How to Live Stream With 2+ People on YouTube for Free (It’s Easy).
About a year ago, Google removed Hangouts Live from the YouTube app. It may not have affected many people, but it created a lot of confusion for live streaming. You can no longer remotely broadcast live with other YouTube users or colleagues in the YouTube app. But there are always third-party apps that can help you. So this is how you live stream with 2+ people on YouTube.
Live broadcast with more than 2 people on YouTube for free
There is an old way to stream more than two people to YouTube. If you didn’t know, you can Skype your coworkers or streamer and then use OBS Studio to stream video and audio to YouTube. However, it requires a lot of tweaking and issues with OBS Studio such as GPU usage, NDI plugin, color output, etc.
So, to simplify the process, we will be using the StreamYard web application. It allows you to stream with other people remotely via platforms like Facebook, Periscope, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. However, it works on a freemium model and imposes some restrictions on the free account. Of these, two main limitations are worth considering.
- YouTube Live will have a “StreamYard” watermark in the upper right corner.
- StreamYard only allows streaming up to 20 hours per month.
To remove these restrictions, you will have to upgrade to the premium option starting at $ 25 per month. Along with unlimited hours of streaming, it also provides additional features like custom logo, background, stream recording, etc. Here’s how to set up live streaming in the StreamYard web app.
Tune
Open the StreamYard website and click the Get Started button in the top right corner.
Then you must enter your email address and click the “Get Login Code” button.
Once you receive the 6-digit code to your email address, enter it in the text box and click the Login button.
Now that you are logged in, we need to connect our YouTube account to the StreamYard service. To do this, go to the “Destinations” tab and click the “Add Destination” button.
StreamYard supports a number of services like Facebook, Periscope, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. But for now, we need to link our YouTube account, so click on the YouTube Channel button.
Then, sign in to your Google account associated with the YouTube channel. StreamYard will also require multiple permissions to post live streams to your YouTube channel. Click Allow to grant it the required permissions.
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Once you have linked your YouTube account, you will be able to see it in the Assignment tab.
Now that you have an associated YouTube account, go to the Broadcasts tab and click the Create Broadcast button.
On the pop-up button, click your YouTube account icon and enter a title, description, and privacy. Post this, click the Create Broadcast button at the bottom.
On the next page, you will be asked to grant permissions for the webcam and microphone. You will also need to enter the name of the broadcast and post a message by clicking the “Enter the broadcast studio” button.
You will now be redirected to the StreamYard live video control panel. The main half of the screen will display a live preview of the YouTube video. Initially, this screen will be blank and you will have to add yourself to the stream. You can do this by clicking on the video preview in the lower left corner of the screen.
To add other members using a link, click on the “Invite” option and share the link with other people. Once they join the stream, a video preview will be available at the bottom next to your own preview. You will need to add each to the stream individually. Once you have everything set up, click the “Go Live†button in the upper right corner to start streaming live to YouTube.
The free version of StreamYard only supports 6 people at a time.
Depending on the number of participants, you can change the video view. There are tons of templates literally under the video preview. Click any of them to change the video preview. On the right side of the video preview, you have a public YouTube chat. Comments will appear here. You can reply and respond to comments through this chat. It also provides a private chat option where you can chat with other streamers.
Other alternatives
Lightstream is another web application that does similar things. Like StreamYard, it has a watermark on the video stream. But, unlike StreamYard’s 20-hour monthly limit, Lightstream only gives you 8-hour work. I’ve tried Lightstream too, but it’s a little complicated and the whole web application is resource intensive.
If you have further problems or questions, let me know in the comments below.
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