Instagram live video is here

Instagram's biggest update yet will soon be available to a lot more people.

The app is now starting to bring its live-streaming features to everyone, the Facebook-owned service announced on Monday. Users in the U.S. will start to see the feature today and those in other countries will have access "over the coming weeks," according to the company.

Instagram had previously announced live video was coming to its app. Its features are more like Snapchat than Facebook in that live videos disappear after the stream ends. When someone you follow is live, it will appear in the Stories section of the app and some users will receive notifications when someone they follow is live (based on an algorithm that determines which followers are most likely to be interested.)

If you have post notifications on for an account, then you'll also get alerts when they go live. Live videos will also appear in the app's "explore" section.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

To check whether you have access to live video, swipe into the "Stories" camera in the app and look for "live." The live broadcasts themselves are similar to those on Facebook and Twitter's Periscope: viewers can comment and add "hearts" to the streams as they watch.

For Instagram, the update marks one of the app's biggest changes in year as it is the biggest shift yet toward the "in the moment" sharing often reserved for Snapchat. Facebook's photo app has made no secret of its desire to be more like Snapchat in recent months.

The company first rolled out Stories, essentially a copy of the Snapchat feature of the same name, in August. Last month, the app added new ephemeral messaging features, which introduced alongside live video.