YouTube introduces mobile live streaming

Mobile live streaming is such a ubiquitous feature on major platforms that it comes as no surprise YouTube is adding it to its service. At the moment though, it is open to creators with over 10,000 subscribers. The feature is baked into YouTube’s mobile app and just like what you’d see on Facebook or Instagram, you just need to hit the capture button and then you go live. Mobile live streams get the same features as usual YouTube videos. These can be searched for, found through recommendations and playlists, and protected from unauthorized us. When it was debuted back at VidCon 2016 in beta, one of the first users who got to try it out was Canadian creator UnboxTherapy. Now, it’s open to more users and YouTube promises it’ll be available to more creators soon.

Launching alongside mobile live streaming is a new way for creators to earn revenue from the feature. Called Super Chat, it’s a monetization tool that’ll allow fans watching live streams to stand out from all the commenters and grab the creator’s attention by purchasing chat messages. These will be highlighted in bright colors and will be pinned to the top of the chat window for up to five hours. It also helps creators earn a bit of extra money from their supporters.

Chrome extension lets you read YouTube comments while you watch videos

We’re not sure if it’s a good idea or not but there’s now a Google Chrome extension that’ll let you see comments on YouTube videos while you watch the clips. Product designer David Diamond released the extension called Comment Mode. It’ll show you a scrollable list of the comments the video has gotten. It won’t work automatically for each video, though. You’ll need to press on the Comment Mode icon on each video if you want to see what comments people have been leaving there. Of course, we know there are a lot of toxic and nasty comments left on these video. But if this is how you want to interact with the service or you’re actually having intelligent conversation there (or you’re in it for the laughs), then this might be worth a try.

Source: The Next Web

PlayStation VR now has support for YouTube’s 360-degree videos

While it’s been tested out last year with a few issues that needed to be resolved, it looks like the Sony PlayStation VR can now support 360-degree videos on YouTube. And you won’t be limited to watching the 2D versions of videos, there are even some 3D 360-degree videos. You can check out a list of that here in this Reddit thread. Bringing in access to more content is a boon for the PSVR and that is something this fledgling industry needs.

Source: Digital Trends

YouTube helps businesses create video ads

You don’t have to be a big corporation to be able to share your online ads on YouTube. The streaming video giant is now helping out small businesses create their own video ads with its new suite of products called YouTube Director. The free YouTube Director for Business app is available for iOS users in Canada and the U.S. and allows you to create video ads right from your smartphone. You don’t even need to worry about editing as well. You can check out the app in action in the video above where YouTube challenged five video owners to create their ad.

Or if you want YouTube to create a video ad based on your app, if you have one or if that’s your business. YouTube Director can generate a video ad based on the assets you have like logos and app screenshots in the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.

Source: YouTube