Vertical live on YouTube — Explained!

Hello Insiders! Today we're here with Sherry, Product Manager on Live, to chat about the new vertical live feature in the Shorts feed!

Check it out and leave us your comments and questions below!

Chapters
0:00 - Intro
0:13 - What is vertical live?
0:35 - What building vertical live like?
1:10 - How can viewers find vertical live?
1:30 - How can creators start a vertical live?
1:49 - Is vertical live only for mobile?
2:00 - Why make vertical live?
2:49 - Is it easier to start with vertical live?
3:07 - What features are in vertical live?
3:35 - Can you save vertical live for replay?
3:53 - Can vertical live build community?
4:26 - Should OG steamers consider vertical live?
4:52 - Did Sherry go vertical live while testing?
6:47 - What’s the future for vertical live?

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Remember, by commenting here or submitting Unlisted video links to email aliases associated with the channel, your comments, videos and username may be used in an upcoming video.

Creator Insider is an informal YouTube channel to share information from the YouTube Creator technical team with the wider Creator community. We will feature different people talking about the products they work on and changes we are making so you have more context.

[LadyLuckHQ]

I go LIVE a lot from mobile however I prefer a horizontal live since I am live for over an hour --- I like to set up my LIVES before I do them to give my audience advanced notification --- I always do this via desktop as it is just easier. When I do this I am automatically set up with it being a vertical live and the only way to change from vertical to horizontal is going into the schedule live via mobile and changing it-- it is very cumbersome to change the formatting & you kinda have to dig around to find it -- it would be really nice to have the option when setting up the LIVE to pick the mobile option & have the option to select between vertical & horizontal.

[Clintus]

Been doing vertical live streams for a couple of months and definitely see the uptick in new viewers since they started showing up in Shorts and Live feeds. Thanks for this interview.

[toyertoys]

It's definitely a valid point. It would be beneficial for YouTube to integrate watch hours from shorts into the overall channel watch time. This could incentivize creators who primarily focus on long-form content to explore creating shorts as well. It seems like a logical step for YouTube to consider in order to provide a more comprehensive measurement of a channel's overall performance.

[FilamentFriday]

Interesting that you did this as a traditional long instead of a vertical live.

[ROBLOXTHANOS]

I think you guys at YouTube are doing a lot of great and pioneering work. Breaking boundaries, pushing the limits, and forging new paths is how great progress is made.

Many people are likely to fall into the popular, comfortable habit of rejecting innovations and changes, but it is those same naysayers who will likely be embracing those changes as a part of their lives, in the coming years.

[channels]

I genuinely do not believe anybody was asking for this

[RobertaMcGillRecipes]

Are the watched hours counted for vertical live streams?

[notjhoan]

Enough chitter chatter. Give premium members a free membership every month like Amazon does with twitch prime. 😝

[NintendoMovies]

Please add a feature in Analytics where I can see how much viewers came to a video from a Short Related video.

[MelissaVanDijkTheSkinDiet]

All good, all good, but what about the fact that you are shadowbanning YouTube links in the community tab? It might be something worth looking into, don't you think? :)

[BastenVal]

Why isn't there an option to go horizontal while you're live by tilting to 90 degrees?

[airailimages]

So why did YouTube stop notifying us on the Channel Dashboard page whenever someone erroneously claims shared revenue for music they do not own? We need for you to resume letting us know on the Channel Dashboard, and not just quietly on the video itself, when we have thousands of videos to check.

[TiboTorchcraft]

Looking forward to diagonal livestreaming! 👀

[MichaelBabich]

So, Shorts then are "vertical dead". 🙃

On a serious note, please, don't let vertical lives ruin feed for those who prefer regular videos.

[TheLaughingLion]

Can we improve the horizontal live interface like the option to stream up to 1080p. It's 2024 and we are still stuck in 720p?!!?

[alifoodstories]

3:25 i think she said ads are not supported at this time 😢 what is that mean 😢

[alfredoistic]

I prefer watching Live videos on my TV, vertical videos on tv looks horrible , specially longer viddeos, I can't hold my phone for that long on my hand .

[stavstavit]

I stream PokemonGo gameplay so vertical streaming on YouTube is not new to me, I have been streaming vertically for over a year. But now, with the new changes made, chat is not separated from the live, and is almost impossible to read when the background isn't dark. This makes communication with the chat very difficult, same goes for moderatoring the chat. Very difficult. Please let us choose whether we want the chat separate or not. Or, at least, make the chat less transparent, when on screen, just like it was until now.

[Chrism]

Hey there! some of my viewers on YouTube are complaining that the vertical live stream is a bad experience if they want to watch on TV or PC. Right now I would be able to start 2 live streams separately to the same channel (1 Vertical + 1 Horizontal). I don't want to separate my audience to 2 streams though, will there be a way in the future to have viewers change layout without having to click off of the stream?

[JoeyWhispers]

What was not mentioned is that TikTok is smoking YT in lives Vertically. YT had to copy TikToks Vertical format to stay somewhat competitive.