YouTube Live's new dual streaming feature expands creator reach

Today, YouTube has announced a host of new features coming to YouTube Live as part of the platform’s biggest update yet, and this includes a new dual-streaming feature that will let creators expand their reach and unify their chat community. As part of the latest update, creators will also be able to stream while watching eligible live content.

For example, a creator would be able to stream alongside a live keynote where new products from their favorite brand are being announced. This has to be done from a mobile device, and the live content has to be eligible to accept this kind of stream. YouTube doesn’t mention any specifics when it comes to what types of live content will be eligible, however.

These and other updates coming to the platform are intended to give creators more lucrative ways to foster engagement and grow their audiences. “Grounded in community feedback, these features are designed to help creators get discovered, grow their channel, and increase their earnings,” said Senior Director, Product Management at YouTube, Aaron Filner.

YouTube Live is getting a dual-streaming feature to simultaneously go live on horizontal and vertical formats

Another big feature for this update is the ability to go live on horizontal and vertical formats simultaneously. This feature is pretty self-explanatory. When enabled, a creator can go live and stream it to viewers who are watching on desktops and on phones. Additionally, YouTube is merging the chat rooms from both formats into a single unified chat, so everything stays organized. The hope here is that this drives more engagement from the chat and grows the community.

Aside from the simultaneous streaming and the new ways to react to live content, YouTube is also adding a feature that uses AI to take snippets from a livestream and make Shorts out of them that creators can then upload. This automatic process of using AI-powered highlights will give creators a way to make their content go further. It could also drive traffic to their older livestream videos if a viewer happens to check out one of the Short highlights first.