Live streaming lets you interact with your audience in real time with a video feed, chat, and more.
Intro To Live Streaming on YouTube
1. Enable live streaming
To live stream, you need to have no live streaming restrictions in the past 90 days and you need to verify your channel.
Pin messages
You can pin your own message or a viewer’s message in Live Chat. Pinned messages show below Super Chat. To pin a message:
- Sign in to the YouTube app on mobile.
- Tap CREATE
Live
.
- Start your live stream.
- Find a message from Live Chat, even your own, and tap or tap “More”
.
- Tap or tap Pin
.
. 
.Note: You can only pin one message at a time. To replace a pinned message, simply pin another message. Only you, not your moderators or viewers, can pin messages. To unpin a message, tap “More” 
Create a live poll
- Sign in to the YouTube app on mobile.
- Tap CREATE
- Start your live stream.
- From the bottom of the chat window, tap
- Create your poll.
-
To end a poll and see the results in the chat from the banner at the top of the chat, tap End poll.
-
Select Ask your community.
Start a Live Q&A
Live Q&A lets you find and select questions within your Live Chat to answer for your viewers. To start a Live Q&A:
- Sign in to the YouTube app on mobile.
- Tap CREATE
- Start your live stream.
- From the bottom of the chat window, tap
- Add a prompt and tap Start Q&A.
Answer questions from the chat
Once you start a Live Q&A, the “Questions List” will appear in the chat window. To answer a question:
- Select a question from the Questions List.
- Tap “Menu”
- Tap Close to remove a question banner from the chat window.
End a Live Q&A
- To end your Live Q&A, tap End Q&A at the top of the chat. All unanswered questions in the list will be deleted and Live Q&A sessions will be available in Chat Replay.
- To delete a question that you’ve submitted that has not been pinned to chats, go to My Activity.
- To delete questions that are pinned to the chat window, tap “Menu”
Create a Q&A sticker
Note:
- Currently, this feature is only available on the YouTube mobile app.
- In your account, you can access My Google Activity to view a collection of the live Q&A stickers you've used.
You can ask your viewers questions by adding a Q&A sticker to your live steam. Once a question is answered by viewers, the comment will become publicly visible to other viewers.
- Sign in to the YouTube app on mobile.
- Tap CREATE
- Start your live stream.
- At the bottom, tap Add
- Type the question that you’d like to ask your viewers.
- Note: You can customize the sticker and preview it before starting.
- Once ready, tap Start Q&A.
Turn reactions on or off
You can turn reactions on or off during a live stream. You can change this setting at any point during your stream.
- Sign in to the YouTube app on mobile.
- Tap CREATE
- Tap Edit
.
- Toggle Allow reactions on or off.
.2. Choose a way to stream
There are multiple methods of streaming: mobile, webcam, encoder, and console. Choose the one that's best for what you're streaming.
Good for vlogging and quick updates from your phone or tablet.
To create a mobile live stream, you need to meet the requirements.
Quickly live stream from your computer using a webcam.
You’ll need a computer with a webcam.
Learn how to stream with a webcam.
Encoders let you stream gameplay, overlays, and use hardware like preamps, mics, and cameras. This type of stream is commonly used for gaming, sporting events, concerts, and conferences.
Learn how to stream using an encoder.
Game Consoles
Modern game consoles from PlayStation, Xbox, and Nintendo allow you to directly stream from the device. Please review each console maker’s instruction manual for directions to stream.
Vertical live streams
When your live stream is vertical (more tall than wide), viewers on mobile will now enter a full screen viewing experience when watching it. This experience includes a scrollable live stream feed where viewers have access to fan funding features like Super Chat, Super Stickers, and channel memberships. Viewers (not limited to existing channel subscribers) can also find these live streams when browsing YouTube Shorts.
| Feature | Horizontal live streams |
Vertical live feed |
|---|---|---|
| Discoverable in the Shorts feed | No | Yes |
| Scrollable for more live streams | No | Yes |
| Clickable links in chat and channel description | Yes | No |
| Live ad midrolls and pre-rolls | Yes | No |
| 4K bitrate streaming (broadcast) | Yes | No (on YouTube app) |
| Premieres | Yes | No |
| Live redirect | Yes | No |
| Memberships | Yes | Yes |
| Gifted memberships | Yes | No |
What you can stream
All content in live streams must adhere to our Community Guidelines and Terms of Service. If you suggest that you’ll live stream content that violates our Community Guidelines, we may age-restrict or remove your live stream. YouTube also reserves the right to restrict a creator's ability to live stream at its discretion.
If you receive a warning on your live stream for violating our Community Guidelines, you can take a policy training to allow the warning to expire after 90 days. However, if the same policy is violated within that 90 day window, the warning will not expire and your channel will be given a strike. If you violate a different policy after completing the training, you will get another warning. We may prevent repeat offenders from taking policy trainings in the future.
If your live stream is restricted, you may get a strike on your account. A strike will prevent you from live streaming for 14 days. If your account has been restricted from live streaming, you’re prohibited from using another channel to live stream on YouTube. This policy applies for as long as the restriction remains active on your account. Violation of this restriction is considered circumvention under our Terms of Service and may result in termination of your account.