Say Cheese! Facebook Introduces Video Commenting Capabilities

Have you ever felt that words can't describe your feelings while posting comments/replies on Facebook Inc FB pages? If so, find solace in the fact that the situation is about to change.

The social media giant has unveiled a brand new feature — video in comments. In other words, you can now upload a video into the comments section as a reply to posts. It is also available within groups and events.

The feature, which was developed at Facebook's 50th Hackathon, is supported on desktop web, iOS and Android. In order to add a video comment, simply click the camera icon adjacent to the comment box.

Related Link: Is Facebook Jealous Of China's WeChat?

"[W]e wanted enable more engaging and immersive conversations. This adds to the suite of multimedia features within comments including: links, photos, stickers, emoji, and starting today video," Bob Baldwin wrote on a Facebook blog.

Implications In The Competitive Sphere

With this feature, Facebook can compete much better with Snapchat and position itself in the ongoing rise and continued growth of online video.

If the latest Cisco Virtualization Networking Index estimate is any indication, then online videos is a huge market opportunity. Cisco said globally, IP video traffic will be 82 percent of all consumer Internet traffic by 2020, up from 70 percent in 2015. Global IP video traffic will grow threefold from 2015 to 2020, a CAGR of 26 percent. Internet video traffic will grow fourfold from 2015 to 2020, a CAGR of 31 percent.

Cisco added, "It would take an individual more than 5 million years to watch the amount of video that will cross global IP networks each month in 2020. Every second, nearly a million minutes of video content will cross the network by 2020."

Facebook has been focusing on videos of late, as it made its live video streaming feature widely available in January. The company also enhanced its video capabilities in April by adding real-time world maps of live broadcasts, reactions and live filters.

In March, the company bought video filter app Masquerade to boost its video offerings.

At the time of writing, shares of Facebook were down 0.84 percent to $117.56.