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I want to setup a private livestream for my classmates from university. I don't want the stream to be publicly available online, and Twitch doesn't have an option for private streams.

Is it possible to set up a private or unlisted stream on YouTube?

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3 Answers 3

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Yep. Under "Live Streaming" -> "Stream Now" (or "Events"), set it as private to start like so:

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Then under "Live Streaming" -> "Events" click "Share" then enter the email addresses of those whom you want to invite (separated by commas).

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Please note that the new YouTube Go live feature (introduced March 2018) only supports Public and Unlisted streams.

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It differs from the usual New live event feature in that it doesn't require encoding software installed on the computer, it works purely in-browser (Chrome & Firefox as of June 2018).

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    I'm a little confused. Are you saying this "Go live", that doesn't support private streams, is now the only option, and therefore private streams are no longer possible, or are you saying this is an alternative option, but when using that option private streams are not available? Is it still possible to do a live private stream on YouTube?
    – still_dreaming_1
    Commented Jun 25, 2019 at 23:03
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    It's an alternative for people who use compatible browsers and do not have a specific setup. Normal live streaming from the desktop is unlikely to go away because people tweak all sorts of things in OBS (scenes etc.) and use various other software as well that allows them to do things which the browser based streaming can't do. Pro steamers will not use Go live but for a casual streamer or on the go streaming it's ideal as it requires no installations.
    – Tomáš Hübelbauer
    Commented Jun 26, 2019 at 5:54
  • I should add that the reason I posted this answer at all is that this feature is similarly named and does similar things to normal streaming but doesn't support live so people might get confused and think Youtube doesn't support private / unlisted streams if they click this button by accident rather than the original live streaming one.
    – Tomáš Hübelbauer
    Commented Jun 26, 2019 at 5:57
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I didn't see any feature to share an "unlisted" stream in YouTube Studio, but you can copy the video ID from the URL and adjust it a bit, then share that URL. For example,

https://studio.youtube.com/video/7mkPzH5J8Qc/livestreaming

Becomes:

https://youtube.com/video/7mkPzH5J8Qc
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