YouTube is now making it easier to know when your favourite channels and creators are currently live streaming. Moving forward, users will be able to see a ‘Live’ ring around the channel’s profile picture when they are streaming.
The news comes via YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan, seen by The Verge. On Twitter, Mohan announced the new feature. It has been designed to help users identify when a channel is streaming, encouraging them to join in and watch a live broadcast.
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. pic.twitter.com/QylUbpktum
— Neal Mohan (@nealmohan) February 18, 2022
While it is a notable feature to see coming from YouTube, it isn’t entirely new. Social media and other content platforms have been utilizing similar features to let users know when creators are live streaming. TikTok for instance uses a similar ‘Live’ ring when scrolling and their video pops up on your feed. Instagram has a similar feature as well. The social media platform will show a creator is live with a colourful ring around their profile and the word “Live” on the bottom.
It’s become a well-used visual across social media for content creators. For good reason too. It’s easy to identify when a creator is live and it would appear as though metrics show it to be a consistent tool for results.
