky has been making a lot of progress in recent months by simplifying the process to sign up while at the same time rolling out a steady stream of new features.

As part of those continuing efforts, the social media app has just announced that users can now send direct messages (DMs).

Read more
Reddit just achieved something for the first time in its 20-year history
The Reddit logo.

Reddit’s on a roll. The social media platform has just turned a profit for the first time in its 20-year history, and now boasts a record 97.2 million daily active users, marking a year-over-year increase of 47%. A few times during the quarter, the figure topped 100 million, which Reddit CEO and co-founder Steve Huffman said in a letter to shareholders had been a “long-standing milestone” for the site.

The company, which went public in March, announced the news in its third-quarter earnings results on Tuesday.

Read more
Worried about the TikTok ban? This is how it might look on your phone
TikTok splash screen on an Android phone.

The US Supreme Court has decided to uphold a law that would see TikTok banned in the country on January 19. Now, the platform has issued an official statement, confirming that it will indeed shut down unless it gets some emergency relief from the outgoing president.

“Unless the Biden Administration immediately provides a definitive statement to satisfy the most critical service providers assuring non-enforcement, unfortunately TikTok will be forced to go dark on January 19,” said the company soon after the court’s verdict.
So, what does going dark mean?
So, far, there is no official statement on what exactly TikTok means by “going dark.” There is a lot of speculation out there on how exactly the app or website will look once TikTok shutters in the US.

Read more