It's been a busy time for YouTube recently, with the launch of a more material desktop version and a new logo, which also made its way to the Android app. A lot of that was superficial, of course, and the site still functions in pretty much the same way. An increasingly popular feature is live streaming, and Google has just announced some improvements designed to make YouTube Live "faster, easier and more accessible."

In order to make live streaming faster, YouTube now has an ultra low-latency setting. This brings latency down to just a couple of seconds, so you can interact with viewers and answer questions as close to real-time as possible. No additional software or hardware is required to make this work, it's simply a setting you can switch on and off you go.

The key purpose of having a lower latency is for live chat, and there are also some new tools to make those messages easier to moderate. You can now pause the feed easily by pressing the alt/option key, and then remove or approve messages by hovering over them and clicking either way, similar to how it works for comments. The same applies to anyone you've trusted to moderate your feed, and they will now also get access to your hidden user list.

You can also opt-in to use YouTube's automatic tool for holding potentially inappropriate messages, while you'll still get the final say on whether or not they go live. As you review more messages the system should learn to hold only the types you would normally pause for thought over. It's also possible to block certain words or phrases altogether.

One other improvement was mentioned, although it's less relevant for us here. Using Apple's ReplayKit you can now live stream straight from the YouTube app on iPhones and iPads, particularly useful for gaming. The mic and camera can be used to add PIP commentary over the top.

Source: YouTube

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