Live Video API

Best Practices

General Recommendations

  • Although you can stream a previously recorded video to a LiveVideo object, we recommend that you only stream live content. This ensures that live content remains live.
  • Broadcast for longer periods of time to reach more people. The longer you broadcast, the more likely people are to discover and share your video with their friends on Facebook. We recommend that you go live for at least 10 minutes, though you can stay live for up to 8 hours.
  • Tag your location!. Adding your location to a live video increases the chance that you'll appear on the Facebook Live Map!
  • For optimal security of your streams, we recommend using the RTMPS stream URL and key. This will encrypt your live stream.
  • Set up a wired internet connection to ensure stability. Wireless internet connections will work but may drop streams due to poor network connectivity. If possible, we encourage the use of hardware encoders in lieu of online encoders that run through your machine or computer. This will help with stability and ensure that frames are pushed successfully to the Facebook Live endpoint.

Boosting Engagement

As soon as a live video begins streaming, Page followers will receive a notification indicating that a Page they are following has gone live. Below are some tips to improve reach.

  • Encourage users to Like or Follow your page.
  • Encourage your followers to Subscribe to live video notifications.
    • New Live Posts — Subscribers will receive all live video notifications.
    • Suggested — Subscribers will receive suggested live video notifications for this page. These are determined by the individual subscriber's previous interactions with the page's live videos. This is the default setting for anyone who follows a page.
    • Off — Subscribers will not receive live video notifications.
  • Encourage your followers to Subscribe to live video notifications.

Subscribers will not receive notifications if:

  • they are not a fan of the page
  • they are a fan of the page, but the post is from a brand page
  • they have received too many live notifications in the last 24 hours