Live streaming video is one of the bigger and growing trends, and although YouTube is currently the leading service for videos content, they don’t have the ability to live stream right from the mobile app. That is changing, however, as YouTube announced today on their Creator Blog that they’ll be introducing the capability in the near future. According to the post, the new in-app live stream feature isn’t heading out to users on a wide basis, rather it’s only being rolled out to a select handful of content creators. Google does plan to roll the feature out to more users though eventually.
YouTube initially announced their plans to bring live streaming to the app back in the beginning of February. The company states that the functionality is to be baked right into the core YouTube mobile app, so there will be no need to download a secondary app just for this purpose. The live streaming feature in YouTube boasts having a snappier use to it thanks to YouTube’s “peerless infrastructure” and YouTube believes that using live streaming in their app will be faster than other live streaming alternatives, although that could certainly change from user to user and the feature has yet to be tested.
As for who will have access to the live streaming feature from today, YouTube announced that they’re launching the feature today at VidCon for creators that include The Young Turks, AIB, Platica Polinesia, SacconeJolys, and Alex Wassabi. In regards to the time frame for any other users beyond those listed here, all YouTube says is that it will be starting to roll out more widely soon so there is no real specific detail. YouTube notes that using the function will be extremely simple and that all users will have to do is tap a big red button that will sit in the lower corner of the application. Live streaming videos will also have everything that creators get when uploading a normal video, which includes things like finding videos through recommendations, searching for videos, and protecting them from anyone using the content without authorization. With YouTube’s native live streaming on the way, they’ll finally be able to take on the likes of Facebook’s Live option as well as Twitter-owned Periscope.
