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YouTube Live might soon be available even to those with few subscribers

Hillary K. Grigonis
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YouTubers may no longer need thousands of subscribers before going live — the video platform recently started experimenting with removing its live-streaming subscriber stipulations entirely.

Users first spotted the live-streaming capability despite being under the subscriber minimum and told Android Police. YouTube, however, says that the change is only available to a select number of users as part of an experiment.”We’ve been experimenting and expanding mobile live streaming for almost a year now. However, it is still only available to a relatively small subset of users,” a YouTube spokesperson told Digital Trends.

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The subscriber limit, recently lowered to 1,000 from the previous high of 10,000, appears to have been removed for a select number of users. Current live video requirements say that users need a verified channel (and no live-stream restrictions from the last 90 days) to go live from the YouTube app, as well as that 1,000 channel subscriber minimum.

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Other platforms like Twitch or social media platforms like Facebook don’t require a certain number of followers, and so the change, if it is launched universally, could help YouTube compete with other video platforms as live video grows in popularity. If the feature expands to more users, however, it’s unclear how YouTube will monitor live videos to prevent content that violates its terms of use. Facebook, for example, recently announced plans to hire 3,000 more people to report the misuse of live video after several crimes were live-streamed.

Users with fewer than 10,000 users noticed they could live-stream back in March, and this was followed by a formal update to the guidelines saying that those with 1,000 subscribers could now live-stream from the app. The page still says channels must have more than 1,000 subscribers.

YouTube’s live videos have the same features as pre-recorded shots, including the ability to make them public or shared by link only.

Updated on 05-18-2017 to reflect YouTube’s statement that the change is currently only experimental and available to a small group of users.

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