Google is reportedly in the process of building its own Periscope-rivalling live streaming app, called YouTube Connect.
Rival live-streaming video apps may sound like a story straight out of early 2015, but it seems we have a formidable new player.
According to VentureBeat, Google has been building its own live video-sharing app under the YouTube brand. YouTube Connect will go head-to-head with the Twitter-owned Periscope and Facebook Live in enabling iOS and Android users to effortlessly share live video streams.
The report claims that the app already has much of the same functionality as those aforementioned rivals, with built-in chat and tagging functions and a ‘news feed’ feature that pulls together all the latest video clips from your friends and contacts.
Live videos will be viewable both through the app and on YouTube itself, and it will also be possible to store broadcasts for later or repeat viewing.
YouTube does offer a live streaming service, of course, but not in the same readily accessible way as its rivals.
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One possible snag is that the YouTube Connect app, as it stands, doesn’t have Facebook or Twitter integration. This could seriously curtail its sharing potential, and is presumably something Google will need to address before launch.
Speaking of which, there’s no word on when we might see YouTube Connect. With Google I/O set for mid-May, however, we wouldn’t be surprised to see something official over the next month or two.