“Today we’re introducing a new feature that’s going to make your live streams even more interactive – Live Q&A! ,” per YouTube on its support page.
The new Live Q&A feature will help content creators host dedicated question and answer sessions and to properly organise them during livestreams and premieres.
YouTube’s question and answer tool could be the right solution for creators to have conversations with their audiences in a direct and personal way. Q&A sessions used to be confusing to viewers who join in the middle of a Livestream. Questions were asked in the Live chat as the broadcast was on, which mixed with other comments.
“With Live Q&A you can more easily build community while replying to a series of on-topic questions written by your viewers. This option will appear alongside Live Polls, another great way for you to interact with those watching your stream.”
Does the new update look exciting to you? Watch the demo to learn how to start a Live Q&S session. Also see YouTube’s support page to get answers to questions you might have about the new feature.
YouTube says you can pin a question so that it’s featured and viewers know what is being discussed at the particular time frame. To move on, you can pin another question, and it will replace what’s at the top of the list. This is similar to pinning a comment at the top in the Live chat. When you’re done with the Q&A session YouTube says you can go back to a standard chatroom.
YouTube has introduced a number of features to its Live chat to make it more appealing for streamers, as it works to strengthen its livestreaming platform to compete with other platforms like Twitch.
The new features include “Super Chats,” in which viewers can pay to have a comment pinned, and “Super Thanks,” in which users basically pay a very small amount.
Although live question and answer sessions don’t add to a streamer’s ability to increase his or her revenue; nevertheless, if a viewer feels heard during a Q&A, they may decide to donate some money to the streamer in the future.
Shorts, Live Streams, and Videos now have separate tabs which will now make it easier for viewers to discover the kinds of content they’re most interested in when exploring a creator’s channel page.
YouTube has also rolled out a number of updates that the service claims will improve the look and performance of the popular video player on desktop and on mobile devices. As it marked its 17th anniversary, YouTube thought that a “small makeover” will increase user experience.
