Live-streaming apps like Meerkat and Twitter's Periscope are all the rage, and now the world's biggest social network wants in on the action.

Facebook on Thursday introduced Live Video, which, as its name suggests, lets you broadcast video from your phone to the social network in real time. Facebook first started experimenting with live streaming this summer, but at the time limited the capability to celebrities with verified profiles. Now, the company is testing the feature with a "small percentage" of regular, non-famous U.S. users on iPhones.

"Whether you're visiting a new place, cooking your favorite recipe, or just want to share some thoughts … Live lets you bring your friends and family right next to you to experience what's happening together," Facebook Product Managers Vadim Lavrusik and Thai Tran wrote in the announcement.

If you're one of the few with access to this feature, you can share a live video by tapping Update Status and selecting the Live Video icon. From there, you can write a brief description and choose the audience for your video before going live.

During a broadcast, you'll see the number of live viewers, the names of friends tuning in, and a real-time stream of comments. Sound familiar? That's pretty much exactly how Meerkat and Periscope work.

Here's where Facebook is differentiating itself a bit: When you end your live broadcast it will be saved on your Timeline like any other video, so you can keep it for your friends to watch later or delete it if you want. Meerkat, on the other hand, doesn't let you replay broadcasts, while Periscope keeps them for just 24 hours unless you delete them before that.

If one of your friends happens to go live, you can tap the Subscribe button so you won't miss any future broadcasts from that person.

Meanwhile, Facebook also on Thursday introduced a new feature that lets you easily create collages with photos and videos that were taken together. Now, when you go to upload a Photo, you'll see recent moments from your camera roll organized into collages based on when and where you took them. You can remove or re-arrange the photos and videos in your collage, and add a title before sharing. This feature is rolling out to Facebook's iPhone app today, and will be available on Android in early 2016.