Since announcing the availability of Facebook Live for all users in December last year, Facebook Inc. has been pushing its live streaming services hard in 2016.

In the last two weeks alone, Facebook has launched support for live 360-degree videos, Live streaming from Oculus VR to News Feed and audio-only broadcasts through Live Audio.

Today the company announced various new Live broadcasting features that will be rolling out to its Mentions app, which is only for public figures. The new features will allow broadcasters to set up comment blocklists before a broadcast, adjust brightness and mirroring during a broadcast, and also adds the ability to trim footage when the live video is over, plus other tools.  

The Facebook Mentions app was launched in 2014 for Android and iOS users and is only available for public figures such as athletes, journalists and actors who are verified on Facebook.

Here’s a look at all the features rolling out to Facebook Mentions users:

Facebook Mentions tools for pre, during and post-broadcast

Before the live broadcast starts

Facebook Mentions new team prompts feature will provide the public figure’s social media team will various tools to better manage the live broadcast before its starts. These include the ability to draft Facebook Live post descriptions prior to the broadcast, which the public figure can then review and post via the Mentions app when they are about to go live.

The new Facebook Mentions update also includes a scheduling tool, which will allow social media managers to set reminders to go live or when content should be published through the Mentions app.  

A Facebook Live broadcast offers an interactive experience for both the broadcaster and the audience by allowing fans to react with emoticons, comment and ask questions during the live video. To allow public figures to have some control over what viewers are posting, Facebook Mentions now includes a comment moderation tool. Public figures, or their social media team, can blacklist certain words and phrases before they go live. Any comments containing these blacklisted words or phrases will be blocked during the broadcast.

Before the live broadcast starts, broadcasters can also add category tags for their video to make it easier for Facebook’s Search tool to find the video.

During the live broadcast

Facebook Mentions is also providing the broadcaster with more controls and customization during their live video with the new adjustments tray feature. With the adjustment tray controls, which will appear at the bottom of the screen during the live broadcast, users will be able to adjust the brightness if they are recording in a dark venue and flip the camera horizontally or vertically.

Using the adjustments tray, broadcasters can also disable mirroring of the picture during the live video. Live videos are normally recorded mirrored, but this can make text or a sponsor logo during a branded content broadcast unreadable.

Another Facebook Mentions tool that will be available during a live broadcast is a broadcaster status bar, currently being tested with a small group of Mentions users. The status bar, which will display at the bottom of the broadcast, will provide information like audio level, connectivity and battery status. Following the testing, Facebook hopes to make this feature available more broadly in the “coming months.”

When the live broadcast ends

Finally, Facebook Mentions is also introducing a trimming feature that will allow users to tidy up certain parts of their live broadcast when it has ended. Broadcasters can trim excess footage from the start and end of a broadcast, allowing for a more professional video for audiences who choose to watch the video on demand.

All these changes, apart from the broadcaster status bar, will be rolling out to Facebook Mentions users over the “coming weeks.”

Images via Facebook