YouTube Live Streaming Features – Mar 2022
YouTube will launch 5 new live stream features for viewers and creators to enhance live streams. Some features are currently in testing and others will roll out later this year.
These features are previewed in a video on YouTube’s Creator Insider channel. They include:
- ‘Go Live Together’
- Live rings
- Cross-channel live redirects
- Uninterrupted split-screen viewing
- Live Q&A
1. Go Live Together
The On live guests – feature is similar to YouTube live options. YouTube will soon launch a small pilot test of a feature which is called ‘Go Live Together’. This is a collaborative streaming feature for mobile devices which will enable creators to invite a guest to their live stream by simply sending a link.
As explained by YouTube:
“The host creator will be able to create a live stream, invite and screen their guests before going live to their viewers. Note that the guest channel and user information will remain hidden during the live stream.”
Hosts will also be able to see streaming analytics in YouTube studio, same as any other live stream, but the guests will not have access to this analytics data.
Note that the guest’s channel and user information will remain hidden during the stream
In this Go Live Together stream a Pre-roll and mid-roll ads can appear during live but guests won’t benefit from those either. Ad revenue will be attributed to the host channel. The reason for adding this feature is to expand the number of creators who have access to Go Live Together after the pilot test.
2. Live Rings
YouTube is now working to add live rings which will help viewers identify when a channel is going live, the live rings are added to the channel’s profile picture. Live rings are the same as Instagram live, which helps to increase discovery and viewership for creators’ live streams on YouTube. It’s currently being seen on certain screens on mobile devices and will be extended across YouTube later this year.
3. Cross-Channel Live Redirects
“Today, creators with at least a thousand subscribers can use a feature called live redirect to direct their viewers from a live stream or premier to another Livestream or premier on their own channel. But they can’t send their viewers to a live stream or premier hosted on another channel. With this launch, creators with at least a thousand subscribers and no active community guidelines strikes will be able to direct their viewers to a live stream or premier hosted on a different channel.”
This feature adds more capacity for collaborative promotion and also becomes a valuable tool for influencer partnerships.
Also, Read – How To Change YouTube Channel Name & Custom URL
4. Split-Screen Viewing On Mobile
YouTube is working on providing an uninterrupted view of a Livestream by taking a split-screen approach with two different viewing experiences for mobile devices.
In the lean-in video and live chat experience, the live chat panel is on the right of the screen, replacing the live chat overlay from the classic view.
The lean-back or collapsed live chat experience allows for the video to be full screen when watching in landscape mode. The chat is then represented by the viewer count in the lower right-hand corner.
YouTube is beginning to roll out both of these views to viewers and it should be fully launched by the end of Mar 2022.
5. Live Q&A
Another important upcoming feature on YouTube that is looking to launch in the next few months is live Q&A. With a live Q&A feature, viewers will be able to submit questions during a live stream based on the creator’s question prompt on the screen. Questions answered by the creator will be temporarily pinned on top of the live chat, encouraging other viewers to submit their own answers.
These new tools and features in live stream offerings are more beneficial on YouTube, and it’ll be interesting to see how creators respond to the additions as they become more widely available.
