You now have a lot more options when it comes to streaming games on mobile.
Shou.tv is a new Android app that enables you to broadcast anything on your screen live to the Internet. As the name implies, Shout.tv is also a website where you can share your livestreams with others. This brings a level of functionality to mobile that we haven’t seen up to this point as other streaming options are limited to games that come bundled with the capability. Despite the relatively few games with built-in streaming, more than a million people have already shared mobile gameplay videos through platforms like Kamcord. Shou.tv makes it possible for mobile gamers who share video to explode in popularity.
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Shou.tv is a big step for mobile livestreaming. Games like Clash of Clans, Minecraft, and Heroes of Order and Chaos have large audiences of dedicated players who love watching video content, but Twitch isn’t compatible with any Android games yet and only a few iOS ones. Other video services, like Kamcord and Everyplay, only focus on sharing recorded videos and not live ones.
At any time, you can start broadcasting live to Shou.tv, and you can even commentate over your gameplay using your smartphone or tablet’s built-in microphone. It also gives you the option to record video to your device so you can edit it and share it later.
Shou.tv is not without its drawbacks. You need to have Android 5.0, which is only on a handful of devices at the moment. If you don’t, you’ll need to root your phone or tablet, which is a process that unlocks the most fundamental aspects of the Android. Rooting a phone isn’t an impossible task, but it’s too much to ask of many people.
Additionally, Shou.tv is a smaller site, and you can’t use the app to broadcast to something like Twitch. So, if you already have a presence on another site, Shou.tv isn’t going to really help you with that.
Still, this new app is an interesting peek at what is possible, and it’s obvious that mobile is the next big battleground for livestreaming.