Instagram wants more people to go live at once, so today, it’s launching Live Rooms. The feature, which will be available globally, allows four people to video chat in a live broadcast, compared to the previous limit of two. Instagram’s blog post today says it hopes the feature encourages people to start a “talk show or a podcast,” host a “jam session,” or collaborate with other creators.
Going live with more people means the rooms could attract larger audiences. The followers of everyone participating will see the live room and, depending on their notifications, be pinged about it.
The feature will start rolling out today, and should reach all users over the course of the week.
People have been using Instagram’s Live feature a lot more and in new ways since pandemic related lockdowns started in 2020. The government has been using it to spread awareness about COVID-19 guidelines, for instance, and entertainment outfits are using it to broadcast interviews with celebrities. Over the past year, the platform has made Live streams viewable on the web to give people the option to watch them on larger screens and allowed users to save them to IGTV to make them available for viewing longer than 24 hours. In October, Instagram also extended the maximum length of a stream to four hours, up from just an hour.
Instagram Live requires people to be on-camera, which comes with the added pressure of looking good and being in a photogenic environment. Clubhouse is thriving because it only requires a phone and lowers the audio expectation. (People regularly chat when they’re in the car, out on a walk, or just in a loud place.) Still, Live Rooms will likely do well on the platform as people fall back on their already-established followers and bank on the high energy more people in a room can create.
