Better LIVE through TikTok: for Creators and Viewers

Short videos on TikTok are what made it the thing of the decade. But there is always a new horizon, and the next step by Bytedance is to extend its live streaming. Now, artists, brands, and other influencers on TikTok receive even more tools to represent themselves and deliver new content on air. The potential of live streaming was always high, but in August 2020, as The Weeknd streamed his concert to over two million TikTok users, it became evident. Now TikTok amplifies its LIVE features, and it plans to add more features soon.

The most important of the new features is live stream scheduling. As an artist or a popular user, you can now schedule a stream and let your subscribers know about it. Earlier you could just start your stream whenever you wanted or announce it elsewhere (even in your own TikTok videos). Now scheduling is a part of streaming.

It’s way more exciting when you schedule an event, make your plans, announce it on TikTok and other media, and – the most important of all – let your subscribers know about it. During the stream, the audience can ask questions, and the host will see them and maybe answer them in real-time. But to avoid overflowing and off topic questions, the host can set up LIVE keywords the question should contain.

Further, Go LIVE Together is a feature that lets two or more users hold a joint stream. The host and the guest stars can communicate as if they were together in a studio. The audience will view it as a regular stream, ask questions to both parties through LIVE Q&A, and receive notifications from all of them. It’s not only about talking: what about, say, musicians on a remote jam?

From the viewer’s perspective, the most important new feature is Picture-in-Picture that lets them watch the video and the comment stream at the same time. Another one is top LIVE videos recommendations, so the viewer will always find something interesting.