Facebook’s efforts to promote its new live videos feature is receiving negative feedback from users. The barrage of notifications from brands and publishers forcing people to watch a live stream in real-time is irritating some users who are expressing their concern online. Thankfully, the social media giant is heeding these criticisms from users who are not impressed by the frequency of the live video notifications.
Facebook listens to users’ feedback
According to the Digiday, the social networking site disclosed that it is currently working on a new setting that will give users the ability to disable the notifications. The new setting is expected to be rolled out in the coming weeks. Facebook has been facing increasing objections over its push notifications, even after justifying the changes with viewership numbers. Users are now taking to Twitter to show their anger and dismay at the onslaught of live video alerts.
“Notifications of ‘Facebook Live’ are the most annoying thing that has happened to social media in a while,” one user tweeted. “Facebook please stop sending me notifications of live video feeds 2k16,” read another tweet.
Such negative tweets may have compelled the social media giant to come up with the update.
For instant respite
Facebook suggests that users who want an instant respite from the announcements concerning live streams click the “Live Subscribe” button on the top of a video where they will find the option to turn off notification from the broadcast publisher. The upcoming update will apply to all live videos, not just clips from selected pages, unlike the existing feature.
Facebook has pushed live video feeds to the top of its News Feed with the help of a recent algorithm update. The number of push notifications, which are used to alert users to a broadcast going live from a page they have liked, has also been increased by the social media giant. These changes, which were brought on after the social media firm disclosed that live streams have a higher engagement rate than saved videos, have surely not gone down well with users.
Facebook is not the only tech firm that has a fascination with live video. Live streaming is not only fueling industry acquisitions with web giants like Facebook gobbling up startups such as Masquerade, but the feature is also being given importance by other prominent sites like micro-blogging giant Twitter.
