Facebook Live is simple to broadcast from a mobile device. Simply click"go live", and you're broadcasting on your timeline. Unfortunately, if you want to use a desktop computer with a webcam or remote IP camera, the process is a little more complicated.

There are two main ways to start a Facebook Live stream from a computer. You can use the Publishing Tools in the video menu and then start a live stream. Or, you can use the API (which used to be the only way to accomplish the task). Unfortunately, the API is a bit daunting to use. Thankfully, Ian Anderson Gray has not only made an incredible tutorial for going live on Facebook, he's also created a wonderful button that uses the Facebook API in order to get a very simple method for starting streams. You don't need to schedule the live stream, and you don't need to worry about timing. You just click the button and walk through the process of picking which page to stream on. Facebook gives you a streaming key, and you immediately can start live streaming to the page.

If it was a simple code snippet, I might feel okay with just giving you the code, but Ian obviously put a lot of effort into creating his magic button, so if you want to try it, head over to his site Not only can you click on his magic button, but he also provides a great tutorial on using OBS in order to live stream from a computer. Thanks Ian!