Google Stadia is still very much alive and kicking — and has made some updates that will make it easier to livestream games. XDA Developers reported that Stadia will unveil a new Party Stream feature that enables players to privately broadcast their gameplay to up to nine other users, who can opt to either play or watch. Users can take advantage of Stadia’s party chat features during these streams, including emoji and voice reactions. A Google spokesperson confirmed the news to Engadget in an email.
Stadia already allows players to directly share their gameplay to YouTube. The Party Stream feature accommodates gamers who don’t want to broadcast their games to the world — but merely wants to share it with a few friends. We’ve already seen platforms like Discord (with its Go Live feature) tap into this need to gamestream to a select few. Party Stream also saves Stadia players the trouble of using Twitch to share games with friends, which requires downloading a third-party encoder.
Other updates include the ability for players to switch devices mid-game without ending the livestream. For example, you could stream a Stadia game from your PC and then resume playing it on your Android device— without halting the streaming session.
According to XDA Developers, Party Stream began rolling out to users on Monday and should be available to all players in the next 24 hours. Keep in mind that it is currently only limited to desktop and Android devices — but will likely expand to more devices in the future.