‘Google Plus’ Hangouts on Air to be killed in September; Users will have to use YouTube Live instead
Google has announced on Monday that Hangouts on Air – the live streaming service – in Google+ will be discontinued next month. It will be moving to YouTube Live, which was announced by the search giant at VidCon earlier this year. However, recorded Hangouts On Air events will still be available on YouTube. The company is discontinuing its “Hangouts On Air” feature in favour of YouTube Live.
Starting September 12th, events cannot be scheduled on Google+, and existing events scheduled after September 12 must be moved to YouTube Live.
To be clear, Hangouts On Air will still exist in some form, it just won’t be tied to Google+. Hangouts On Air users are being compelled to use YouTube Live’s built-in events scheduling feature instead.
Google’s post features of how users will be able to start, schedule, and control live streams after the switchover. The only remaining Google+ link will be the option to see your event content (read-only format) in the Activity Log. These are little extensions used with Hangouts on Air that grant the streamer additional things to do, such as interact with viewers.
Hangouts on Air will also be losing both its Showcase and its Applause features, and there does not seem to be any first-party option to replace these. However, users will still be able to stream through the platform, but the process will be little different, thanks to the transition to YouTube.
According to Google’s support page, here is how to use stream with Hangouts on Air after the switch in September.
• Go to Live Streaming Events in Creator Studio.
• Click New live event.
• Select Quick (using Google Hangouts On Air).
• Give your live stream a title.
• Click Go live now or enter in details to schedule your event for later.
• Use Hangouts to broadcast live.
