Multistream Automations Is Live: What You Can Automate Today
What we announced
Our homepage now carries a short banner: "New: Multistream Automations is now live!" This post explains what that means for you in practice, using only what our live features and pricing pages say today. We are not going to promise anything those pages do not list. If you need a capability that is not described below, ask the team before you plan around it.
The idea behind automations is simple. A multistream has a lot of repetitive work around it: starting on time, keeping titles consistent on every platform, saving the recording, keeping an eye on the bitrate. The less of that you do by hand, the more attention you have for the show itself, or the more you can broadcast when you are not there at all.
What you can automate today, at a glance
Here is every automation-related capability the live features page lists, mapped to the job it takes off your plate:
| Job you want off your plate | What the live features page lists | Plan |
|---|---|---|
| Going live at the right time | Set start dates, recurrences and countdowns | See pricing |
| Running a channel while you are offline | Stream MP4 files as simulated live broadcasts; seamless looping and 24/7 playlists without keeping your PC on | See pricing |
| Updating every destination | Update titles, descriptions and game categories across targets at once | All plans relay to custom RTMP and SRT |
| Keeping the recording | Cloud DVR archiving of full broadcasts | Creator 5 h, Professional 20 h, Business 100 h; not on Starter |
| Noticing problems | Real-time bitrate, audio level and network jitter monitoring with alerts; post-stream reports | See features |
| Starting streams from your own systems | REST API, webhooks and SDKs to trigger and automate broadcasts | API access on Business |
The sections below go through each one, what it is good for and what to watch out for.
Scheduled broadcasts: start dates, recurrences and countdowns
The features page lists start dates, recurrences and countdowns under scheduling. In practice this is for shows with a fixed slot: a weekly podcast, a Sunday service, a Monday market update or a recurring class. You set the time once, the recurrence repeats it, and the countdown tells viewers when you start.
Two practical tips. First, keep your platforms' own scheduling in mind: YouTube lets you create and schedule a live stream in YouTube Studio ahead of time, and a scheduled event gives viewers a page to wait on. Second, a recurring slot only helps if you keep it; viewers learn a schedule faster than they learn a channel name. For examples by industry, see the church and fitness class use cases.
Pre-recorded and 24/7 streams without your PC
The biggest time saver for many teams is not having to be there. The features page lists streaming MP4 files as simulated live broadcasts, and seamless looping and 24/7 playlists without keeping your PC on. You upload high-definition MP4 files and configure a looping schedule, and the broadcast runs in the cloud with no load on your own computer.
Good uses are replays in other time zones, an always-on channel of past talks or music, and pre-recorded segments you want to air at a set time. Be careful with honesty and platform rules: viewers should not be misled about whether something is live, and each platform has its own policies; Facebook, for example, publishes Live Policies. YouTube also offers Premieres, a different way to air a pre-recorded video at a set time. Our guide to live streaming a pre-recorded video compares the options and each platform's rules in detail.
One update for every destination
Without a relay you set the title, description and category on every platform by hand, and they drift apart over time. The features page lists updating titles, descriptions and game categories across targets at once. That keeps a multistream consistent and saves a few minutes before every show. It is also the easiest automation to adopt, because it changes nothing about how you stream.
Pair it with the destinations you already use. All plans support custom RTMP and SRT destinations as well as the built-in platforms; custom RTMP explained covers how those work, and stream keys by platform shows where each key lives.
Recording and monitoring that run themselves
Two features work in the background on every show once they are on:
- Cloud DVR archiving. Full broadcasts are archived in the cloud for download and republishing. Included storage is 5 hours on Creator, 20 on Professional and 100 on Business; Starter does not include cloud recording.
- Monitoring with alerts. Real-time bitrate, audio level and network jitter monitoring with alerts, plus post-stream reports covering viewer retention, reach and uptime.
Alerts matter most for the automated streams above, because nobody may be watching the dashboard. If your stream drops frames, start with your bitrate: the bitrate recommender and bandwidth calculator help you choose one your connection can hold.
API, webhooks and SDKs for your own workflows
For teams with their own systems, the features page lists a REST API, webhooks and SDKs to trigger and automate broadcasts programmatically. API access is included on the Business plan. Typical reasons to use it are starting a broadcast from your own scheduling or event system, reacting to stream events in your own tools, and running many channels without clicking through a dashboard.
If you are evaluating this for a media company or a large event, the esports and gaming and corporate town hall use cases show where it fits, and the pricing page lists what Business includes.
Putting it together: an automated week
Here is how a small team might combine these pieces. It is an example, not a requirement:
- Monday to Friday: a recurring live slot with a countdown, multistreamed to two or three platforms, with titles set once for every destination.
- Every live show: cloud recording on, alerts on, and a look at the post-stream report the next morning.
- Evenings and weekends: a 24/7 playlist of past episodes, clearly labelled as replays, running without anyone's PC switched on.
- Big events: the broadcast triggered from your own event system through the API (Business).
Start small. Turn on one automation, check that it behaves the way you expect for a week, then add the next. If you are still deciding whether to multistream at all, read our opinion piece is multistreaming worth it in 2026.
What this post does not cover
We have deliberately stuck to what the live features and pricing pages list. We do not publish a changelog or release dates for individual capabilities here, and we have not added anything those pages do not state. If a detail you need, such as a specific integration, limit or plan inclusion, is missing, contact the team before you rely on it. Platform rules change too, so check YouTube, Twitch, Facebook and TikTok's own help pages before you automate a stream to them.
Sources
Frequently asked questions
Go live everywhere from one stream
Send one RTMP or SRT stream from OBS, vMix or a hardware encoder and we relay it to YouTube, Twitch, Facebook, Kick, TikTok and custom destinations. The Starter plan is $0 a month with 2 channels and 20 streaming hours.
Ready to stream everywhere?
Bring your live, hosted, and pre-recorded streams into one platform.
