Skip to main content

Is Google building a live-streaming YouTube app to take on Periscope?

YouTube
Charnsit Ramyarupa/123RF
Google has reportedly been working on a Periscope and Facebook Live competitor called YouTube Connect that’ll offer users a fast and easy way to do live broadcasts.

YouTube Connect would be a standalone cross-platform mobile app geared solely toward live-streaming, sources with knowledge of the project told Venture Beat this week.

While live-streams are already possible on YouTube via its Creator Studio product, or Google Hangouts if you want to go down that route, its main mobile app has no such functionality. A new product geared solely toward live videos would fit well with the streaming site’s core offering, and could appeal not only to casual YouTube users, but also content creators on the service as well as famous folks looking for another way to engage with fans.

YouTube Connect’s features will apparently mirror those found on competing services. For example, users will be able to immediately start live-streaming from their mobile device with a single tap, while viewers can hit their “news feed” to see the latest streams from friends and other users whose streams they’re following. Notifications for when a stream starts is also a given.

Incorporating YouTube’s broader platform could prove crucial to YouTube Connect’s success. With this in mind, it’s expected that live videos created with the app would then automatically appear on the streamer’s channel on the main YouTube site, bringing broadcasts repeat views and boosting user engagement with the streaming service.

Mobile live-streaming gained much attention last year during Periscope’s duke-out with rival service Meerkat. Periscope is owned by Twitter, and when Facebook Live joined the party earlier this year, Meerkat decided tussling with the giants wasn’t worth the effort and a few weeks ago announced it was to reorient itself as a video-based social network.

With Google’s backing and YouTube’s giant platform already firmly established, YouTube is well placed to go up against Periscope and Facebook Live. Certainly, if YouTube Connect does land, it should push all the competing services to up their game, resulting in more features and slicker app experiences for all users.

Editors' Recommendations

Trevor Mogg
Contributing Editor
Not so many moons ago, Trevor moved from one tea-loving island nation that drives on the left (Britain) to another (Japan)…
Don’t watch this YouTube video if you have a Pixel 7
Someone holding the Google Pixel 7 Pro.

Reports of another "cursed" piece of content have been making the internet rounds as a video on YouTube has been causing Pixel devices to crash. The video, a clip from the 1979 movie Alien, seems to cause Pixel 7, Pixel 7 Pro, and some Pixel 6 and Pixel 6a smartphones to instantly reboot without warning.

As first reported on Reddit and spotted by Mishaal Rahman, the video will begin to play for only a second or two and then instantly reboot the Pixel 7 it's being played on. Digital Trends can confirm the bug to be active and working, too, with the video instantly rebooting a Pixel 7 Pro we tested it on.

Read more
What is Ambient Mode on YouTube?
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

YouTube recently announced a number of changes to its video-watching interface. One of these changes is a new feature known as Ambient Mode.

In this guide, we'll go over exactly what Ambient Mode on YouTube is and show you how to enable or disable it.
What is Ambient Mode on YouTube?
Ambient Mode is basically a lighting effect that surrounds a given YouTube video with a soft, glowing light that usually reflects the colors featured in the video itself. The effect kind of resembles the glow of a television screen in a room where the lights are off (which YouTube has said was the inspiration for the effect). YouTube also said that Ambient Mode is supposed to make the video-watching experience of its dark mode "more immersive." Ambient Mode was officially announced in late-October 2022 and is available on the web, Android, and iOS.

Read more
YouTube is rolling out handles. Here’s what you need to know
The red and white YouTube logo on a phone screen. The phone is on a white background.

YouTube recently announced that it would be rolling out handles for YouTube channels. Whether you've just heard about them or you already got an email from YouTube saying it's time to choose one, you're probably wondering what they are and how they're different from YouTube channel names.

In this guide, we'll go over what a YouTube handle is and answer a few questions about them so you can better understand what they are and be better prepared to choose one when it's rolled out to you.

Read more