Thursday, August 25, 2016

Unified Chat extension for Hangouts on Air

Unified Chat extension for Hangouts on Air

Something new worth investigating!
Has anyone used this? Is it for audience participation? Does the chat save? Does it become part of the YouTube video? Can it be accessed from YouTube?
It looks like it attaches itself nicely to the Hangout on Air interface.
https://unifiedchat.com/

43 comments:

  1. Interesting. I wonder how well that works.

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  2. Peggy K I just discovered this a few minutes ago and don't know anything about it.

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  3. I 'll have to play with this tonight if I get a chance.

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  4. Andrew Hatchett If you can get to this from YouTube it would have better discoverability. Google doesn't favor G+ for events anymore.

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  5. The instructions show initiating from both a G+ Event and the YouTube side. Very interesting. Thanks for posting this, Craig!

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  6. Wow! Looks pretty cool... It stipulates, "...get hangout link ... using "YouTube creator Studio...." So, it still instantly uploads. The new URL apparently piggybacks on the existing YT location and ID and just adds the chat. So, there will be primitive ways to show chat comments, but also Comment Tracker may be able to use the chat "source" to acknowledge that stream. Seems there may be possibilities.

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  7. I'll be looking closely at this over the weekend. :)

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  8. I want to bring in the YouTube comments into the Unified Chat if it really is unified.

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  9. I don't think they mean unified to mean bring in comments from multiple sites. Won't really be able to play with it until this weekend.

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  10. I think I would rather use the YouTube chat by popping it out and sharing the URL to it.

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  11. You have to "Schedule a Live Event" in YouTube to make this work/
    Instructions: Click the Schedule a Live Event button on this page: https://unifiedchat.com/
    and see instructions. Create the event, open the Hangout, get the Hangout URL (at the top of the window)and then append it in a text editor or on a notepad. Copy the new URL, open it in your browser, get the UnifiedChat URL for the viewers, and start the broadcast on the Hangout on Air window, not from Live Events.
    Peggy K Andrew Hatchett Roland Takaoka Gary Solomon 
    A bit confusing but the chat saves along with the video. I did this late at night so I didn't want to be on camera. I wasn't sure I could make it work.

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  12. Very interesting Craig Long. Thanks for doing the testing. Can't wait to hear your experience Andrew Hatchett. Thanks to both for keeping us informed.

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  13. So you have to set up the chat room at unifiedchat website?

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  14. Peggy K yes- it seems so - and the comments don't save with the video...

    https://youtu.be/2eI_5OQzNnM

    Almost what we need- but not there yet.

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  15. Peggy K No, I just appended the HOA URL with what they said to use. Then you use the new URL for event with your video with saved chat.
    Andrew Hatchett 
    I used the "Schedule a Live Event" button and followed instructions.

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  16. Use "Schedule a Live Event" on the Unified Chat website to set up this type of event.

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  17. Peggy K Maybe that's why everyone is ignoring me on the UnifiedChat since I'm not on YouTube. I guess that's why Google is removing the G+ HOA events. That's why we must use YouTube Chat.

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  18. Craig Long maybe. We'll see what happens.

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  19. Peggy K I lost 2 YouTube subscribers doing these tests so I must make my tests Unlisted or test on another channel.

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  20. Craig Long :( I have a test channel for doing odd things. You need to see what it's lie to use a Brand Account channel anyway!

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  21. Ah, it was the links posted with the https://unifiedchat.com that I couldn't access!
    The plain one worked.

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  22. Well- having played with it I'll say this:
    It is pretty but... to many hoops to jump thru and since it doesn't actually save with the video it fails to meet my needs as a replacement for the event page. I'll watch its development to see if it changes but for now it is a non-starter.

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  23. Thanks for testing and reporting Andrew Hatchett  Most valuable sir.

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  24. Sheila Hensley I did this in the middle of the night and didn't expect it to work so I wasn't on camera.

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  25. Isn't that always the way when you don't expect it to work, and then it does Craig Long Thanks for all the testing and reporting you're doing for us. Learning a lot.

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  26. Craig Long​ I commented this,but in case you didn't see, it looks like it exposes all the chat participants email addresses. Click the person icon at the top of the chat.

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  27. Peggy K Thank you. I will remove links to the event or even maybe delete it.

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  28. Craig Long​ as the event host is there a setting you can change?

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  29. Peggy K I have an email chat going with support and I will ask. I just discovered that UnifiedChat works for Custom streams also so we must be careful if strangers and spammers get into live streams.

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  30. Peggy K I removed all links to the event even in YouTube. Tell me if that is not enough for now. I will probably remove the test event eventually anyway.

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  31. What do Sheila Hensley​ Andrew Hatchett​ Chad LaFarge​ think?

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  32. Peggy K and Craig Long lack of privacy for event participants is one of my concerns but hoping that can be fixed if developers know it's of concern.

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  33. Sheila Hensley I emailed support about this problem.

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  34. Peggy K I like that there's a persistent chat option, but I hate authorizing yet another app to use my google account. I really think YouTube should make an option to keep Chat, or even, perhaps, merge with future Comments.

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  35. Chad LaFarge I discovered that UnifiedChat works with Custom Live Events but the fact that emails are exposed would be disaster especially on a public gaming live stream.
    I want the YouTube chat to be saved also.

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  36. Chad LaFarge I know there have been a lot of requests for that, so send feedback to YouTube. (I'm pretty sure it used to persist after the broadcast at one time, but YouTube changed the behavior)

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