Last week, YouTube announced new improvements to YouTube Live on both mobile and desktop. They’ve added real-time interaction, new tools for live chat moderation, and improved the ability to stream live directly from apps on the iPhone and iPad. Continue reading for the full details on these updates.

Real-Time Interaction

Ultra-low-latency is one of the newest features YouTube has added to their live streaming platform. The latency options make it possible for you to stream video with varying degrees of latency, which allows you to decide if you'd like your stream to be as close to real-time as possible or if you'd like a little more latency to make it easier for you to moderate and respond to comments during the stream. This option is available to select when you are choosing your stream options before beginning a live stream.

New Tools For Live Chat

Inline moderation: This new feature allows you to moderate your chat feed during a live stream by pressing the “alt/option” key on your computer’s keyboard. This will pause the chat feed where you can then approve or remove messages from the feed.Hold potentially inappropriate messages for review: You now have the option to let YouTube’s system identify potentially inappropriate chat messages during a live stream, and hold those messages for you to approve, hide, or report. This system will get better at identifying these types of messages the more you use it as it learns the types of messages you want to hide or approve in your live chat feed. You can also block certain words or phrases during a live stream.Shared hidden users lists: This allows chat moderators to use the same hidden users list across comments and live chat. In the future, YouTube is also planning on enabling hide to work in both a live chat feed and a regular video’s comments.

Streaming Directly From iPhone and iPad Apps

Apple’s ReplayKit is a tool that allows people to stream directly from apps on YouTube Gaming. This feature is now being introduced to the main YouTube app. Any app on the iPhone or iPad that supports ReplayKit is now able to live stream directly to the YouTube app. You can also now use your phone’s mic and camera to add your own video and audio to the live stream.Let us know if you have any specific questions on these new features, or questions about YouTube live streaming in general.