YouTube — the advertisement riddled, troll filled and copyright infringing application we all love for the free music it brings us. Today, YouTube went a step ahead, and put the power of citizen journalism back into the hands of the citizen.

YouTube announced that it has opened up Live Streaming for everyone and it should be coming to all devices in due course. Live Streaming essentially lets you broadcast an event, wedding (The British Royal Wedding was broadcast live on YouTube) or even just a bunch of ducks eating bread while it is occurring in real time and people can watch that on your channel or shared sites. For Tumbler, it does not support YouTube on its wall directly, so it will share it on your followers dashboard.

Today, we are announcing a new chapter in bringing the power of live video to creators everywhere. Soon, we’ll be putting the power of YouTube live streaming in the palm of your hands. YouTube mobile live streaming will be baked right into the core YouTube mobile app. 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. – Youtube

Live streaming is extremely easy to use:

• Download and launch YouTube on your mobile device
• Click the red capture button at the bottom corner of the screen
• Snap a picture or use a previously taken image as a thumbnail
• Go forth and shoot the world
• Congratulations you are now a journalist

The red capture button at the bottom

Once the Live Streaming is completed, the streams are stored in the same way as they would be if on your YouTube feed. Currently the Oppo A37 unit we have for testing has Live Streaming available through the YouTube app, however, my Galaxy S6 edge still needs me to launch Live Streaming on YouTube via the camera app.

To view a Live Stream, the steps are similar to watching a video. You can search for the artiste or  find them through recommendations and playlists. YouTube also protects the streamer from unauthorised uses.

How excited are you to start broadcasting the world, so that the government does not need to install camera’s everywhere for safety, there is Live Streaming from YouTube and millions of users!

Download: YouTube for Android