Tim Peterson says, “YouTube has had a live-streaming product since 2011. But it hasn’t been a great one. It required a lot of technical know-how and wasn’t possible to use on mobile. As a result, Twitter’s Periscope and Facebook Live have usurped YouTube as the dominant live-streaming platforms. Now YouTube wants its crown back.

YouTube is starting to enable live-streaming within its mobile apps, the Google-owned video service announced on Thursday during a keynote presentation at digital video event VidCon.

YouTube Live — not the official product name but better than “YouTube mobile live-streaming” — isn’t so different from Facebook Live or Periscope. Now, when people click the button in YouTube’s app to record a video, they’ll have an option to record a live broadcast. If they click to go live, they’ll be prompted to enter a video title — like on Periscope and Facebook Live — and then to take a photo that will serve as the video’s thumbnail — unlike on Periscope or Facebook Live”.

YouTube adds mobile live-streaming to catch up to Facebook, Periscope

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