Are you using Facebook Live as part of your communications? Do you prefer to live stream from your desktop rather than a mobile device?
In January this year I wrote about how you can live stream from your desktop using the Chrome browser to Facebook Live without needing to use third party tools.
Later in the year I worte about how this feature was now available on Firefox.
There is now a new feature available for those who want to live stream from desktop using Chrome – the ability to share your screen.
It should be noted at the time of writing this article that the feature is not available for Firefox.
The following screen shots walk you through how to use this new feature.
STEP 1 – When you look to live stream from Chrome on desktop you will see the option to share your screen (item 1 on screen shot).
Clicking on that link will then prompt you to add the Chrome extension for Facebook Screen Sharing (item 2 on screen shot).
STEP 2 – If you want to check out all the details of the Chrome Extension you will need to right click on the link for the prompt to install the extension.
You will then be able to install the extension.
STEP 3 – Now you can select what you wish to share in the live stream – in my case I have two screens so I could select the screen or application I wanted to share.
STEP 4 – You will note that there will be a notification which says you can stop the screen sharing or hide the notification.
It should be noted that at this time you can not switch between screen sharing and using a camera and you can not have the camera and screen in the live stream at the same time using the extension. You could however experiment to see if you could use a tool such as Reflector2 to share your camera from a mobile devide onto the screen you are sharing as a ‘hack’ to appear on camera at the same time as sharing your screen.
This may however not be an issue for you, for example if you are sharing a presentation or tutorial, or if you prefer not to be on camera.
The feature is a useful addition for live streaming to Facebook Live if you do not want to use a third party tool or a mobile device – I have covered tips for using your mobile for live streaming and third party tools in previous live video tutorials.
For more details of live streaming from Chrome to Facebook Live using your desktop read this article and for live streaming using Firefox, read this article.
If you do have questions about integrating live streaming into your marketing, social selling, crisis communications or even employee engagement programmes, you can arrange a confidential online meeting with me to discuss the live video options that would be most suited for your business goals.
