YouTube is adding three new features for live streaming.
As of July 15, YouTube streamers will be able to limit their chats to subscribers only, create polls inside of their chats that will only be available to their subscribers, and their viewers will be able to create snippets from their most popular gaming streams.
The three new features are said to have been borrowed from Twitch, YouTube's live-streaming service rival.
YouTube's Three New Features
The new features have been around for months now on Twitch. The features are important for streamers as it lets them engage with their community and filter the people they interact with on their accounts, according to Eurogamer.
Limiting the chats to subscribers can help Youtube streamers moderate the chat as it lets them weed out people, giving trolls less opportunity to harass the streamers.
The feature also encourages its viewers to pay in exchange for exclusive content. As for the polls are useful for engaging with viewers in chatrooms, and it lets streamers ask for input on certain topics.
Also Read: Spotify vs. Apple Music vs. YouTube Music: Which Is the Best Music Streaming Service For You?
Creating short clips are also important for discovery. Since most viewers will not sit and watch hours worth of live streams, Twitch's clipping tool allows them to view and share highlights from videos of their favorite streamers.
YouTube, on the other hand, made the clipping tool available for creators with more than 1,000 followers but has stated that the tool will roll out to all creators in the future, regardless of how many followers they got.
Like the chat feature, Clips had been given to a couple of creators on YouTube to test it out. It is not clear when YouTube will officially launch the feature.
While Twitch is still the most popular site for live-streaming, YouTube Gaming and Facebook Gaming have been getting their share of the spotlight.
According to Streamlabs, YouTube had a quarter of the market in terms of hours watched during the last quarter of 2020, while Twitch got two-thirds of all viewership for 2020.
Offline and 4K Downloads
Aside from the three new features added to YouTube Gaming, the streaming service has also announced that YouTube TV added two new features: offline downloads and 4K playback.
The services are bundled together in a new add-on package call 4K Plus, according to The Verge.
4K Plus was officially launched on July 14, and it will cost $19.99 per month on top of the $64.99 YouTube TV subscription.
Customers of the new service will be able to enjoy a one-month free trial, and if they sign up early, they can get the 4K Plus service for $9.99 each month for the next 12 months.
The offline downloads feature of the 4K Plus service will let you download any content on YouTube even without an internet connection, and you can watch them too.
Despite all of these new features and services rolling out, YouTube has a long way to go to catch up to its rivals, especially Twitch.
However, these features can be considered as a small step towards helping and supporting the streamers to grow and thrive in the platform.
