YouTube unveils this new feature to show when a channel is live streaming

Neal Mohan took to Twitter to announce, “really focused making it easier for users to find livestreams on @YouTube so we’re rolling out the Live rings feature on mobile! @YouTubeCreators streaming live will now have a ring around the channel avatar & clicking on the avatar will take you directly to the livestream.”

The latest feature consists of showing a ring with the word “Live” on it around a channel’s profile picture when they’re live streaming, which you can tap to jump straight into the live broadcast. The feature is similar to the one being used on other social media platforms, including TikTok, which uses a similar pulsing ring effect on a channel’s profile picture if they’re live streaming when you scroll past their video in your feed.

Additionally, Instagram shows a colourful ring around the profile pictures of live streaming accounts when they’re shown at the top of your feed. Like Stories, which originally started out as a Snapchat feature before being rapidly cloned by basically every other platform out there, it seems the live ring UI was too perfect to not integrate into YouTube. But the biggest example of the inspiration YouTube is taking from TikTok is undoubtedly ‘Shorts’, a feature that lets you browse short-form video content using a vertically scrolling feed. 

Meanwhile, Mohan, in a blog post shared earlier this month detailed the platform’s plans for 2022 had said that it will continue to invest across its multiple formats: Shorts, Live, and video on demand (VOD). “And in the months ahead, we will bring even more engagement and monetisation options across all three formats,” Mohan said.

“Live is another area that will see progress this year to build on our momentum — daily live watchtime more than tripled between January 2020 and December 2021,” Mohan further said. The platform is also planning on introducing collaborative livestreaming, which will allow creators to go live together. 

(With inputs from agencies)