Facebook Will Allow Users To Disable Live Video Notifications Following High Number Of Complaints

By @TheMarkDalton

Facebook is pushing its new live streaming features which are being rolled out to all users on the social network website. However, at the moment, users are pushing back. At the moment there is a barrage of notifications that people have to tolerate when a brand or even just a friend start a live stream on Facebook.

The complaints online over live video notifications have got the attention of Facebook and the social network has revealed that they are working on a new setting which will allow users to disable these notifications specifically. Unfortunately it may take several weeks before that setting is rolled out to everyone. So what can you do about it in the meantime?

If you can’t wait a few weeks and are seeking immediate respite from the endless notifications about live video content then Facebook suggests clicking the “Live Subscribe” button on top of a video from someone who find particularly irritating when it comes to live streaming. This will present an option to turn off notifications from the broadcast’s publisher.

Facebook knows the current value of live content, you can see it clearly with the success of Periscope, the popular live streaming app which is owned by Twitter. A recent algorithm update to the Facebook newsfeed now pushes live video up to the very top of the feed. The change to the algorithm comes after Facebook revealed that live video has been getting higher engagement than saved videos.

Despite trying to justify the updates with engagement numbers, users are still not happy with being bombarded with notifications. These days Facebook is like a notification machine that wants to tell you about anything and everything that may be going on regardless of whether you want to know about it or not. Personally I have found that turning Facebook notifications off completely is one of the best settings I have used recently.