The competition continues to heat up among top video publishing sites like Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram to see which platform will reign supreme within the video landscape. From Twitter monetization to Instagram Live, our tech roundup has you covered with the most important platform changes this month from video technology’s heaviest hitters:
Twitter Monetization Activated through Live Streaming App
In an effort to attract more broadcasters to its live streaming app, Periscope, Twitter is introducing a new form of monetization, Super Hearts. Similar to Twitch’s “cheering”, Super Hearts will act as a form of virtual currency that users can send to their favorite creators as they go live. Super Hearts can be purchased by any user with Periscope “coins” and once users send Super Hearts to live streamers they are received and stored as “Stars”. These stars hold the same monetary value for the content creator as the number of coins that were originally spent on it. In order to cash out their earnings, broadcasters must apply and be accepted into the Super Broadcaster program and must reach 185,000 stars (valued at $175). The Super Broadcaster program is currently only available in the United States, although, Twitter is looking to expand the program as time goes on.
Instagram Live’s Latest Update Widens its Lead Over Snapchat
Instagram hit another milestone, as its Stories feature broke 250 million daily active users (up from 200 million in April). In order to build on this momentum, Instagram released a new update that gives Instagram Live users the option to save their live broadcast to their Instagram Story for 24 hours. Previously, Instagram Live videos were unique in the fact that they were the only platform to still offer streams that would completely erase once complete. This made the footage seem raw, spontaneous, and urgent to watch, however, it was also made content easily missed by viewers. Earlier this March, in an attempt to combat this inconvenience, Instagram gave users the ability to save their live videos directly to their camera roll to share at a later date. Although users had the ability to upload the saved stream to their Stories, it required an additional step. Instagram’s new update, removes this additional effort and provides direct incentive to post to Stories. Once the live video is complete, users will be given to option to not only save their video but also post it directly on their Story within the same screen. Snapchat is also actively attempting to regain ground with video app users with the release of new updates like Snap Map, it is still only attracting 166 million daily actives for its entire app.
YouTube Expands Mobile Live Streaming Capabilities
After much experimentation, mobile live streaming on YouTube is now available to users with over 100 subscribers. YouTube’s 1.3 billion users watch billions of hours of videos daily, offering massive reach for live streamers to potentially attract. In order to access this feature, a user’s account must be verified and must not have violated any live streaming rules within the last 90 days of their most recent stream.This is the second time YouTube has made a dramatic reduction to make this feature available to more users. Originally, creators needed to have at least 10,000 subscribers to be able to go live on a tablet or mobile device. Back in April, YouTube dropped the requirement to 1,000 subscribers as it continued the gradual expansion of this feature. Today, any user with over 100 subscribers can head over to the YouTube app and click the red live stream icon in the bottom right corner to start their live broadcast.
Google Is Making VR Video More Accessible to the Masses
YouTube and Google’s Daydream VR division are collaborating on a project to make VR videos more accessible to both videographers and viewers. The project, called VR180, will allow viewers to watch videos with a virtual reality headset in an immersive 180-degree plane on the YouTube app and smartphones. Additionally, Google is using VR180 to make filming VR video more attainable for YouTube creators by making the new equipment more affordable and the filming process easier. With VR180, creators will only have to worry about filming what is in front of them, while still providing users with an immersive experience. The project follows the pivot from what has been the industry standard of 360-degree video. Lingering complications with 360 videos have caused this shift and users to be reluctant about adopting VR. 360 videos are often very time-consuming and expensive to make and their large file size can strain a viewer’s watching experience with constant buffering. Hopefully, VR180 can serve as Google’s catalyst to convert more viewers into virtual reality.
As new technology continues to roll out, don’t be afraid to test it out and add it to your arsenal. Try out these new features, like Instagram Live or YouTube mobile live streaming, and let us know what you think on social media! Don’t forget to check out our weekly blogs to stay up-to-date with even more industry news.