YouTube makes it easier and more lucrative to go live

YouTube is introducing some live streaming features that give content creators new ways to grow their audiences and interact with viewers. The updates were announced at the Made on YouTube event today, and include simultaneous horizontal and vertical streams, AI-powered livestream highlights, and the ability to livestream reactions to other live YouTube content on mobile devices.

YouTube says that the new features announced today are “part of the largest upgrade to Live we’ve ever made.” The updates aim to attract more users to the platform’s livestreamed content, with the service reporting that more than 30 percent of daily logged-in viewers had watched live content in YouTube’s second quarter this year.

The first feature allows creators to stream both horizontally and vertically at the same time, giving viewers across both mobile and desktop formats a more optimized experience. This is combined with a single unified chat room that enables viewers to interact with each other, regardless of the format they’re watching. This is currently in the testing stages, according to YouTube, and is expected to expand to more creators “in the coming months.”

Creators will also be able to react in real-time to eligible livestreams on YouTube. The feature allows streamers to go live on mobile alongside content like live events and keynote announcements, building on the popularity of reaction streams on YouTube and Twitch, but with fewer concerns around licensing and copyright restrictions. YouTube says it will start testing live content reactions “early next year before we expand further.”

YouTube is giving creators on mobile devices AI-powered livestream highlights that automatically turn stream clips into Shorts “in the next few weeks,” and the ability to practice streaming on the mobile app until they’re ready to launch a real livestream sometime later this year. The “Playables” games that YouTube launched last year will also soon allow streamers to play while interacting with their viewers in vertical livestreams. This is rolling out to some creators next month, before expanding later this year.

Some of the updates specifically focus on helping creators to monetize their content. A feature is currently rolling out to creators with channel memberships that allows them to transition between public and members-only livestreams, for example, encouraging viewers to become paying channel members to avoid missing out. Ads displayed to the side of YouTube livestreams that already appear on desktop and TV will also be expanding to mobile devices later this year.

“Grounded in community feedback, these features are designed to help creators get discovered, grow their channel, and increase their earnings,” Aaron Filner, YouTube’s senior director of product management, said in a blog post. It’s good to see YouTube showing its livestream content creators some love after its persistent fixation on Shorts, but we’ll have to see if these updates could help the platform compete with livestream-focused services like Twitch.