YouTube invited Restream to speak at LiveCon 2025 in London, where our product marketing director Anya and senior product manager Matt shared the stage with YouTube’s team to discuss the future of live streaming.
The key takeaway was clear: dual-format streaming is no longer optional - it’s essential for reaching today’s audiences.
Here's what we learned directly from YouTube, what it means for creators, and how you can start dual format streaming today.
Stream in Portrait and Landscape
YouTube made it clear at LiveCon that audience behavior has changed. Viewers now discover live content across multiple places - desktop, mobile, Shorts, recommendations, and notifications - often within the same day.
That’s why YouTube emphasized the importance of streaming in both portrait and landscape at the same time:
- Horizontal streams dominate desktop and TV - your traditional long-form audience.
- Vertical streams unlock mobile discovery and the Shorts feed - your most engaged viewers.
Creators who only stream in one format are cutting their potential audience in half. Dual-format streaming ensures your content looks native everywhere it appears - not awkwardly cropped or out of place.
Going dual format means designing for both experiences from the start. Your desktop viewers get the full horizontal layout they expect. Your mobile viewers get a vertical stream that feels like it was made for them—because it was.
The numbers behind the push
Over 30% of logged-in daily YouTube viewers watched live content in Q4 2025. In the US and UK combined, users consumed nearly 8 billion hours of live streams. Earnings from live automated ads grew over 130% year-over-year.
But here's what stood out most at LiveCon: creators consistently reported that vertical stream viewers are more active in chat and more likely to interact. Mobile viewers aren't just watching passively - they're commenting, reacting, and participating at higher rates.
Missing the vertical format means missing the viewers who actually engage.
How creators benefit from dual-format streaming
For creators, dual-format streaming isn’t just a platform shift - it’s an immediate growth opportunity.
Streaming in both portrait and landscape helps creators:
- Reach more viewers without choosing between formats
- Engage mobile audiences who are more active in chat
- Create better viewer experience on small mobile screens
- Increase discoverability across Shorts and vertical live fee
- Repurpose live moments into short-form content more naturally
Instead of adapting content after a stream ends, creators can design for discovery from the start.
Restream makes dual-format streaming easy
While YouTube’s native dual-format experience is still rolling out gradually, Restream already gives creators the ability to stream in both portrait and landscape simultaneously and available to all creators.
Stream horizontally and vertically on the same YouTube channel
Set the stream orientation in your YouTube channel settings to Landscape + Portrait. Then go live in both formats at the same time from OBS using Restream's free plugin.
- Audio from OBS stays in sync
- Two YouTube events go live from one stream
- See live chats from both streams in one place
Why it matters: Reach new fans in vertical feeds while giving mobile and desktop viewers the best experience at the same time.
Stream horizontal on some platforms, vertical on others
Restream also lets you send landscape to some channels (like YouTube and Twitch) and portrait to others (like TikTok and Instagram) simultaneously - all from one OBS stream.
Install the Restream Vertical OBS plugin for MacOS or Windows. The plugin adds a separate vertical scene to OBS where you can design a custom portrait layout. In Restream, set your preferred channels to "Portrait" mode, and when you go live, each platform automatically receives the right format.
What makes this powerful:
- Design intentional layouts for each format—not just cropped versions
- Audio stays in sync across both streams
- Preview landscape and portrait feeds separately
- Mix and match formats across any platforms
Learn more here.
The takeaway
Dual-format streaming is quickly becoming the expectation, not the exception. Creators who adopt it early can reach more viewers, engage more deeply, and build momentum faster as platforms continue to evolve.
Restream makes that transition simple, giving creators the flexibility and control to stream the way audiences watch today.
Start streaming in both portrait and landscape today.
