• by Gavin O'Malley  @mp_gavin, August 8, 2017

Potentially threatening a host of communication platforms, Instagram has started testing a live-video feature for easy chatting among friends.

No stranger to live video, Instagram wants to further engage users with fun offerings.  

“We will continue to improve the experience as we roll it out to everyone over the coming months,” a company spokeswoman said on Tuesday. 

“This is one of several new features we’ve introduced to live video this year, in addition to the ability to save your live video to your phone or share it to your story,” the spokeswoman said.

Expanding live video to Instagram is a no-brainer for parent company Facebook.

“Facebook’s users are captivated by videos on the platform,” eMarketer analyst Monica Peart noted in a recent report. “Video, both live and recorded, is a key driver of growing user engagement and advertiser enthusiasm.”

More broadly, Facebook is increasingly relying on Instagram to drive revenue growth.

In fact, the picture-based network will make up 20% of Facebook’s domestic mobile revenue this year -- up from 15%, last year -- according to eMarketer.

Fortunately for Facebook, Instagram recently surpassed 700 million monthly active users, while the network is adding MAUs at a record rate.

As Facebook’s CFO David Wehner recently told analysts: “We’re seeing great growth there.”