Periscope, Meerkat, Facebook Live, and other video live stream sites have appeared and grown like wildfire. YouTube, a video streaming pioneer, took a back seat to the live streaming wars on the mobile phone. YouTube up until now offered live streaming on the desktop for games or other videos but left the cell phone out. Now, content creators can stream video directly to YouTube from their phone.
Based on the screenshots the experience will be a lot like Periscope, with messages flowing on the screen and the ability like or limit the viewing audience. The feature will begin to roll out to every user soon, but a handful of big Tubers are playing with the feature at Vidcon.
YouTube may have missed the boat with live streaming, but they also have the upper hand with some content creators vying for more eyes on their channels and another way to connect with their current audience. Some makers have been going to Facebook Live to have live conversations. We will see if YouTubers decide to adopt YouTube Live for their live streaming needs or if they’ll stay on Facebook. It’s also interesting to see if YouTube will attempt to court some publishers like Buzzfeed or Vox into creating live streams like they have been doing on Facebook.
Tell us what you think about YouTube live being added to phones, and if you’d be more likely to watch a Facebook Live video or YouTube Live video in the comments down below!