YouTube has announced several new features that make live streaming a better experience for creators and viewers. The most notable additions include live automatic captions, live chat replay, and location tags. While automatic captions will come as a relief for creators who regularly churn out live streams on the platform, the chat replay feature will help them connect with viewers more effectively. However, the most interesting addition is the connection of YouTube Super Chats with IFTTT enabled devices.
Automatic captions were added to the platform in 2009, but now Now YouTube is adding English automatic captions to live streams as well. YouTube says it has auto-captioned over 1 billion videos. With the latest addition, creators get a quick and inexpensive way to make live streams accessible to more people even when professionally provided captions are not available. This feature is based on the company's live automatic speech recognition (LASR) technology. YouTube notes that the rollout of the feature will start in the coming weeks, and it will continue to improve accuracy and latency of automatic captions.
YouTube has started to roll out a chat replay feature, that will help users to follow the conversation even after a live stream is over. Live chat replays will show up alongside videos in the same way as it appeared during the live stream.
Meanwhile, video creators can now add a location tag to their live streams and video uploads. It will help in sharing popular hot spots. Interestingly, people will be able to explore other videos with the same location tag by tapping on it. The location filter on YouTube's search results page can also be used to find other videos from a particular place.
Lastly, YouTube says that creators can now set up a Super Chat - highlighted, pinned chat messages for which viewers pay - feature on their channels using IFTTT (If This, Then That). It is a feature that helps creators to monetise their videos and live streams. The latest move essentially means Super Chats can now be connected to hundreds of devices. Users can connect devices such as lights, pet feeders or even confetti cannons to the feature so that views can trigger them and be part of the livestream.
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