Facebook rolls out Live Audio feature

The service is being tested with partners like the BBC World Service and publishing house Harper Collins.

A year after introducing live video, social media network Facebook is adding an audio option. The company says that the feature has been designed to complement video streams with a low-bandwidth option. Currently the service is being tested with partners including Britain's LBC radio, the BBC World Service, Harper Collins, and authors Adam Grant and Britt Bennett, and will be made available to everyone next year.

The new audio option will be a feature within its live video plugin that will enable broadcast audio directly to the social network. "We know that sometimes publishers want to tell a story on Facebook with words and not video," explains Facebook's blog post..

Facebook is also looking at live audio as a means to complement broadcast videos from areas with poor internet connectivity. Currently though, live audio is being tested as a standalone feature where you could listen to podcasts and radio-style programming.