YouTube updates live streaming, adds new features
What's the story
YouTube has announced a slew of updates to its live streaming feature for both creators and viewers.
These additions include the ability to replay a live chat after it has ended and automatic captioning for live streams.
The features aim to improve the overall experience of YouTube Live videos. Here is more on them.
Automatic Captioning
The live captioning feature might not be 100% accurate
Getting automatic captions on live videos in real-time is a complex task which is why YouTube forewarns the users that they might not always be a 100% accurate.
The feature has been added by leveraging YouTube's live automatic speech recognition (LASR) technology.
It will help users keep up with a live stream in an event when professionally provided captions aren't available.
Information
Automatic captions were first launched on YouTube in 2009
According to YouTube, the error rates of LASR-powered captions will be close to industry standards, and even after launch, they will keep getting improved. Notably, automatic captions were first launched on YouTube in 2009, and today, these are available on around a billion videos.
Location Tags
Creators can add location to YouTube live streams
Further, content creators can now also add a location tag to live streams and video uploads being done through mobile phones.
This will help curate videos by location and when clicked upon, users will be able to browse through other videos recorded at the same location.
To that end, YouTube is also adding a location filter on its search results page.
Competition
All other live video platforms support location tags
The feature doesn't come as surprise as all other popular live streaming platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter's Periscope allow users to add locations to their live streams.
Lastly, the option to play back a live chat has been added so that latecomers can still feel like they are watching the live stream even after the video has ended.