TikTok, a video-sharing social networking service owned by Chinese company ByteDance, has announced a slew of new live video features coming to the popular video app platform for both creators and viewers, including scheduled “events,” picture-in-picture support for iOS and Android, and group live streams with two users.
Livestreaming has become an integral way for creators and viewers to connect authentically, and over the past year, the number of people going LIVE and watching LIVE has doubled. The excitement and engagement from the TikTok community is why we continue to invest in new features to aid in safely discovering, creating, and consuming LIVE videos.
TikTok wrote on a blog post.
LIVE Events
LIVE Event is a new tool that lets creators schedule, manage, and promote LIVE videos. While viewers can easily discover, register, get notifications, and receive a reminder when the LIVE is about to start, LIVE Events is a great way for creators and fans to easily connect ahead of an upcoming LIVE stream. From musicians and artists to non-profits and museums, the possibilities for LIVE Events are endless.
Picture-in-Picture
TikTok users can seamlessly continue watching LIVE videos across their device with Picture-in-Picture on iOS and Android.
Go LIVE Together
Go LIVE Together gives people the ability to easily go LIVE through Go LIVE Together. This means more chances for LOL-inducing interactions, twice as many behind-the-scenes reveals, and more ways to connect with top creators.
LIVE Q&A
With LIVE Q&A hosts are able to easily engage with and respond to viewer’s questions in realtime. The LIVE Q&A suite of tools helps hosts more easily select, showcase, and answer questions from fans while LIVE. This leads to more entertaining experiences and deeper connections for everyone tuned in to the stream.
Top LIVEs
People will be able to more easily find and tune into LIVE videos conveniently from the For You and Following pages. Some of the top LIVE categories include Chat (Q&A), Gaming, Talents, Fashion, and Daily Life, and with updated access points to the LIVE page, Top and Recommended LIVE videos will soon be closer than ever.
Help For Hosts
To help hosts focus on entertaining and engaging the community, they can now, ahead of their livestream, assign a person they trust to help them manage their streams by tapping Settings on the right side of the livestream launch screen. During the LIVE, both the host and the person helping can mute and block users to help keep the stream welcoming and civil.
Keyword Filters
In the settings tab of the LIVE launch screen, hosts can turn off comments or add up to 200 terms into the keyword filter to limit those comments in the chat. Words can be added to the list throughout the livestream by hosts and the person helping them.
Consider Before You Comment
Vviewers will now be prompted to reconsider the impact of their words before posting a potentially unkind or harmful comment.
In the coming weeks, TikTok will also introduce a way for hosts and the person helping manage their LIVE to temporarily mute viewers or remove unkind or harmful comments as we strive to maintain a supportive and authentic community environment.
