YouTube has announced a raft of new features that should help improve livestreaming for creators as well as viewers. They include users being able to replay YouTube Live videos and viewing the live chat as it happened in real time, live automatic captions with videos, and the ability for creators to geotag the videos from where the recording is taking place.
Automatic captions is the most impressive of the three in theory, but since it relies on machine learning it'll be a while before it’s perfected. Basically, YouTube has applied its live automatic speed recognition (LASR) technology, which is in the process of approaching industry standards with respect to error rates and latency.
It makes things more convenient, and also enables the livestreams to reach a wider audience. This is going to be rolled in the coming weeks as the technology continues to improve.
Users can also view the live chat as it happened when re-watching a YouTube Live stream. This is good news for creators as well as viewers, as the essence of the video being ‘live’ isn’t lost.
It’s also going to be possible for creators to geotag their livestreams and uploads. This feature allows creators to share their favorite spots with their viewers, and viewers can in turn explore other videos tagged with the same location. There's also going to be a function where users can filter search results by location to find videos that have been tagged from a particular region.
Last year YouTube introduced an attribute called ‘Super Chats’, which enabled to pay to have their comments to appear above everyone else’s to make sure that they got the attention of their favorite YouTuber while watching a livestream.
Now this feature has been connected to IFTTT (If This, Then That) technology, while more than 600 smart devices can now also be connected to Super Chat. It's available across the board on desktop, Android and iOS.
- If YouTube live isn't your favorite platform, try Facebook Live.
- Explore all the streaming options at your disposal.
