MANILA, Philippines – YouTube will be upping the ante on livestreaming by baking it into its mobile app, the company announced at VidCon on Thursday, June 23 (Friday in Manila).

YouTube said on its blog that mobile livestreaming will eventually become part of the core experience on YouTube Mobile.

“You won’t need to open anything else, just hit the big red capture button right there in the corner, take or select a photo to use as a thumbnail, and you can broadcast live to your fans and chat in near real time,” explained Kurt Wilms, Product Lead for Immersive Experiences at YouTube.

This also means mobile livestreaming will persist with YouTube’s specific features, such as the ability to search for live streams and find them through recommendations or playlists. Users will also be able to protect the stream from unauthorized use.

The news comes on the same day as Facebook’s announcement at VidCon that it would be bringing 3 new features to Facebook Live. Facebook will be bringing in the ability to have two-person remote broadcasts, the ability to pre-schedule livestreams and invite users to tune in ahead of the stream in a virtual waiting room, and the introduction of video filters onto the service.

YouTube will be launching the mobile livestreaming function today with select content creators, such as Alex Wassabi and The Young Turks. – Rappler.com