Facebook is going all in on video.

The social network has been focusing hardcore on video lately, with a big push into live video broadcasts, 360-degree videos, stories, auto-playing clips in the news feed, as well as the launch of a dedicated place to watch videos on Facebook. Now, taking a page from YouTube's playbook, it wants to cultivate video creators. In doing so, it has released an app just for them. Here's what you need to know.

What is Facebook Creator?

Facebook Creator is a new mobile app that includes tools for streaming video, updating Facebook Stories, and messaging people across Facebook’s platforms. Keep in mind Facebook has many standalone apps for features, like the one you can use for managing Facebook Pages. Facebook Creator is similar in that users can launch it when they want to manage their Facebook video creations.

Facebook described the Facebook Creator app as "a one-stop shop" for creators who want to take their passions to the next level. They can easily create original video, go live with exclusive features, and connect with their community on Facebook.

Facebook Creator image 2
Facebook

What can you do with Facebook Creator?

Personalise live broadcasts

Facebook Creator has the following features: Live Creative Kit, Community Tab, Camera and Stories, and Insights. The Live Creative Kit has tools that let you easily create and personalise live broadcasts. You can add openers to your live broadcasts, for instance, as well as outros that conclude them. You can then add custom live stickers that viewers can interact with, and graphic frames for your brand.

Communicate and share

The Community Tab lets you connect with followers and collaborators via a unified inbox, which aggregates all your comments from Facebook and Instagram, including messages from Messenger. As for the Camera and Stories section, you'd go here whenever you want to use fun camera effects and frames or easily crosspost content to other platforms. You can also access Facebook Stories from here.

View analytics

Finally, there is Insights, which lets you view metrics that could help inform content creation. It also shows analytics about your Page, videos and fans. So, the key thing to remember here is that the Facebook Creator app has special features for Facebook Live, and it lets you access analytics, communicate with fans, and post content to Facebook Stories and other platforms - all from one app on your phone.

When can you try Facebook Creator?

Facebook Creator is available now on iOS and is supposed to come to Android in “the coming months".

Want to know more?

Check out Facebook's blog post for more details.