Facebook combines live, 360-degree video for more immersive real-time viewing

Facebook combines live, 360-degree video for more immersive real-time viewing. Live 360 video will be available to more Pages via the Live API in the coming months and will roll out more broadly for all Pages and Profiles in 2017. National Geographic is the launch partner, with people around the world able to explore a live video stream as eight space scientists emerge from pods simulating life on Mars. Dive Insight: Facebook Live 360 is the company’s next iteration of a bigger push into video that is driving excitement and views for the platform. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said back in July that the company sees video at the heart of all of its apps and services, pointing to the success of Facebook Live and the 160 million views for Candace Payne’s Chewbacca Mask video. However, the video ramp up has not been without difficulties. The social media giant revealed in September that it has been overstating video ad views by anywhere from 60% to 80% for two years, news that caught marketers and industry groups off guard. Despite Facebook’s ongoing issues with metrics, the new feature is likely to be popular with consumers and, by extension, marketers, because of how it brings together two of the biggest trends in viewing — demands for authenticity and interactivity. Live 360 videos joins Caffe2Go as another example of how Facebook is attempting to bring state-of-the-art imaging capabilities and experiences to users. Caffe2Go is an artificial intelligence platform that can reconfigure smartphone images and videos to look like an artist’s work in real-time.