Going live on Twitch and YouTube too
You can link your Twitch and YouTube accounts so that going live here also goes live there, at the same time and at the same quality. The options only appear if your instance offers them; if they don't, ask its admin.
Linking an account
- Open Settings, then Account, then Multistream.
- Press Link next to the platform, and sign in there to allow it. You come back to Settings with the account shown.
You never copy a stream key: the platform gives one to this instance, and only it uses it.
When you go live here, every linked account that's switched on goes live too, with your stream's title (and, on YouTube, its description). Changing them during the stream changes them there. Settings shows each one's state: connecting, live, or what went wrong.
A Twitch account linked before version 0.45.0 can't receive your title: link it again once to allow it.
Each platform's rules
Going live on Twitch or YouTube from here means following that platform's rules, the same as streaming there directly. Settings links each platform's documents next to its Link button. They're here too, with what matters most when you stream to several places at once.
Twitch
- Terms of Service
- Community Guidelines
- Simulcasting Guidelines
- Connections, where you can also remove this instance's access
What the simulcasting guidelines ask of you:
- If you have an exclusivity contract with Twitch, don't link Twitch. Streaming elsewhere at the same time is allowed for everyone else.
- Your stream on Twitch must be at least as good as elsewhere, including how you look after Twitch chat. Every platform gets the same video from here, so the quality part is taken care of.
- Don't send Twitch viewers away to watch you somewhere else while you're live.
- Don't show other platforms' activity on your Twitch stream, including merged chat. Your chat here shows YouTube's messages too, so don't capture it into your video when you're live on Twitch.
YouTube
- YouTube Terms of Service: by linking YouTube, you agree to them
- Google Privacy Policy
- Community Guidelines
- Google account permissions, where you can also remove this instance's access
This instance uses the YouTube API Services to create your broadcasts and read your live chat.
What happens with chat
- YouTube: while you're live there, your YouTube chat shows up in your chat here, each message marked "via YouTube", its author linking to their channel. YouTube allows keeping them 30 days; they're removed from here after that.
- Twitch: Twitch chat stays on Twitch.
Twitch doesn't allow showing other platforms' chat on your Twitch
stream. If you capture this chat into your video (an OBS browser source,
say), add ?chat=local to the page's address: it shows your chat here
without other platforms' messages. Viewers can also hide them with the
link above the chat.
Quality
Every platform gets the same video your viewers here get at the top quality. If your encoder sends more than a platform accepts (Twitch takes up to 1080p at 60 fps and 6000 kbps), Settings tells you. Lower it in your encoder, so it stays the same everywhere.
Which streams go where
- On by default, next to each linked account in Settings: whether every stream goes there unless you say otherwise.
- Also live on, on the Stream Now page: a switch for each linked account, for this stream only. It starts from the default, and goes back to it when the stream ends.
Unlinking
Unlink removes the account and hands this instance's access back to the platform.
Deleting your account here does the same for every linked platform.