Mobile Live Stream on YouTube Without 1000 Subs!?!?

Dave Allen, Maple City Media

Recently YouTube has change their live streaming policies making it so that content creators must have one thousand subscribers in order to live stream from their phones. I am one of those people who has been affected by this decision.

First, I must pull the curtain back a bit and let you know up front that this decision doesn’t really hurt me that much. I have live streamed from my phone and in the past, but for my content this isn’t really necessary. However, I do feel compassion for those in the YTPC and other YouTube communities that came to the platform to build a streaming audience and don’t have the necessary equipment or skill to set up a stream on a computer with broadcasting software.

At this point, you might be asking yourself, “Why is this guy taking the time to write about this if he isn’t affected?” I am so glad you asked, I am writing this because I run a small YTPC channel with only 101 subs, and my latest live stream was done from my phone on April 23rd, 2019. Yes, this is after the new rules have taken effect.

Now you’re probably asking, “How did you do it?” I am so… Nope not doing that bit again this article. I used an app from https://streamlabs.com they are providers of streaming software used by many Gamers on YouTube, Twitch and various other streaming platforms. The app is called Streamlabs and is available on both Apple and Android.

The process was very simple. You just download the app, sign into the app using your YouTube account and wait for a moment of to while the systems talk. The next thing you are is your stream screen. From there you just hit your live stream button, pick which type of stream your doing and you are up and streaming. If you want to see the results of my test you can find it here.

As far as I can tell, what the Streamlabs app does for those of us who either don’t have the skill, equipment or patience to set up a stream broadcasting program like OBS or Xsplit, it makes our cellphone and phone camera work on the same way a webcam hooked up to a PC or Mac would. It turns out phones into mini computers, webcams and broadcasting software that are simple to use and allows us to stream from a cell like we could before the restrictions were in place.

Of course there is one final thing we need to talk about, price. Anyone who knows me, know I like to do things as cheaply as possible, oh I’ll spend good money on a product of it will do what I wan t and is the cheapest option. This app is the best price anyone can hope for, free.

There you have it, a cheap, easy to use way for some one who has less than one thousand subscribers on their channel to get back to live streaming. The best part is the app is just a mobile version of the same software Streamlabs makes available for more traditional streaming setups, making it, (in my opinion) compliant to YouTube’s new streaming policies.

Dave Allen runs Maple City Media which includes the Maple City Blog, and the Maple City Pipecast on Anchor.fm. He also hosts the Maple City Pipe Channel on YouTube.

You can reach Dave on Twitter @DRAllen201