YouTube has added three new highly-requested features to aid streamers and bolster its platform to rival Twitch. The new features include subscriber-only chats, support for live polls, and the clip feature to help streamers and game creators improve their live stream sessions.
YouTube announced the new features via an official post on its community forum recently. The company says that the new features were highly requested by users and would help streamers easily interact with their audience while giving viewers the ability to share the most memorable moments from their favorite live streams. So, let’s take a look at the new features individually, shall we?
New YouTube Features for Streamers
Clips
Clips is a feature that has been available on Twitch for a long time. It enables viewers to record a short clip, usually a special or funny moment, of the live stream and share it on other social media platforms.
The Clips feature on YouTube will allow viewers to record 5 to 60 seconds of clips of their favorite streamers’ content to share on YouTube and other third-party platforms. It’s now available to all streamers with over a thousand subscribers. You can learn how to create clips on YouTube using the linked guide.
When enabled, the Clips feature will add a clip icon on a streamer’s live stream video on YouTube. Viewers can simply tap the icon to record an iconic moment of a live stream. It will loop repeatedly on the original video’s watch page and all the views and other metrics of the viewers’ clips will be attributed to the streamer. Streamers can turn on/ off the Clips feature from the settings in YouTube Studio.
Subscribers-Only Chat
The second feature will enable streamers to moderate their live chat space by making it exclusive to subscribers. They can choose for how long users must be subscribed before they can send live chat messages on stream.
This will help streamers create more connections within their community. You can check out the company’s support page to check out a step-by-step guide on how to turn on subscriber-only chats for your live streams. The feature is available to all streamers on YouTube.
Polls
Like Clips, Polls is another feature that has been available on Twitch for a long time. It lets streamers create and manage live polls on streams. So, using this feature, streamers can conduct polls on different topics during their live streams.
You can go to Google’s Help Center page to know the steps of creating and managing polls on Youtube. It is available for all streamers on the platform.
These are the three new features that YouTube had added to make live streams more interactive and fun for viewers. So, the next time you watch your favorite creator’s live stream, watch out for the new clip icon and live polls during the session.
