Patreon is testing livestreaming with a major rollout planned for summer

Patreon has plenty of tools to help creators connect with audiences and grow those subscription numbers. However, it has never offered the ability to stream live video content. That’s changing soon. The platform is testing livestreaming with a general rollout planned for summer.

It’s called Live Video and will be available to a "limited group of creators" starting next week as part of a testing phase. Patreon says this feature should help "boost real-time fan engagement and provide new experiences to encourage free-to-paid member conversion."

The platform looks to have put some thought into this functionality. There are no ads during streams, which is great, and it added some built-in tools to help with real-time engagement. There are real-time chats, which is typical for livestreams, but creators are given "enhanced chat moderation tools" to keep things from blowing up into a toxic hellscape.

Patreon says there will be no third-party tools required by creators or fans and that everything will run in the official app. This will also work on multiple platforms, including mobile and PC. Creators will be able to choose to offer streams to everyone or just to paid members.

The company has some plans to improve the experience down the line. It’s prepping an integration with OBS and Streamlabs to allow for adding co-hosts or to support "sophisticated streaming setups." It will also allow creators to offer VOD downloads of streams as a one-time purchase or as a gift to fans. 

The platform has been busy this past year or two. It recently added a feature to allow fans to purchase access to collections of content without having to pony up for a monthly subscription. It also provided a suite of tools to let creators customize their pages, including the layout, colors and how posts display.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/entertainment/streaming/patreon-is-testing-livestreaming-with-a-major-rollout-planned-for-summer-130045258.html?src=rss