Facebook iOS users and brands are set to benefit from the company’s latest set of updates, with the addition of an improved Events section on the app as well as the announcement that verified brands can now share live video.

Find Facebook events related to a specific category or location

Facebook’s Events feature will now let you browse events by category or location. Currently, the Events tab lets you see Nearby Events, but the functionality is limited.

With the update, Facebook users will now be able to sift through upcoming events using categories like Music, Food & Drinks, Nightlife, Sports and Fitness and more across 10 major cities in the U.S., including New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, Boston, San Francisco, Dallas, Seattle, Miami and Houston.

You can now be proactive when it comes to events and seek them out yourself rather than responding to events when they appear in your area.

The new Events feature is currently only available on the Facebook iOS app, with the update likely to hit the App Store soon.

iOS users will find the new features by heading into the Events dashboard in the Facebook app. You can then search for events using the categories or if you have an upcoming trip to one of the 10 cities, you can see what is going on during your stay.

The updated Events feature will come to both Android and desktop soon.

Facebook allows verified brands to live stream

via Facebook

Early this month, Facebook announced that more users would be able to share live video on Facebook. The company have now announced that verified Pages will be able to share live video. Using Live, sports teams, media companies and other verified Pages can share a variety of live video including Q&A’s, products announcements, etc.

A brand’s page owner can start a live video by tapping the Publish button and selecting Live Video. A description can be included and filming can commence. The brand will be able to see the number of viewers watching the video, the names of verified users or Pages and the addition of any comments.

The feature is currently only available through Facebook for iOS.

Image credit: Ron Mader, Flickr