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Among competitors like Twitch and even Instagram, YouTube might not be the go-to name in livestreaming, but its latest features are doing their best to change that. Announced at Google’s Made on YouTube event today, the site will soon let streamers go live with simultaneous horizontal and vertical streams, plus use AI to automatically “clip that.” Oh, and there’s some new corporate cross-promotion, too.
Stream horizontally and vertically at the same time
Currently in testing and set to get a wider release “in the coming months,” YouTube’s combined support for horizontal and vertical streaming is probably the most exciting news to me here. I tend to put streams on in the background, and I much prefer doing that on a second monitor rather than on my phone. But with sites like TikTok getting more popular these days, plenty of streamers are eschewing more traditional platforms for them, meaning I’m likely to miss out on content unless I go looking for vertically oriented streams on my mobile device.
Now, though, YouTube will let creators put out both horizontal versions of their streams, meant for larger screens, and vertical ones meant for smaller screens, at the same time. That means there’ll be less incentive to stick with a mobile-only platform to try to hop on the new trend, and users across all devices will be able to watch streams however they wish. Whether you’re watching the horizontal stream or the vertical one, you’ll be thrown into a chat room with everyone, and the streamer won’t have split view counts across different uploads. The vertical stream will just have a cropped or letterboxed view, as usual, depending on the content. It seems like a perfect solution, and I’m excited to see more creators trying it out once it’s available to them—finally, at least on YouTube, I won’t have to worry that I’m missing a stream from a favorite creator by not watching on my phone.
AI-generated livestream highlights
Meanwhile, as for actually watching streams themselves, YouTube’s making it a bit easier for creators to create highlights from their streams. Personally, while I do have favorite creators, I’ll admit I don’t have the time to watch all of their content, and will often just sort through clips in my free time instead. Unfortunately, not everything gets clipped, because it takes manual effort to do that—that’s why you’ll sometimes see creators tell their fans to “clip that” after a memorable moment. Now, though, YouTube’s throwing some automation into the mix. Starting “in the next few weeks,” you’ll be able to task AI with sorting through your livestreams to automatically find highlights and turn them into YouTube shorts, which you’ll be able to check before uploading. It’s kind of become expected in some corners of the internet for stream clips to be uploaded via unofficial channels, since they currently need a bit of manual work. While I’ve seen streamers express appreciation to their fans for doing this, I also do worry that I’m not supporting the actual content creators enough by watching through these sources. Hopefully, the new tool will make it easier to see clips straight from creators themselves.
Live reaction and streaming ‘Playables’
Credit: Google
Finally, there are two additional features that are set to make it a lot easier to promote content via YouTube. The first is “React Live,” which will allow you to start a vertical livestream with content you’re watching in the upper half and your own feed in the bottom half. This will make it easier for creators to create reaction streams, without forcing them to capture video on their own, but it’ll only work with events and creators that allows their content to be reacted to. Still, if you like to watch tech keynotes alongside your favorite commentators, this should allow creators to start them up without bothering to independently license a stream first, assuming the company behind the keynote allows reaction streams. YouTube expects this to enter testing “early next year.”
The second is the ability to stream YouTube’s “Playables” browser games with the touch of a button, again without needing to capture the gameplay yourself. Having played a bunch of these, I personally think the quality is all over the place, but it should be a good way to get started with streaming without worrying about tech or capture software. And there are a few noteworthy games in there, including Angry Birds Showdown and Cut the Rope. YouTube says this should come to some creators next month, ahead of a larger rollout later this year.
Why does this matter?
I’m personally thrilled to see YouTube drop a few barriers to streaming, both by making it easier to find content to react to, as well as to reach multiple types of viewers at once. In particular, the new updates seem designed to help the site cross the threshold between desktop and mobile without losing its existing audience, which is funny, given that one of YouTube’s top competitors just made it harder to stream on mobile.
In order to go live on Instagram, as of one month ago, you now need to have a public account and at least 1,000 followers. That probably saves Instagram some server load, but also kills new talent right out of the door. With YouTube quickly catching up, it’s possible it could soon be eating Meta’s lunch. Will other streaming sites be next?
