YouTube Offers Co-Streaming with ‘Go Live Together’ Feature

YouTube is getting ready to introduce a new feature called “Go Live Together” that allows qualifying creators to have a guest join their live stream. Initially available only via mobile, YouTube plans to eventually expand to more platforms and expand the number of participating creators. Although creators can only host one guest at a time, they can rotate them. Once you are invited, the guests’ stream will appear below the host’s. To activate it, creators will be asked to enter stream details, including a title, description, thumbnails, visibility and monetization settings. The move follows similar functionality introduced by TikTok and Twitch.

A Go Live Together button will begin appearing on creator accounts in the coming weeks. After selecting an option called “invite a co-streamer,” creators will be able to send an invitation inviting their guest to join the live stream. Guests who click the invite will be admitted to a waiting room, and when everything is set the host can activate the stream by taping “Go Live.”

The Go Live Together stream accommodates advertising, “but revenue will solely go to the host,” reports TechCrunch, explaining “the stream won’t appear on the guest’s channel, but YouTube says it’s aware that visibility on guest channels is important, which indicates that the company could potentially ship the feature in the future.”

YouTube is debuting the innovation after TikTok and Twitch launched their own co-streaming capabilities. TikTok’s “Multi-Guest” uses a grid or panel layout to facilitate up to five guests. Twitch launched Guest Star in beta earlier this year and now has it in general release, letting hosts pull multiple collaborators into a stream for what TechCrunch describes as “a talk show experience.”

“Creators can host and manage guests from Twitch Studio and OBS, the streaming software of choice for many of the app’s more advanced creators,” TechCrunch writes of Guest Star, calling it Twitch’s biggest feature launch in years. Twitchers can invite participants by tapping members of a chat or sending an invite.

TechCrunch says that while YouTube is currently limited to one guest at a time, it may expand that limit. PC Magazine notes that “the prevalence of live co-streaming has boomed in recent years, with the feature being especially popular among gamers and commentators.”

YouTube reportedly began testing Go Live Together in March, and will this week begin ramping it up by offering it to “channels with at least 50 subscribers,” according to Social Media Today, which notes the introduction will be staggered.

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