Facebook is letting celebrities stream their lives to fans - live

Facebook has announced on Thursday the release of Live for Mentions, a feature inside its VIP-only Mentions app that allows public figures to broadcast live video to their fans.

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The unexpected popuplarity of Meerkat led to a race for the live-streaming crown. Twitter jumped into this race almost immediately with the launch of Periscope. Facebook has announced on Thursday the release of Live for Mentions, a feature inside its VIP-only Mentions app that allows public figures to broadcast live video to their fans.

Like Meerkat and Periscope, Live for Mentions allows fans to comment on streams as they are happening, as well as showing the celebrity broadcaster how many people are watching them at any given time.

What sets Live for Mentions apart from competitors is that it publishes archived videos to the celebrity's Facebook page, allowing fans who missed the live presentation to check it out later.

Facebook has said celebrities, Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson, Serena Williams, Luke Bryan, Ricardo Kaka, Ashley Tisdale, Lester Holt, Martha Stewart, and Michael Bublé will be the first people to use Live.

Facebook Mentions is available only on iOS for now.