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It’s now way easier to go live on YouTube
- You no longer need an encoder to live stream via YouTube. You can now do so right through your browser — no extra software required.
- For now, the service only works with the Chrome browser. Other browsers still need an encoder.
- Google plans to bring live streaming via YouTube directly to camera apps on mobile devices “in the coming months.”
For a while now, to go live on YouTube meant having to deal with the hassle of downloading and installing encoder software. You’d have to record your video through the encoder and then link the encoder stream to YouTube. It was confusing and clunky, to say the least.
Now, finally, YouTubers who wish to conduct a live stream don’t have to use any third-party software; it’s baked right into YouTube itself.
To set up a live stream, go to youtube.com/webcam or simply pick “Go Live” from the drop-down box where you would usually upload a video. Once you’ve arrived at the live stream page, just go ahead and start your stream. That’s how easy it should have been from the beginning!
Check out the GIF below which gives you an idea of how easy the process has become:
YouTube creators have been beta testing the new live streaming process, using it to create this beauty tutorial, this fan update, and this product review.
Unfortunately, there is one caveat here — this new system currently only works in the Chrome browser. Google plans to bring the feature to more browsers soon, but if you don’t use Chrome, you’re stuck with the old-fashioned encoder process for now.
Google also committed to bringing the feature to mobile devices, too. But not through the YouTube app, which already has live streaming built-in, but from the device’s camera app. Google’s plan is for you to open your camera app, hit the live stream button, and a stream is connected to your YouTube account just like that. Google didn’t set a date for this new rollout, but said the capability would come to select devices from ASUS, LG, Motorola, Nokia, and Samsung “in the coming months.”