YouTube’s live streams are now available to all users of the popular online video service with 1,000 or more subscribers, the Google-owned company confirmed in an email to its content creators. The latest YouTube Creator Quarterly newsletter revealed that everyone who fulfills the aforementioned criteria can now start broadcasting live videos to their subscribers directly from the YouTube Android app, and the official YouTube Help pages confirm that change of requirements. If you happen to have a YouTube channel with more than 1,000 subscribers, all you need to do to start live streaming is open the YouTube app and tap its capture button. The feature still works as before, meaning your live streams will be automatically saved and managed after you’re done broadcasting and you’ll be able to edit them like regular YouTube uploads. Furthermore, users will be able to find recordings of your past broadcasts on both your profile page and through the app’s Search and Recommendations tabs and add them to Playlists.
The latest turn of events marks yet another step in YouTube’s endeavor to bring the live streaming feature of its service to everyone. The Google-owned company has been experimenting with this functionality since last year and has already made it available to all accounts with at least 10,000 subscribers in early February. Following this latest rollout, it seems like YouTube’s live streaming feature might be rolling out to everyone really soon, presumably before summer. Note that the video platform already allows anyone to broadcast videos on desktop, but the functionality is still limited on mobile, though its eligibility requirements are quickly dropping.
YouTube’s video broadcasting feature is meant to directly compete with the likes of Periscope and Facebook Live, both of which are currently trying to become the go-to service for general-purpose live video streaming. The Mountain View-based tech giant has recently been ennobling its functionality with a number of new additions including 4K support and new monetization options, all with the goal of differentiating from its competitors. In light of that fact, YouTube will likely introduce more similar broadcasting features in the future, though it remains to be seen how well content creators and their audiences will accept them.