YouTube is finally ready to take on Periscope, Facebook Live, and other livestreaming mobile services, as the company is building live mobile video broadcasting right into the core YouTube app. Firing up a livestream seems pretty simple, according to the introductory blog post. "You won’t need to open anything else, just hit the big red capture button right there in the corner, take or select a photo to use as a thumbnail, and you can broadcast live to your fans and chat in near real time," YouTube says.

Like most existing YouTube livestreaming functions, the blog post says these live videos will "have all the features your regular videos have" including search, recommendations, and controls for who can view them. Live video alerts will be sent to your subscribers when they view your profile, and creators can enable a chat function if they want to hear from viewers. YouTube promises that because this is on YouTube, "it’ll be faster and more reliable than anything else out there."

The feature launched at "VidCon," a conference for online video producers. For now, live mobile broadcasting from the core app is only available to a few VIPs, but YouTube promises it will be "rolling out more widely soon."