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How to see who is using your streaming subscriptions
Kick out freeloaders from your streaming subscriptions
Thanks to ever-growing subscription prices among the top streaming services, sharing passwords has become common. However, you may be unwillingly sharing your account credentials more widely than you'd think. It can be your ex-partner, a distant relative, a friend from college days, or anyone else. Keep a close tab on the connected devices to your main account and see who is using your streaming subscriptions without your consent.
Twitch has become the go-to platform for streamers of all genres to showcase their passion for their hobbies. Whether you're into gaming, music, knitting, or social commentary, you can tune into a variety of topics from a contemporary Android tablet or smartphone.
Stadia is testing the ability to jump into a game with your favorite YouTube live streamers
Crowd Play was teased back in 2019, and it's now in limited testing
Stadia had a lot of momentum when it debuted last year, but it's fair to say that it hasn't quite delivered on the hype yet. A lot of features were missing from the initial launch, but Google has been making progress. Stadia now supports gaming via 4G/5G, but you probably won't be able to play Fortnite anytime soon. Another teased capability that's been absent is live streaming to YouTube, but it looks like the first round of limited testing has now begun.
Facebook Gaming app debuts in US as gaming and live streams spike during quarantine
Profit will have to wait, though
After spending the past 18 months developing a platform for gamers of all sorts, Facebook is ready to introduce its Facebook Gaming app in the United States. The social media company is hoping to vie against Twitch and YouTube as coronavirus-related quarantine drives up stream watch times and hopes are held for big ad buys on the other side of the outbreak.
The YouTube Gaming app was officially shuttered at the end of May, and with it... well, not too much was lost. The app itself was basically a heavily skinned alternative to the regular YouTube app, but with a strict focus that limited video suggestions to game-oriented content. While most things were moved to the main YouTube app a while ago, one core feature didn't make it over before YouTube pulled the plug: Screencasting. That oversight has been corrected in the latest update to the YouTube app, so you can livestream your gaming sessions (or whatever else) like before.
When LiveXLive acquired Slacker Radio for million towards the end of 2017, it wasn't clear what the live music streaming service would do with the app. Eventually, the decision was made to combine the two platforms and the rebranded app is now live on the Play Store.
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."
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- The stable version of Mixer Create is now up on the Play Store. You can grab it from the Play Store widget below. According to the announcement, this version lets you accept co-streaming invites but another update will let you issue them as well, so that up to 4 players can combine their streams into one.
You may recall that Microsoft purchased Beam, a live streaming company, back in August of 2016. The Windows 10 Creators Update, which was released not too long ago, includes Beam support for streaming games without having to install additional software. Today Microsoft has renamed the service to 'Mixer,' and released a beta of the Android app.
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Samsung gets a lot of stick for what's perceived as bloatware on its devices, even if that situation has improved somewhat in recent years. With that, it's easy to forget that the Korean company does actually produce some really useful software, as evidenced by a new app that's aimed at mobile gamers. Samsung Game Live will allow users to live stream their gaming prowess to various other services.
If you are a user of Facebook Live, you have a few new features to look forward to. Today Facebook has announced that it is adding Live Chat With Friends and expanding access to Live With, each of which increases the ways you can engage with your friends during a live broadcast. Live Chat With Friends will allow you to enter into a private conversation with your buddies while you are watching a live feed together, though the feature is only in testing on mobile in certain countries for now. Live With has been a feature for a while, but so far only so-called "public figures" have been able to use it. Now the feature is available to everyone, though it is limited to iOS devices for the time being.
Last year, Livestream (yes, there is a company called Livestream) released the Mevo camera, a small device designed for live broadcasting on the go. It was the first camera with integrated Facebook Live streaming, along with support for Livestream's own service (Periscope support came later). Now the beta versions of the iOS and Android apps support streaming straight to YouTube.
Back in February, the YouTube app on Android added the ability to livestream straight from your phone/tablet, much like Periscope and Instagram Live. There was one catch - your channel needed at least 10,000 subscribers to use the feature. Now Google appears to be dropping that requirement, expanding live streaming to even more users.
Facebook is trying its hardest to break into online video, between adding live streaming to the mobile Facebook app to creating a 360-degree video viewer for the Gear VR. Today the company announced another expansion of its Facebook Live feature, this time for the desktop.
There's a reason why services like Periscope and Facebook Live are popular - people love to see what famous people are doing in real time. YouTube has had live streaming for a while now, but the Alphabet company is now rolling out mobile live streaming.
4K video, content with resolutions at roughly quadruple that of standard 1080p, is all the rage right now. We're finally seeing 4K-res televisions and computer monitors that are at least moderately affordable, and five will get you ten that some mainstream phone manufacturer next year will brag that it's crammed a 4K screen into a 5.5" form factor. YouTube is way ahead of the curve on this one: they've been offering 4K video uploads and playback on compatible hardware since 2010. Now they're expanding that capability to live streaming videos.
An update to YouTube Gaming began rolling out last week, but this one is pretty tiny by most standards. While it surely has the typical bug fixes and performance improvements, the only visible change is a brand new counter above the chat box on live streams. Of course, with the increased version number, there is also a new Easter egg to track down, and the answer is in this post – if you happen to be a collector, that is. As always, if you don't already have the update, there's a download link at the bottom of the post.
Periscope is Twitter's popular live streaming platform, and today it's getting a few new features. Everyone will be able to enjoy automated highlight reels and easier embedded broadcasts, but Android users in particular will also get autoplay functionality in the Periscope app.
Live streaming is a big topic at the moment, what with Twitter (through Periscope) and Facebook introducing their own mobile solutions to the growing social market. Despite the fact YouTube is the biggest video repository on the web, it didn't have native mobile live streaming - until now.